fbpx

Eating Authors: Nancy Kress

No Comments » Written on October 10th, 2011 by
Categories: Plugs
Tags:

Nancy Kress

Another Monday has dawned, and once more it’s time to check in with another author and find out something about
her most memorable meal. Today our guest is author and teacher, and multiple Hugo and Nebula award winner Nancy Kress.

Last year I had the privilege of drinking in her teachings for two weeks when she joined Walter Jon Williams as co-instructor for the 2010 edition of the Taos Toolbox. But I’d been reading her work for years, from her celebrated novels of the Sleepless (Beggars in Spain, Beggars and Choosers, and Beggars Ride) to her short story collections like Nano Comes to Clifford Falls and Other Stories, to her instructional books like Beginnings, Middles & Ends. Nancy is nothing if not diverse. So much so that she’s had to branch out with a new identity. Her latest book is the YA Fantasy Crossing Over, written under the pen name Anna Kendal.

LMS: Nancy, the last meal we shared was at 10,000 feet, and I’m sure it wasn’t your most memorable. What was?

NK: The most memorable meals I ever ate depended not on the food but the company. This is not quite as sentimental as it sounds: I have a coarse and unrefined palate. I can’t tell good chocolate from mediocre, or good wine from bad (unless it’s really rot-gut vile). I drink Nescafe Instant, and this in a city where coffee is practically worshipped (Seattle). I will happily eat Skippy peanut butter, Archway cookies, and MacDonald’s hamburgers. This makes me a bad gourmand and an easy houseguest.

Thus, the meals that stay in my memory are all because of the ambiance, the conversation, and the relationships. Breakfast prepared by my small children for Mother’s Day: unevenly toasted and buttered bread, watery coffee, slopped-over orange juice, and faces shining with pride. A dinner at some convention somewhere with my husband Jack, Gardner Dozois and Susan Caspar, Jane Jewel and Peter Heck. What did we eat? Something spicy. Thanksgiving with my family. A picnic once on the banks of D.C.’s Tidal Basin. Lamb chops and creamed spinach in Paris, but more because it was Paris than because it was lamb chops.

I do have favorite foods. Thus, a “future favorite” meal would be: lamb, sweet potatoes, hot crusty rolls, and crème brûlée.

rule

Thank you, Nancy. It’s hard to go wrong with crème brûlée!

Next Monday: Another author and another meal!


Crossing Over
Beggars in Spain
Nano Comes to Clifford Falls

 


Tags:

Leave a Reply