Today we’d like to introduce you to Betsy Boyd.
Hi Betsy, 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.
I’m a writing professor at the University of Baltimore, where I direct the Creative Writing and Publishing Arts MFA Program. Writing has always been my engine, in a sense, my daily interest and reason for getting out of bed. I wrote for my college newspaper with great passion, finding newsworthy interview subjects on our campus and beyond (in the city of Providence, R.I.). My beat: the subjects. The people drew me in; capturing their authentic character via brief dialogue and physical detail became fascinating to me. An interview with an octogenarian woman who had named three consecutive dogs Heidi is branded on my memory, the look of her sunny house on Hope Street, the TV tray with her many pill bottles, her old dog’s face. Our newspaper editor began keeping a “Betsy folder,” where he stored quirky ideas, the names of memorable locals, people-centric updates, “human interest” fodder.
People and writing remain my double jam. After grad school, I studied Screenwriting at the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, Texas. I became better at hearing and conjuring dialogue and character. I moved to Los Angeles and wrote and performed sketch comedy for four years, embodying the people I was writing to, including a moody college girl I named Kelly Gettlefinger who often laughed and cried within the same several seconds. She remains one of my favorite characters. To support myself, I was an editor at a software company. A friend from a weekend writing class gave me the gig. At night, I was writing short stories, piles of them. In 2002, I moved to Baltimore to study fiction at the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars.
Fiction brought it all together for me, I think. It is still the place where I can play out character with luxurious patience, where I can be lots of characters at once, where I can hear myself think and discover what I love (and hate) about humanity, history, the world in all its beautiful weirdness. While at Hopkins, I began freelancing for “Daily Variety”–thanks to a contact from comedy theater days–and spent years conducting “phoners” with celebrities to make a living. At the same time, I became a freelance product namer. I adjuncted all the while. In short, I hustled. But always earned my money by writing and teaching, and therefore felt that I was learning no matter what I was doing, writing a story or naming a frozen diet meal, or interviewing Deborah Messing about her latest credit. I was listening to voices very carefully. My own and all those around me. I was becoming a writer on my own terms.
The University of Baltimore job was a dream come true for me. I started there 10 years ago. It provided a way for me to leave behind the full-time magazine editing I’d by then embarked upon. It brought me into a community of like-minded people I wholly respect and enjoy being around. Now I have far more consistency to my weekly schedule. I teach, and I write. And I raise my kids and help my elderly parents. Life is never easy, but as long as I’m working hard–teaching, learning, reading, writing–I’m also hearing my own made-up characters reveal themselves to me. I’m interested in life and grateful for it. My engine is humming.
I’ve always loved school: the reliable deadlines, the community, the challenge of trying new things week to week. I love teaching for the same reasons. I learn a great deal from my writing students’ bold creativity; teaching them illuminates for me the best writing wisdom I’ve gained and inspires me to keep challenging myself as they must.
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?
When I drafted a long fiction manuscript for the first time before my kids were born, I made a promise to myself that I would not freelance as much as I had been doing. In order to live cheaply, I rented an apartment in Baltimore’s Greektown, a walkup with no kitchen, where I washed my dishes in the bathtub. Living this way for almost two years took sacrifice. I look back fondly on that address, but the walls were drafty, and the cigarette smoke from downstairs neighbors omnipresent.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I specialize in character-driven fiction. My voice is strong. Voice is always the elixir that keeps me working.
I’m most proud of my short stories that bring a hard-to-forget person into being, someone you may not love one hundred percent, but a person like you, who has her own way of seeing and isn’t afraid to express it. “Scarecrow” features narrator Sarah Jane, a tween who is made to visit her recently (and mysteriously) dead classmate’s home. She is a firecracker of a young woman, who wants to live like Christ, she says, but is also dying for a sexy love affair. That piece won a Pushcart Prize in 2009. I feel very proud of my story “Adult Swim,” which is narrated by Aimee, a young teen whose somewhat immature and misguided mom has become engaged during Covid. Aimee recounts her experience moving with her mother into the dusty old home of her mom’s fiancé and his awkward teen son. It’s a doubly hard way to quarantine this brand-new cohabitation. That story, published last summer in “The Kenyon Review,” was evidently relatable to many. I heard from writers around the country who congratulated me on capturing realness at a tough time in history.
My novel-in-progress follows two women, one in her forties, one her twenties, on a fitness reality show. The elder is anorexic, the younger medically obese. Their friendship is the main pull for me and for them. Each is a real person in my world right now. I can’t wait to see how my current revision brings them to brighter life.
I suppose it’s voice that sets me apart. Once I’ve made a person up, I commit to hearing them speak to me almost obsessively. I want to believe in them, and I typically start to trust they are real once the story is closer to completion. At that point, it’s almost like my family has grown, for better or worse.
The details must be right, or my ear almost hurts. It sounds cheesy but the characters do show me the way with plot and style.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
There’s luck involved in every prize a person lands. Winning a Pushcart gave me confidence to try for an agent. I signed with Alice Tasman of JVNLA ten years ago this December. Alice is an amazing supporter and mentor to me.
Deciding to apply for a teaching job at the University of Baltimore was a truly lucky move. Getting the job my favorite luck of my life, honestly.
Bad luck is surely a thing. I wasn’t the best match for an L.A. lifestyle; leaving the dream of working out there felt like a failing for a time, but I now see the move to Baltimore, where I met my husband and had my kids, as a lottery win.
I will say that being your best self brings luck, not that I always manage to do that, but I strive to. So many friends have lifted me up along my way.
Contact Info:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/betsy.boyd.16/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheBetsyBoyd
