"Finally, Are You Happy?": Our First ARTIST INTERVIEW with B.J. Hollars!
about his memoir YEAR OF PLENTY: A FAMILY'S SEASON OF GRIEF
I am so, so excited to share with you our first artist interview, particularly because it is with one of my dear friends, B.J. Hollars. In this hour-or-so conversation, we discussed his forthcoming book, Year of Plenty: A Family’s Season of Grief, which will be available in bookstores on Tuesday, May 14th. (Pretty much all books are published on Tuesdays.)
Here is the copy on the book:
“In November 2020, B.J. Hollars answered a call from his father-in-law while teaching. ‘When will you be home?’ Steve asked. ‘I have news.’
So began the Hollars family's year of plenty—a cancer diagnosis on top of the ongoing COVID pandemic, then feelings of falling short as parents, partners, and people. While Hollars traces his family's daily devastations alongside his father-in-law's decline, he recounts the small mercies along the way: birthdays, campfires, fishing trips, kayaking, and fireflies. As he, his wife, Meredith, and their three young children grapple with how best to say goodbye to the person they love, they are forced to reassess their own lives. How can we make the most of our time, they wonder, when time feels so short?
Written in vignettes and accompanied by photographs and family interviews, Year of Plenty provides a poignant and unflinching account of how death separates us not only from the people we love but from places and memories too. Hollars explores how death's all-consuming weight has the potential to fracture—rather than strengthen—even those relationships we think we know the best. Ultimately, he cracks wide personal moments from his own life and allows the world to peer in.”
In our interview, we discussed grief, marriage, nature, the Berenstain Bears, PUDGY PIES, serial killers, and much more.
So who is B.J. anyway? I give a longer introduction to B.J. in the interview, but for a taste, here we are teaching together in Dublin, Ireland:
And at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire as part of the Midwest Artist Academy!:
Much more on B.J. in the interview!
Speaking of…there are a few ways to experience the interview: a video recording of our conversation OR an audio recording for the first G / G podcast episode! There is also a (very imperfect) transcript that accompanies the video and the podcast episode if you listen to it on a desktop, I believe.
To access the video, click here.
To access the the podcast episode, click here.
If you think I’m a sound editing expert, you’re wrong. Absolutely no editing went into this! It is the raw, unfiltered truth! Including a funny outro as B.J. stops the recording. :)
I hope you enjoy the interview and come away understanding the brilliance, talent, and kindness of B.J.
A reminder about our Bookshop.org affiliate page: if you pre-order B.J.’s book, or purchase it after it’s published, and you use this link to do so, a portion of the sale will support the GOOD / GRIEF community, a portion will be distributed to an independent bookstore, and most importantly, you’ll be supporting B.J. Pre-sale orders are super important for authors because they indicate to bookstores how many books they should stock their shelves with. The higher the pre-order, the bigger the buzz! If you would like to read B.J.’s book after watching or listening to this interview, I highly encourage you to pre-order if you can. :)
I am so excited to hear what you think of B.J.’s book in May! Please let me know!
Snails 4 lyfe.
x / o,
Maggie
Show notes:
Here is where you can find more information about the Midwest Artist Academy. (I won’t be teaching this year because of baby, but we have a wonderful instructor, Ken Szymanski, who will be taking my place. Applications are still open for dance, writing and music!)
And here is the Sound of Eternity cemetery gate audio clip from the island of Inishbofin. (This will make much more sense after you’ve listened to the interview.):