Donna Baier Stein’s remarkable literary career has been inspired by spirituality, a belief in the reconciliation of opposites, art, history, and more. We talked with her about the wide range of unique stories she has written to date, as well as the work she does to inspire others and to help create outlets to support their work.
You are the founder of Tiferet (for which you remain publisher) and you were one of the original founding editors of The Bellevue Literary Review. Can you talk about your inspiration, your challenges, and the respective themes of each of these publications?
Ronna Wineberg, Fiction Editor of The Bellevue Literary Review, a friend I had first met at Bread Loaf Writers Conference, kindly invited me to help with the launch of the BLR. I came on as a co-Poetry Editor with Roxana Font, under the inestimable editorial management of Dr. Danielle Ofri. The first issue launched in 2001 and I recall walking past pictures of those who’d been lost on 9/11 on the walls leading into the Bellevue hospital (in Manhattan).
BLR was set up as a literary journal “at the nexus of literature and medicine.” I had a hankering to set up a journal “at the nexus of literature and spirituality.” At the time I was a student in a healing school called A Society of Souls. It was there I learned the meaning of the word tiferet (heart, compassion, reconciliation of opposites) and fell in love with it. The first issue of Tiferet launched in 2004, with the immense help of Diane Bonavist, Cynthia Brown, Walter Cummins, Renee Ashley, and many others.
In addition to the good work you do to highlight the writing of others, you also have written many books yourself, including award-winning novels, story collections, poetry, and even books about the craft of writing. How do you juggle writing projects?
I do have ADD and tend to jump around, possibly more than I should J. On the other hand, I have a quick mind and am pretty easily bored so it’s good to have multiple projects going at once. I think if I could better tame my focus I might be faster at getting my own books out for publication but have done the best I can. I got my MFA at Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars when I was 40. A reworking of that thesis was selected as a Finalist in the Iowa Writers Awards by that year’s judge Marilynn Robinson. Part of that thesis ended up in my first published book of stories, Sympathetic People. For two decades, while my children were young and we moved for my former husband’s career, I wrote and published poetry and stories. I was also at the time a freelance direct mail copywriter writing fundraising copy for most of the environmental groups. During those years I was also doing research and writing first drafts of my first novel, The Silver Baron’s Wife.
How did you come upon the history of the Silver Purchase Act, which is the historical setting for your novel The Silver Baron’s Wife?
I first learned about the main character in this novel, Baby Doe (Lizzie) Tabor, when I was seven. Her life story has obsessed me ever since. It is a story of spirituality and materialism, love and loneliness, wealth, and poverty. Lots of contrasts. There are some theologians who think Lizzie may have been an American female mystic. She wrote down thousands of her dreams before her death in 1935 and saw visions of Jesus, Mary, saints, and members of her own family. There’s been an American opera – The Ballad of Baby Doe, sung by Beverly Sills – and other novels and nonfiction books written about her. Judy Nolte Temple wrote a nonfiction book called The Madwoman in the Cabin that beautifully ties in the events of Lizzie’s life to her dreams, which are housed in the Colorado History Center. I’ve had two producers express interest in filming The Silver Baron’s Wife – and someone had expressed interest in writing a script but nothing solid to date. I would love to see Lizzie’s story on screen or stage, this time focusing not on her role as mistress or wife to a wealthy man but her own strength as a woman who bucked many social expectations of her day and whose spiritual life and practice was vital to her when all else fell away.
Your book Scenes from the Heartland is a collection of stories based on lithographs created by artist Thomas Hart Benton, who was at the forefront of the Regionalist Art movement. How did this work? Did you simply imagine a story to go with each of the lithographs you’d decided on, or did you research the life of Benton to figure out what historical moments spurred him to create each of the lithographs in the first place?
Benton hails from Kansas City, as do I. Decades ago my father was gifted an early edition lithograph which hangs on my office wall. One day after Sympathetic People was published I wanted to begin a new story collection but realized early on how vital it was that the stories tie together in some way. I also wanted to leave contemporary fiction for a while. So I stared at the lithograph – it’s called Spring Tryout – and described what I saw. It was a fascinating exercise in ekphrastic writing. That first story was published in Virginia Quarterly Review and I enjoyed the process so much I decided to do more stories based on Benton’s artwork. Coincidentally or not I happened to own a book of Benton lithographs collected by a man named Creekmore Fath. I chose eight additional pictures that resonated with me, did some research about the era and place, and wrote away.
Which of your many short stories or books would be a perfect fit for a film or TV series? Why?
The contemporary stories in Sympathetic People could be a short Netflix series about the tangles of relationships. C. Michael Curtis of The Atlantic, who was Fiction Editor there at the time of the book’s publication, wrote a blurb saying my “deceptively mild storytelling veers swiftly into the savage but often unacknowledged discontent of suburban life.” Caroline Leavitt said it was “a brilliantly edgy collection of stories that get under your skin even as it illuminates love, lust, and everything in between.” So there’s fodder there for a mini-series because the stories’ characters are connected.
Scenes from the Heartland could be a pastiche mini-series that takes a look at the lives of ordinary people in Missouri and Arkansas in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. These people faced the same cultural issues that are front and center in our lives today: corruption, racial inequality, women’s rights. And in their personal lives, they struggled with poverty, illness, betrayal, just like we do. And yet I hope the stories reveal our fellow countrymen and woman living with grace and strong leanings toward virtue, just as I hope we continue to do in America.
There are so many writers out there who know they are doing good work but can’t seem to get a foothold with the bigger publishers. Can you offer them any advice?
Well, I came close to getting a contract from Crown for The Silver Baron’s Wife. And the top agent at William Morris championed the book. When no one picked it up I went with an indie press. My advice is to keep trying. And there are many excellent small presses that will do well by your book.
Can you talk a bit about creativity in these challenging times?
I struggle some days when the headlines are too rough. I started teaching Zoom classes on spiritual poetry in the early days of the pandemic. Now I offer four different writing courses online, which I really enjoy doing. Helping others create, helping them say what is in their heart, feels like a way for me to serve.
What are you working on now?
I have two novels started that have languished for some time. I’ve written some personal essays. I will get back to one or both of those novels soon. I’m in a new writing group with dear friends and our assignment is to bring in ten pages a week.
Where can Occhi readers learn more about your work?
My writing website is www.donnabaierstein.com … and Tiferet is at www.tiferetjournal.com
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