The very model of a modern literary citizen
An interview with Lauren D. Woods
By Norah Vawter
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Lauren D. Woods for close to a decade, since our kids were tiny and we were both members of a long-lasting, close-knit writing group. We bonded over our love of reading and writing, our dedication to the craft, and our shared experience of trying to balance mothering with our own pursuits. Over the years I’ve watched as Lauren wrote and wrote, but also found ways to participate actively in nurturing the D.C. area literary community. She introduced a book vending machine, LitBox, to Washington. With her husband, fellow writer Andrew Bertaina, she hosts a regular reading series, 804 Salon. The couple has also recently been instrumental in the new local press Night Gingko. And Lauren published her debut book last year, The Great Grown-Up Game of Make-Believe. This short story collection won the 2024 Autumn House Fiction Prize and the Sergio Troncoso Award for Best First Book of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters. She was kind enough to chat with me about her writing and many endeavors, and I’m so glad to get to share her thoughts with all of you.
WU: Can you introduce yourself to our readers? How and when did you start writing?
LW: I’ve kept a journal since I was 13 years old, have always been an avid reader, and spent much of my life surrounded by friends who were writers. bBut I told myself for years that I was not a writer! I dipped my toe into writing in my early 20s when I was living in New York City, because I didn’t know anyone, and a friend brought me into her writing group. I liked the group so much I figured I’d better learn to write, and I did and fell in love with it. Then I quit writing for several years to pursue a different line of work, but once more, it caught up with me, and then it was too late. I had fallen in love with writing and decided I had to take it seriously or it would keep haunting me. Now, I’m not happy unless I’m writing something most days.
WU: How did The Great Grown-Up Game of Make-Believe come together? I’ve had the pleasure of reading your longer work, so I’m also wondering what your thoughts are now on stories versus novels.
LW: This one came together very slowly (over 20 years). It was always the side project to the longer things I was writing, but eventually, it became the thing. Short stories don’t get a lot of credit. They’re often seen as secondary to novels, but over time I’ve come to realize that as a reader I’ve been most moved and emotionally impacted by short stories. And I think they’re a great art form worth pursuing, even if they aren’t as commercially viable as novels. So I’ve worked on novels and completed rough drafts, but lately, I’m much more interested in stories. So my next project is going to be another collection of short stories too.
WU: Mothers feature heavily in this book. How has motherhood informed, changed, or shaped your writing?
LW: I didn’t set out to write about motherhood, but many of the stories in my collection are about motherhood because it’s the air I breathe, and also I wrote most of the stories when my children were babies or toddlers. When I became a mother I was afraid that I would have less time to write, and that was true, but my writing also came more quickly and more fragmented and felt richer. So it wasn’t what I thought would happen. It was both harder and easier, in different ways. My production strangely increased, because what I wanted to say felt more urgent and more infused with emotion. I think motherhood transformed me as a person, made me feel more connected to my community and intentional about the kind of world I want my children to live in, and that probably comes through in some form as well.
WU: We could chat all day about your writing, but I want to make sure to ask you about your many activities within the literary community. Let’s start with LitBox. How did you come up with that idea, how is it going, and do you have any updates for us?
LW: The first inkling of LitBox was a general sense of malaise I felt about the publishing industry. I was really disappointed that I had friends who had award-winning small press books but didn’t find their books in a lot of bookstores because they didn’t have big commercial deals. And yet I also encountered a lot of bigger books in bookstores that I didn’t think were as good. So I thought I wanted to get into distribution or sales, but I didn’t know how, and I didn’t have any funding. Then when I saw a picture of a book vending machine in Europe on social media, it suddenly clicked for me. I thought—we should have that here, and we should only feature local authors. The next calendar year became an obsession for me of learning about vending machines and small business licensing. After a year of fundraising and research, I launched the first one in Western Market. I’m fundraising for my second, and almost there. Assuming the contract goes through, it will be near the Potomac Avenue Metro station in Southeast D.C. If not, I’ve got a couple other D.C. locations in mind.
WU: With your husband, fellow local author Andrew Bertaina, you run the 804 Lit Salon. What’s your favorite thing about this cool reading series?
LW: It’s been a really fun way to learn about local authors! We hear so many great readings, and have bought so many books. My favorite thing is the local literary connections that have been made that don’t even involve us. It’s fun to be part of a vibrant ecosystem of writers and people who love writing. Sometimes I feel like no one is reading, and this whole endeavor [of being a writer] is discouraging, but when I’m surrounded by people who love writing and books, I realize how life-giving it is to discover a book you love. I will give a general shout out to Rachel and Courtney of The Inner Loop. They have been doing similar work for years, and I always enjoy their events.
WU: Tell us about Beltway: An Anthology of Writers from the Washington, DC Metro Area, the inaugural publication of the small press you’re involved with, Night Gingko. Why did you decide to add this venture to your busy schedule?
LW: Our friend and fellow author Nick Rees Gardner got funding from the city of D.C. to publish this anthology, and Andrew and I were grateful he asked us to help out. It was a fun project, and the final book, laid out by Destini Price, another talented writer, was really beautiful. I’m not sure why we decided to add this to our schedule. It might have been too much, honestly. I’m pretty tired. But I was really grateful that people trusted us with their work, and the final printed product was beautiful.
WU: What are you reading, watching, and/or listening to lately?
LW: I’m currently reading James Salter’s Light Years, which my husband Andrew has been urging me to read for years, and I finally gave in this week. I’m glad I did; the prose is just beautiful. I also just finished two books: Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House, which was also very good and intense, and something much older, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, an 1870s account of Colorado, which I read as I was traveling through Colorado this summer. It was fabulous. I’ve never wanted to grab a drink with someone from the 1870s before, but I think I would get along with the author very well, if I could meet her.
As far as TV, I just finished the latest season of Beef, which was disturbingly entertaining, and Andrew and I are making our way through a lot of old French New Wave films as well. I could talk for a while about the director Eric Rohmer, who I really admire.
WU: What’s next on the horizon?
LW: I’m teaching a class for Consequence Forum about fiction and foreign policy and conflict. It’s bringing together my love of fiction with my career background in foreign policy, and I’m excited to cover some great writers I admire, talk through their craft, and try out some writing prompts. We’re going to cover a sampling of classical, contemporary, and experimental writers.
Learn more about Lauren on her website: https://laurendwoods.com
Buy your copy of The Great Grown-Up Game of Make-Believe directly from the small press. And follow Lauren on Instagram @ladiwoods1
Lauren D. Woods is the author of The Great Grown-Up Game of Make-Believe, a short story collection that won the 2024 Autumn House Fiction Prize and the Sergio Troncoso Award for Best First Book of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters. Lauren lives in Washington, DC, where she has also worked for the Department of State, on Capitol Hill, for various internationally focused nonprofits, and most recently in the private sector. She loves the intersection of foreign policy and literature.
Norah Vawter is the co-founder and fiction/nonfiction editor of Washington Unbound. Her debut novel will be published by Regal House Publishing in 2028. Follow her on Instagram @norahvawter and check out her Substack,Survival by Words.
