Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne '01
(Photo credit: Karen Kelly)
Place of Birth
East Tennessee
Current Home
Cambridge, MA
Education
BA, Amherst College
Why did you choose to come to Amherst? There were so many reasons--small school with incredible professors,
no core curriculum so I didn't have to take math, amazing English department--but the one I remember most is not terribly flattering! When I came to visit Amherst, I stayed up late talking about the world, politics, reading, traveling, etc. with my host and her friends and roommates. The conversation was exhilarating and exciting - exactly what you hope college will be. It was past midnight when one of students said, "Well, I have a Shakespeare paper due tomorrow. I guess I better go get started." That evening convinced me that, for many reasons, I could truly be both challenged and very much at home at Amherst.
Most memorable or most influential class at Amherst
Russian Literature with Stanley Rabinowitz. We read all the Russian classics of which I'd been terrified before, but they were incredible--full of drama, conflict and life on both a grand and minute scale. I was struck as well by the many similarities between Russian Literature and Southern literature. Plus, Professor Rabinowitz was an outstanding lecturer.
Most memorable or most influential professor
Jeffrey Ferguson, Black Studies Department. I've never worked or thought so hard in any class as I did in his. He taught me about the value of close reading and rigorously interrogating the viewpoints we were reading and those we held.
Research Interests
Fiction, Kenya, Photography
Awards and Prizes
Harry Richmond, Jr. Prize for Best Sophomore Essay and Alpha Delta Phi/David P. Patchel
Award for thesis research
Favorite Book
I hate this question! I have never been a list cultivator, the kind of person who ranks their creative
experiences and is able to talk about them at parties. I usually freeze like a deer in headlights! The book I read most recently is as apt to be my favorite as any other. But, I will say this: I recommend Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel about once a week, so I'll offer that in lieu of a favorite.
Favorite Author
I love William Gay's writing and his story of becoming a writer. His book, I Hate To See That
Evening Sun Go Down, is a dark and stunningly beautiful book about life in small town Tennessee. He didn't publish his first piece of writing until he was almost sixty. I'd very much have liked to have sat on a porch telling stories and drinking whiskey with him.
Tips for aspiring writers?
The very best advice I can offer is to keep banging your head against the wall. There
will be 9000 reasons to quit, but if you want to be a writer, you will write no matter what. You may take breaks -- long breaks--but you'll feel that itch to dive back into your work and not be able to shut it off. Publishing is a matter of persistence and being willing to hear no and keep on going, but also knowing when it's time to put that book aside and start another one. Most writers have a "drawer novel" somewhere, and some have many.
Tell us a bit about your path to becoming an author-- I was extremely lucky to get an internship at The Atlantic,
under the editorship of Cullen Murphy '74. That turned into a job, which turned into freelance assignments for the