I've lived in Philadelphia for about 16 years. The book itself was inspired by my time spent in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia interviewing a lot of the people that I met there, both longtime residents of the neighborhood and also people who were transient, a lot of people struggling with addiction and a lot of women doing sex work to fund their physical addiction to opioids. You find out about their past, their road into addiction, their aspirations, their fears. I began to lead free writing workshops at an organization named St. Francis Inn, which is a longstanding food service organization in the community. They had a women's day shelter where I taught. I was really able to connect with people within the community on a quite personal level and loved my experiences in Kensington. And I still go, I'm still quite close with a number of the community workers, people who run free healthcare clinics. All of it ultimately informed the writing of Long Bright River.
Liz Moore is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Long Bright River, which was one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year, and has been made into a Peacock series starring Amanda Seyfried. Set against the opioid crisis and a string of mysterious murders, it’s a love story between two very different sisters and their path to recovery. Moore is winner of the 2014-2015 Rome Prize in Literature. Her other books include The God of the Woods, Heft, and The Unseen World.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Your body of work gives readers a doorway to reflect on really important issues and getting us to care about those subjects through the individual stories and lives. Before we dive into the conversation, I believe you've selected a passage from Long Bright River to read.
LIZ MOORE
I'll just read a paragraph, and this is from the point of view of the protagonist and narrator. Her name is Mickey Fitzpatrick. She has been working in a neighborhood of Kensington in Philadelphia. In this passage, she is describing her new partner, whose name is Eddy Lafferty, in relation to herself:
I’ve only known him an hour, but I’m getting a sense for him. He likes to talk—already I know more about him than he’ll ever know about me—and he’s a pretender. An aspirant. In other words, a phony. Someone so terrified of being called poor, or weak, or stupid, that he won’t even admit to what deficits he does have in those regards. I, on the other hand, am well aware that I’m poor. More so than ever now that Simon’s checks have stopped coming. Am I weak? Probably in some ways: stubborn, maybe, obstinate, mulish, reluctant to accept help even when it would serve me to. Physically afraid, too: not the first officer to throw herself in front of a bullet for a friend, not the first officer to throw herself into traffic in the pursuit of some vanishing perpetrator. Poor: yes. Weak: yes. Stupid: no. I’m not stupid.
And that's how Mickey introduces herself.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
That really sets up the engine of the story. We get to see her character, her relationship to other people. She's someone who keeps her cards close to her chest. She's at a vulnerable point and I really like watching her resilience, both on the page and then in the adaptation. It was interesting to see that played out in the world because her story is so internal. For those who haven't read your book, tell us what's motivating Mickey, the main character.
MOORE
One of the major things that's motivating her throughout the book and series is that her sister is missing. Her sister is somebody who has a long history of opioid use disorder. She's been addicted to opioids on and off since her middle teens, and she's also been living on and off the streets of Kensington for just as long. But in this case, what's really concerning Mickey is that Casey has been missing for about a month at the same time that a series of murders is beginning in the neighborhood of women who are a similar demographic to Casey. Mickey is very nervous this time.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Through this act of looking, she's preparing for the possibility that her sister has been murdered. Her sister has gone missing a number of times, but this time is different. And so she's looking and she's caring more than the other officers. In a way, she's a detective, but she's not a detective. She's going above and beyond. She's investigating things and maybe it's not her place to do that, but she's smart and she can figure things out. And I think that this is also why your book has been on Obama's Best Reads of the Year. You humanize the homeless and addicted. You've got us to care about things that we don't normally think about.
When I pass a homeless person in the street, I always try to remind myself: this person was a child once. They had a family, and they weren't born into this. So was that the engine for you? What drove you to care about this one life? Did you think, maybe it'll get people to care about the larger situation?
MOORE
The inspiration came out of my time spent in the neighborhood of Kensington in Philadelphia. One of the first experiences I had after moving to Philadelphia was going to this neighborhood to do nonfiction writing and interviewing a lot of the people that I met. My first experiences were really getting to know the women of Kensington very personally and intimately. None of it was overt research for the book. It was more just sort of lived experiences that I was having, but I suppose all of it ultimately informed the writing of Long Bright River.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
How was the production team impacted by the inclusion of community members on this project?
MOORE
I think we were all changed by working with members of the community. So, one of the things that was very important to me coming onto the project, and one of the reasons that I wanted to be involved with it as an executive producer, was to make sure that the community felt represented and had a voice at the table.
We did try to create a space where we could invite the community in and give them the option to participate. Those who did participate affected the type of change that you're talking about in collaborating with and communicating with our cast and crew. I think all of them now have a pretty, um, there’s a meaning to the project that I think wouldn't have been there without the participation of the community.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Describe the thought process behind the depiction of Philadelphia in the adaptation.
MOORE
One of the things that we really wanted to represent was some of the lighthearted aspects of the community and some of the art and vibrancy within the community as well. So, we made some changes to the book to accommodate, as a method of including brightness.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
How did working with community members impact the realism of the depiction of Philadelphia?
MOORE
One of our leads, Amanda Seyfried, got very invested in and close to women who work as police officers in Philadelphia. She came to Philly to do research before shooting began and went on a ride-along with some members of the police and was very moved by the two police officers she met, both of whom were single mothers. I think she used a lot of the trauma that they had experienced on and off the job to inform her acting in the role as well.
As a writer of fiction, I'm never interested in oversimplification. My first job is to portray everybody as a human with flaws. Mickey, in particular, is somebody that I think—one of her characteristics that may hopefully differentiate her from some of the other representations of police officers we've seen in film, TV, and books—is that she knows she's not a good police officer. I think there’s—she's not talented at her job. In fact, one of the reasons I chose the passage that I chose is because of the jump she's saying, “I'm not brave. I'm not physically brave. I'm not good at my job. I'm smart, but I'm not the right type of smart for this work.” Because she grew up without resources and without the right kind of mentorship, she's found herself in a job that she's trying to do to the best of her ability.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
The story of the Long, Bright River contrasts strongly with The God of the Woods. Could you elaborate on how you achieved that?
MOORE
The God of the Woods is set in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York in the 1970s. It is the story of a wealthy dynastic American family named the Van Laars, who have a sort of summer estate in the woods.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
How did you conduct research for The God of the Woods?
MOORE
The beginning of the story is really with the formation of the Adirondack Park and the first Van Laar who moved there in the summer. In terms of the history in the sixties and seventies, some of that was conversations that I had with my own family because my parents and my mother's brother and sister were young people. I guess they would have been in their twenties in the seventies, or thirties, twenties and thirties. They have strong memories of the region.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
It seems that America has a lot of serial killers. Why is that?
MOORE
So, one of the major themes of the book is kind of the perils of the perils of libertarianism, the perils of being too siloed, and the perils of a community that's not communal enough. Or that creates outsiders. And I think with both serial killers and perpetrators of gun violence or mass shootings, there's a sense always that those were the people who were kept out of the community, who were outsiders in a lot of ways, and who usually experienced abuse. Especially in the case of serial killers.
I think there's a certain thread in American history of, like, individualism at all costs. The Van Laars named their house Self-reliance, which is a testament to the idea that they, I think, falsely believe themselves to have, have created their own power, their own capital, their own wealth, and ignore the fact that it's really the labor of the working class community around them- that, and of the people of Albany who've invested their money in the Van Laars Bank- that that really contributed to the acquisition of this enormous wealth that they now have and this enormous power that they now have. So, I think there's sort of two sides of the same coin.
A sense that - I think, because I think income inequality really greatly contributes to the rage that people might feel, even as some Americans won't. What don't recognize that a more communal society might benefit them. What they see instead is, why don't I have what that person has? Something's getting in my way. And it's not a lack of, of community, it's: somebody else is keeping me down, you know? And that's, I think that's a theme that emerges in The God of the Woods as well.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
What was your process for writing about the character Judy?
MOORE
Because I had just written Long Bright River, which was from the point of view of a female police officer, when I started writing The God of the Woods, I thought, I'm not going to have a law enforcement character. I don't want to do the same thing twice. But I very quickly discovered that I needed somebody with access to the files to help solve the mystery, which is why Judy really only enters The God of the Woods about a third of the way in or a quarter of the way in. For a time, I just thought I'd have the counselors and the family and the campers be the ones revealing all the information.
When I started writing Judy, I think a big difference between Mickey and Judy is that Judy has a hugely strong family bond, but almost to her detriment. Mickey comes from a family where the adults were either in addiction or traumatized or in mourning, and they were really not around and not supportive at all. Conversely, Judy comes from a family where she's absolutely loved and treasured and overprotected, but in order for her to do her job well, she actually has to break out of it and find her own version of self-reliance to get what she needs from the case, which also means moving out of her family home.
It's interesting: anytime I start a new book, one of the first exercises I do is, like, am I writing the same book in any way as any book I've ever written before?
And the answer is almost always yes, because every author has the same themes that crop up over and over again. Another part of the job of being an author is to make sure that you are offering something new to the reader.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
How do you incorporate your experiences as a mother, wife, and someone connected to the places in your books?
MOORE
I was just having a conversation with a student. I teach at Temple University in Philadelphia in the MFA program. One of my students was asking, well, at a certain point, don't you just run out of ideas? What if I only have one book in me, or two books in me? I said, some people do only have one or two books in them, but remember, every chapter of your life brings with it new experiences and thus new inspiration.
I have no idea if that student will become a parent at some point or will form a lifelong partnership with somebody at some point. Each of those milestones brings a huge number of new stories and new sources of inspiration. In fact, being in one's forties and having chosen not to have children also offers a new wealth of stories because every decade brings with it a different community and a different place within the community. Life brings stories. Living one's life just, I think, naturally brings new stories.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
As you reflect on mentors you've had, what is some advice you might like to leave with students?
MOORE
I always felt like I had a lot of things to write about, but it took me a long time to find the motivation and the stamina and the discipline to actually sit down and write. Much of what I talk about with my students is how to develop a routine, how to develop a habit, how not to be discouraged when it's time to edit. It's just a matter of course; your first draft is not your final draft, and you're going to get big notes and big headlines that are annoying because they mean big work is ahead of you. But that's kind of the way it goes. I've never written a book that hasn't undergone several complete transformations from start to finish.
