Cara Hoffman, author of Be Safe I Love You and So Much Pretty returns to Goddard to read from and discuss her first novel, which was also her Goddard thesis. Here, some comments on that process before her reading.
In an interview with (and about) her Goddard advisor, Cara said:
“The process of working with an advisor was the biggest surprise, because I thought it would suck, and instead it turned out to be a pivotal experience. Rachel, you brought up all the hard questions right away and made me examine my responsibility as an author. You also really busted me when the prose got didactic, and it was great because you would be genuinely annoyed–like What the Hell is this? or Who talks like this? The biggest fight I had with you over the manuscript was the backstory–which you said should be cut and made into a separate book. I was really adamant about how important it was and you just shrugged and said ‘okay, you’ll see, I’m completely right.’ And you were. Jan introduced me to some of the best writing I have known and was an incredible close reader and comrade. I felt the whole time I was working with my advisors and in workshop with other instructors that we were part of the same struggle.”
To read more from this interview, go to the Goddard College website, here. To read more about Cara go here. Cara’s website.
Cara Hoffman (07) is the author of the critically acclaimed novels So Much Pretty and Be Safe I Love You. She teaches writing and literature at Bronx Community College and lives in New York City.
Be Safe I Love You: “One of the Five Best Modern War Novels”
—Telegraph UK
So Much Pretty: “A haunting suspense novel about a murder mystery based on a real-life missing-persons case.”
—Entertainment Weekly, #3 on “The Must List”