Contributor Spotlight: Molly Laich

mollymoviesMolly Laich’s story “Get Well Soon” appears in Midwestern Gothic Issue 9, out now.

How long have you been writing?
Since I was a very little kid. In elementary school we wrote in books made out of wallpaper and I decided early on that writing stories made you powerful.

What’s your connection to the Midwest?
I was born in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, and there I stayed for 25 years.

How has the Midwest influenced your writing?
I write a lot about substance abuse, lower middle class malaise, people with broken hearts and headaches, stuff like that. It’s often cold or gray outside. Everybody’s divorced and underemployed. I guess my associations with the Midwest are mostly negative. Sorry about that.

Why do you believe there has never really been a regionalist push for Midwestern writing in the past like there has with the South or even the West Coast?
I think the Midwest struggles with a lack of cultural identity. Waterford Township, where I grew up, had a lot of big box stores and fast food restaurants. It feels gross to write about, but that’s what life is made of in a lot of places, isn’t it? I never really felt like I lived in the Midwest until I moved to Montana, and then I got it. Before then I thought the Midwest meant Kansas.

How do you feel about social media to promote your writing, and do you use it?
I use Facebook and twitter to promote my stuff because I want everybody in the world to read
my writing. I also have a blog at mollylaich.com where I write about my feelings. I feel great
about it. Most of the time I’m just being myself and not promoting my writing at all. That’s how
it should be done, I think. We’re not stupid. It’s easy to tell right away who on twitter is hilarious and interesting and worthy of following and who’s just a douchebag who wants you to buy his
book and cares nothing at all about you.

Favorite book?
Jernigan by David Gates, Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson, The Road to Los Angeles by John Fante, Honored Guest by Joy Williams. Sorry they’re mostly white men.

Favorite food?
Everybody should stop eating animals.

If you could have coffee (or tea or a beer) with any literary figure, alive or dead, who would it be?
Raymond Carver or David Foster Wallace. I would say Hemingway but I feel like he’d only want
to talk about himself.

Where can we find more information about you?
Mollylaich.com ! You can follow my twitter @MollyL or look for me on Facebook. I really want
you to.

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