Author, columnist to give nonfiction reading at CCU

A California-native, based in New York, Meghan Daum keeps hitting for the cycle in writing and traveling.

The Los Angeles Times columnist will give “A Creative Non-Fiction Reading” in Coastal Carolina University’s “All Words to Say It” visiting writers series, 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Johnson Auditorium on the main campus in Conway, with a reception afterward.

Chatting by phone last weekend from home, Daum said Los Angeles and the Big Apple are not much different in culture and demographics, but time in Nebraska, where she had also lived, changed her pace and perspective for writing, with “ a real culture shock.”

Her four books include “The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion,” as well as the “My Misspent Youth” essay collection and “The Quality of Life Report” novel. She also was editor for “Selfish, Shallow & Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not To Have Kids.”

For finishing a book, Daum said she has perfected her process, thanks to “The Unspeakable,” for which she read “the whole thing aloud before I handed in the final draft of the manuscript,” because “you just catch so many things.”

Through that process, and by orating excerpts of her work at gatherings for readings across the country, Daum said she’s staying “very attuned to the rhythm and my sound in my writing.”

“There’s only so much of what you can pick up when reading it on a page,” she said, also remembering recording the audiobook for her memoir, “Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House,” right before the 256-page book hit store shelves in 2010.

Parameters in length for a book and her column vary widely, for the latter today, Daum said, is limited to 730 words.

“It’s harder to write short,” Daum said, “than to write long. You have to make points efficiently and quickly. ... I try to get in and get out.”

“A couple of ideas” for future book fodder are in mind, she said, as columns keep her busy.

Asked about jumping between her role as interviewer – and in this case, for this article, interviewee – Daum said her goal in the shoes of the former is “to make it a conversation, and try to listen as much as possible.”

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With standard operating procedure of having questions prepared, Daum said “the key is being willing to abandon your questions and let the conversation go where it goes.”

Nothing is worse, she said, than an interviewer staring at, and reading from, his or her cell phone, which keeps an interview from developing into a conversation.

Asked whom she appreciates as an interviewer, Daum said, Howard Stern, a staple on SiriusXM✔ satellite radio, excels at the exercise, making it “a tutorial” with ease, because “he really listens, ... and he will take a conversation to unexpected places.”

Daum said at home, a St. Bernard keeps her company, especially with her loving “big dogs,” so much that she once had a St. Bernard and Newfoundland simultaneously.

The year ahead will bring her various teaching type events, such as a multiday workshop in nonfiction in June at “The Writer’s Hotel” conference in New York.

The timing for being a columnist also tickles Daum because in this presidential election year, “you could not ask for more,” as various sagas continue.

“It’s the gift that will keep on giving,” she said.

This story was originally published March 10, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Author, columnist to give nonfiction reading at CCU."