Local Author Spotlight: Joanne Carota
Local Author Spotlight
Joanne Carota
Please describe your writing routine. Is there a time of day or place that is most productive for you?
Morning coffee has become the most productive writing time. I don’t have a specific routine because strict routines are confining. Writing is my creative venture; intuiting words and phrases before writing flow. Eventually discipline comes in the editing.
Is there anything in Lowell or in the surrounding area that has inspired your work? Such a place to take nice walks or a piece of artwork?
The Merrimack River. Methuen with its glorious stone walls.
What do you believe are the most important elements of writing? How do you incorporate it into your own work?
Writing “. . . is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” ― Robert Frost
What advice would you give to a young writer and/or a writer starting their first creative work?
All possibilities are open, freeing you to dabble in several genres. Enjoy the best time of your writing journey. Your greatest literary award will always be the smile that breaks forth as you are in the writing zone.
What were your favorite books when you were a child?
Nancy Drew Series, Charlie Brown Series, Golden Books, Nursery Rhymes, Fairy Tales – anything with imaginative words! In seventh grade, Paul Zindel’s novel THE PIGMAN opened my mind to Modern Classics; Juvenile Delinquents, and the existence of chocolate covered ants. Ugh!
Do you have any reading recommendations?
Teacher Man, Together Tea, All Souls, Boston Girl, Cutting for Stone, We Are Not Ourselves, Lessons in Chemistry . . . Infinite . . . There are just too many good books.
Joanne Carota teaches writing at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) and holds an MFA from Solstice and an MA in Writing and Literature from Rivier University. Before coming to UML, she was employed by MIT/Lincoln Lab, Lockheed Martin, and Textron. She has been published in Pink Panther, Merrimack Journal, Chelmsford Independent, Middlesex Beat, Andover Townsman, and The Subtopian. in 2018, she was awarded The Sterling Watson Fellowship to attend Writers in Paradise, Eckerd College. Additionally, she’s attended NOEPE, Muse and the Marketplace (Grub Street), AWP, Green Mountain Writers, and is a member of Cape Cod Writers. Available for Book Clubs, lectures, and classroom visits.
Her book ‘The Docks’ is available to borrow through the MVLC library consortium and at many local bookstores including lala books, Brewster Book Store, Eight Cousins Books, Andover Bookstore, Old Millhouse Coffee, and Valley Wild Books. Additionally, The Docks can be purchased on Amazon.