Spotlight On: Nathan Long

Galloway, N.J. – Nathan Long, professor of Creative Writing at Stockton, recently won the Nonfiction Award from C&R Press for his book, “As Is: Essays on a Queer Life, Writing, and the Unpredictable Nature of Things,” an achievement he described as “unreal” in many ways.

Nathan Long
Nathan Long

Long said the book is a collection of essays—part memoir, part social commentary—tracing his evolving understanding of sexual identity as a spiritual, queer writer-activist through the last five decades, growing up in rural Appalachia, witnessing the AIDS crisis, traveling and meditating in a Buddhist Monastery in Southeast Asia, living on a queer commune in rural Tennessee, caring for a disabled activist, and coming to understand how all along, writing and story-telling shaped his life and identity.

He has taught at the university for 20 years -- mostly creative writing courses, but also literature and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies courses – and shared some insight about what went into the book’s development, his experience as a writer, the impact of winning this award and some interesting personal facets.

Why is receiving this award so significant?

Despite the fact that there are hundreds of publishers in the United States alone, competition is fierce. There are millions of people wanting to get their books published.  Independent presses, such as C & R, hold annual contests to help select a single volume of poetry, fiction, or nonfiction that they will publish. Often, there are hundreds of entries.

How did you feel when you learned you had won?

Although I have published a collection of short stories, and nearly all the essays in this collection have been published individually in literary journals, or on National Public Radio, I didn't expect to win this award.  There are a lot of talented creative nonfiction writers out there with interesting stories to tell. I've also submitted to probably 50 such contests over the past 20 years, and though I've been a finalist a few times, I've never won, so it seemed at this point unreal in a way. But of course, I was very excited.

How do you feel this book relates to the work you do at Stockton?

Although I teach some creative nonfiction in my Intro to Creative Writing course, I only recently taught an advanced Memoir Workshop, which centers on writing personal essays. But I also teach a course called Queer Autobiography, which both examines autobiographies of LGBTQ+ writers and asks students to write uniquely about their own lives.

💭 You’d never guess:

I lived my teenage years in a log cabin that was 16'x20' in rural Maryland. It had cold running water only, fed by a spring, and a wood stove for heat. The ceilings were about six feet tall, but it was in those years I grew up to 6'6", so by the time we left, I had to duck the whole time.

How long have you been working on “As Is: Essays on a Queer Life, Writing, and the Unpredictable Nature of Things?”

The collection is 13 essays, which I wrote over the span of 20 + years. I wrote them individually, without the thought of making them into a collection, but a couple years ago, I realized I had enough works and revised them to fit together into a collection.

What advice would you offer aspiring young writers?

Just keep writing, and reading, and trying new things.  Someone once told me when I was 20 that if you want to be published, you have to write seriously for 10 years. That was exciting for me, because I knew I wanted to write for the rest of my life, so 10 years didn't seem so long.  And it proved to be true.

What is your favorite book?

One of my favorite books is Samuel Delany's “The Motion of Light in Water.”  Delany had an intriguing life, as an out Black gay man who married a woman in the ’50s, who had three books published by the time he was 21, despite being dyslexic, and who negotiated his sexuality and race with amazing grace. 

Reported by Mandee McCullough

Photo submitted