Today we’d like to introduce you to Lis Anna-Langston
Hi Lis, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
The story of an artist is a continuous path. In a lot of ways, mine began when I was accepted to a Creative and Performing Arts School when I was eleven years old. While I had core classes to attend I also had to be in Drama class everyday. The creation aspect of the class really took center stage for me. It was the class that all other things during the day orbited around. I had the same teacher for three years and she really changed my life. I was writing plays and poetry and skits from that time forward. After college at Webster University where I studied Literature and loved every second I moved to Florida and went to work at a production company. I worked on a few films, kept writing, and won awards.
But I would say my real turning point was when I took a job that I worked forty-eight hours straight and suddenly I had five days off to do what I wanted. It was then that I dedicated eight to five, five days a week, to building my body of work. Around that time I sent a manuscript to an Editor in NYC and he actually took the time to write me back. His advice was a game changer. He told me I had immense talent and needed to get into workshops to begin refining my craft. He was very positive and his guidance was absolutely instrumental in the next steps I took.
Shortly after that I moved to Asheville, North Carolina and I signed up for workshops. Some were not that great but some were life changing. An instructor named Joy Bagley held a writing workshop on Saturday mornings that utilized the Amherst Writing Method. It is a generative method and Joy is an excellent teacher. I learned so much from her and in that class. I took a lot of classes and workshops, some for years. The NYC Editor was right, it really helped me refine my craft. I received a grant around that time to study filmmaking in South Carolina. I made films, wrote novels and short stories and built my body of work. My films were accepted to screen at film festivals and won. This was a time of movement and learning, me really focusing on what needed to be improved, built on, discarded and elevated.
I worked on a novel in Joy’s class that later landed me an agent. That agent really encouraged me to write books. I’d never really considered myself a novelist. I love the literary community and had always read literary journals and magazines but never really written short stories either. At the same time I took on a novel I started writing short stories as a way to be apart of the community and entertain with shorter pieces of fiction.
So armed with all the new knowledge I had and craft skills I’d learned I pivoted into novels and short fiction. From there this built my foundation for where I am now. As an award-winning novelist and three time Pushcart nominated short story writer I definitely see the trajectory in hindsight.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think the biggest challenge in being an artist is realizing there is no road map. From Picasso to Raymond Carver, the story of an artist is as unique as their work. I also think people get locked into ways of doing things or ideas and can’t pivot. That pivot is going to be key. I would say my challenges were the classic ones. Getting up early and going to bed late, navigating an uncertain terrain with finesse. But challenges are some times what we make up in our head. I had this piece of short non-fiction I’d written about my time living in a hippie house in Asheville. The person who encouraged me to keep writing it was a monk who lived in a monastery in a neighboring town. He loved my writing and I worked on it here and there but not seriously. Then he suddenly died. In my attempt to process the grief of his death I set myself to the task of finishing the story he loved so much. Living in the hippie house was a bizarre, difficult time but adding the emotion I attached to my friends death created a whole new layer of angst. I finished it and sent it out. For months every editor passed. One day I decided that maybe the piece was too long so I spent the entire evening trimming down my word count. As I was about to log out after 1AM an email came in and I opened it. My piece of short nonfiction had been accepted for publication, won an Editor’s Prize, been nominated for a Pushcart and a Best of the Web Award. There was no one awake to share this news with so I sort of sat quietly and thought of the long winding road that led to that moment. It had been full of conflict and challenges for sure but I’d allowed those to drive me forward and leaned into it for understanding.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My work always deals with misfits and outlaws, people who don’t fit easily into society’s boxes. I love borders. A place where two things meet so they aren’t quite as clearly defined farther away. Those stories set in border towns, pivotal moments that border on change. I love the entire concept of borders, these invisible lines we draw in the sand. I have been working a lot on short stories and a new book but I recently did a photography series that I really love. I have some upcoming publications in 2025 that I am very excited about.
What makes you happy?
Happiness is such a broad concept. I would say what makes me happy shifts and changes but there are constants. I have two chinchilla families that live in my office with me, and I am totally charmed by them when I come in to work in the mornings. They are nocturnal so they are waking up throughout the day. If I get up early enough to work they are still awake, chirping and talking and waiting for me. A brisk morning makes me happy, a great cup of coffee, an incredible deal on something I want, poetry, well thought out art pieces, my family, baking a perfect dish, working out a plot twist and in general working makes me happy. I am definitely a little things add up kind of person. The big gains and wins certainly make me happy but there is distance between them. It is the way a window at the top of our stairs frames the sun rising that is a more concrete, visible representation of happiness for me. When my dog Sugar Bear wags her tail or the way the moon drifts across the sky at night. Learning new things always makes me happy. Recently my husband and I went to France. The experience of a different landscape was deeply fulfilling. Sometimes happiness is as simple as that moment of silence I give myself to slip deeper into the mystery of my work. It all has its place.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lisannalangston.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lis.anna.langston/
