Photo Courtesy of Fiona Zedde
The best news of my day came when it was confirmed that Jamaican-born author Fiona Zedde signed on to participate in Artists in the Afternoon: Beyond Publishing. I first became familiar with her work years ago while visiting Atlanta for Black Gay Pride. Fiona and African American authors Derrick Tennial, Anthony Kyle Robinson, Jericho Brown, and Anondra Williams were participants on the panel to discuss their work. I was instantly spellbound by her intelligence and beauty. I thought if there was God above, he would give me a chance to work with her someday.
Fiona is the author of several novels, including the Lambda Literary Award finalists Bliss and Every Dark Desire. Her book, Dangerous Pleasures, received a Publishers Weekly starred review and was the winner of an About.com Readers’ Choice Award for Best Lesbian Novel/Memoir. Her novel, Stud Like Her, is available now.
Fiona and five other authors will join us on February 25 for Artists in the Afternoon: Beyond Publishing. This free will be presented virtually; click here to RSVP.
PrideIndex (PI): How did you come to reside in Spain? What projects are you working on right now?
Fiona Zedde (FZ): It was almost accidental. I wanted to do some Spanish immersion, so I traveled to Spain for a three-month stay. I met my partner at a language exchange not long after arriving. Five years later, here I am still.
As for projects, I’m currently working on a long overdue novel due to some health issues I’ve been dealing with. It’s about a complicated romance between a flighty grad school student and a single mother who happens to be the parent of the teenager she’s tutoring. The book started off as something fun and sexy – I have no idea what it’s turning into right now…
PI: Describe your writing process.
FZ: (My writing process is) more methodical than it should be! I get a lot of ideas in the shower – there’s something about the sound of water – then force myself to sit down from (approximately) 10am to 8pm and wrestle these ideas into some cohesive and hopefully entertaining form.
PI: How do you nurture ideas and see them put down on paper from conceptual to actualization?
FZ: With the help and encouragement of my writer friends and colleagues. I get plenty of ideas, but there usually comes a point in the writing process when I fall out of love with the idea, story, or even the characters. That’s when I need the kick in the pants to help me keep going and finish the book or short story. My writer peeps are my treasure.
PI: Name (3) people who have had the most influence over your artistic style./If you could meet one of your influences in person for dinner, who would it be?
FZ: Audre Lorde, Ilya Kaminsky, and Michelle Cliff. I’d love to have had an outdoor meal with Audre Lorde. Her biomythography, Zami, showed me a new blueprint of how I could live my life as a queer woman and writer.
PI: What’s next for you on the horizon?
FZ: Hopefully, a trip to the Maldives with lots of drinks, swim time, and sun. Workwise, I’m currently planning out Just Like Her, the last book in my Like Her trilogy about love, sex, and identity.
About Fiona Zedde
Author of passionate fiction with women in love.
Find out more at www.FionaZedde.com.
