Meet Deirdre Fagan | Author & Professor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Deirdre Fagan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Deirdre, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I grew up poor. I grew up on the fringe. I grew up with few support systems and mostly depending on myself. What I learned was that life keeps going and we can either stay down or try to get back up. I seek ways to get up and get going.

Risk taking has been essential in moving my life and career forward. The first great risk I took was moving from Arizona, where I had lived since age nine, to New York, where I am originally from, to pursue my education at age twenty. It was a giant leap of faith from the world I had then come to know to the one I hadn’t. Later, I took risks in my romantic relationships as well as when I left them. These early choices in education and relationships left me on the brink a number of times, emotionally and financially, but when I felt the walls were closing in, I leapt. Those leaps offered numerous possibilities for growth. After transferring schools from Arizona to New York, and attending several in New York, I completed a B.A., then an M.A., and ultimately received a Doctor of Arts in Humanistic Studies (literature and philosophy) from University at Albany, SUNY, in 2000.

One of my greatest career leaps later in life was after earning tenure and associate professor at my former university. I was at the time newly widowed with two young children, about to take an approved sabbatical, and up for final promotion to professor, when I decided to quit my university position — before I had another. It was a huge risk, but the institution where I was at the time was causing me a great deal of stress and limiting my ability to be the professor and parent I had been and wanted to continue to be. As I had in other relationships, I felt the walls were closing in on my life, so I bet on myself and resigned. I wanted to have the time and attention to dedicate to finding a new position. I also needed to take care of my own grief, as well as my children’s.

All of the times I trusted in myself and leapt have made my life better than it would have been if I hadn’t. Leaving Arizona offered more opportunities for my education. Leaving failing relationships allowed me to later find the love of my life and create a strong and healthy marriage. Leaving a stressful university position allowed me to improve my job satisfaction and career.

I lost the love of my life and biological father of my children to ALS in 2012, but I took a risk and fell in love again. (My book Find a Place for Me: Embracing Love and Life in the Face of Death tells the story of my husband’s illness and this new love). I have now been married to the second love of my life — and wonderful second dad to our children — for over nine years.

I transitioned from scholarly to creative writing when I felt the need to express my own emotions about loss and other subjects. I began by writing about my observations in short stories and poetry. Later, I wrote creative nonfiction and memoir about my experiences. I have had many pieces published in literary magazines and journals. Many of the stories were later collected in the poetry collections, Phantom Limbs and Have Love (Finishing Line Press, 2023 and 2019), the short story collection, The Grief Eater (Adelaide, 2020), and the memoir, Find a Place for Me (Regal House, 2022). Three of these books have been winners and finalists in the National Indie Excellence, Living Now, Eric Hoffer, Indie Best Book, Readers’ Favorite, American Writing, and Best Book awards.

In my creative career, I continue to take risks in poetry, fiction. and the most risk-taking of all — memoir — by continuing to write about abandonment, trauma, abuse, love, marriage, divorce, loss, grief, and related subjects. I also write about embracing life and love and creating meaning. My work nearly always ends with hope and the reminder that it is possible to not only survive, but thrive in the face of challenging circumstances.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Every step of my education and my career has been a risk and a challenge. I struggled to make ends meet and find resources and support while attending college and graduate school. When I entered the academic job market, I said yes to every opportunity — and still do — as I sought to establish myself and create stability for myself and, later, my family. I have lived in six states and taught in five as I pursued security and established my career. I have been a professor and writer for nearly three decades and have had four books, one chapbook, and over a hundred academic and literary pieces published. I have learned to not only take risks but trust in myself to overcome, and to never settle for less than I deserve in any relationship—familial, personal, or occupational. I believe that if we bring love and appreciation to everything we do, we can love our way forward in life, and not only survive but thrive.

I have been most honored by the award recognition my books have received and by being featured on NPR, ABC, CBS, and in Newsweek and HuffPost.

I will continue to write honestly and purposefully in the hope that sharing what I know and have learned will help others.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
So many places!

Bookstores: Books & Mortar, Schuler Books, and Horizon in Cadillac.

Art Museums and Centers: Artworks in Big Rapids, Meijer Gardens and Grand Rapids Art Museum in Grand Rapids, Detroit Institute of Arts, and others.

Places: Pentwater, Saugatuck, Charlevoix, Mackinac Island, Petoskey, and the upper peninsula, including the Porcupine Mountains.

Food: In Grand Rapids, Seafood and drinks at Leo’s; bread, pastries, and cakes from Nantucket Bakery; pizza and cannoli from Licari’s. In Big Rapids and Reed City, Blue Cow, Schuberg’s, Nawal’s, Pizza in Paris, Sunny’s, and Pere Marquette Catering. White fish right out of Lake Superior at Brown’s. Wine and groceries from Martha’s Vineyard, Russo’s, and Mega-Bev (formerly Russo’s). Kilwin’s chocolates and ice cream from The Old Pioneer Store in Big Rapids.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I am first and foremost grateful to my husband Dave (and late husband, Bob) and children for granting me the time and support to pursue my creative work. I am also deeply grateful to the many authors and friends who have read, talked to me about, and inspired my work, including most recently, Debbie Courtright-Nash, Linda Evans, and Maggie Walcott. I am grateful to my academic institution and department at Ferris State University for supporting my time at conferences, workshops, and residencies, and especially Jeanne Glass and Michelle Hannon of the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow, and Shelley Stevens at Golden Apple Art Residency for offering residencies. I am grateful to the many editors and publishers who have brought my work to the world, including Jeff Soloway at Facts on File, Jaynie Royal and Pam Van Dyk at Regal House Publishing, and Leah Maines and Christian Kincaid at Finishing Line Press. I am indebted to my publicist, Katie Schnack, and the team at Smith Publicity, for all of their support and guidance. I appreciate the artists whose work has created beautiful book covers: Dayan Moore, C.B. Royal, Shelley Stevens, and Carrie Weis. I appreciate the bookstores and art centers stocking my books and holding my book launches and other events, including all the folks at The Painted Turtle/Artworks in Big Rapids, Books & Mortar and Schuler Books in Grand Rapids, and Horizon Books in Cadillac. I am grateful to the libraries and librarians for including my work in their holdings and inviting me to speak, including Lauren Perkins at the Big Rapids Community Library and the librarians at Pathfinder Community Library in Baldwin. I am grateful to the many individuals who have interviewed me for various media, including Tamron Hall, Shelley Irwin, David Nicholas, Mark Alyn, Brooke Allen, Diane Gottlieb, Helen Raptis, Scott Martin, Yvonne Battle-Felton, Samana Sheikh, and others. Thank you also to the ALS Association and Active Against ALS for championing my memoir Find a Place for Me. Finally, I appreciate all those unnamed who have supported me in various ways, as well as all the readers who have granted me the gift of their time by reading and/or reviewing my work.

Website: https://www.deirdrefagan.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deirdre_fagan/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deirdre-fagan-09434137/

Twitter: https://x.com/drdeirdrefagan

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeirdreFaganDr

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfw13NKDheoJvSdl0RjKYfg

Image Credits
Jennifer J. Johnson Photography