Author Interview with Shauna Niequist – Writer of Cold Tangerines – Win A Copy

A coworker and dear friend passed Cold Tangerines on to me a couple of months ago.  When I finished reading, I realized the book wasn’t just a one-time thing.  I picked up my own copy because I knew I would read it again when I needed some extra inspiration in life.  Sure enough, I have picked it up a few more times and read various segments to remind myself that there is grace in the little things every day.

Niequist uses personal essays to tell her story, and gives us an honest and real glimpse into her life- her everyday life.  She reminds us to celebrate every moment, and that life is made of more of the little moments than the big ones, and they’re all worth noticing.  After all, she says, “What God does in the tiny corners of our day-to-day lives is stunning and gorgeous and headline-making, but we have a bad habit of saving the headlines for the grotesque and scary”.  

As someone who always had a 5 year plan, and then whose life was completely turned around by parenthood and the alternating drama and grind and chaos and joy that it brings, I often need a reminder that every moment is sacred.  Niequist reminds me that MY BIG MOMENT IS NOW.  It’s yours too! Click here to check it out yourself.

So, in honor of this terrific book that spoke to me, I’m giving away a copy of Cold Tangerines. Here’s how to enter:  post a link to this interview on your blog, MySpace, FaceBook, wherever you hang out online.  Leave a comment with the link of your post.  In one week, I’ll randomly select from the list and the winner gets their own copy!

Before we get to the fun stuff: a couple of links for you:
Click Here to buy the book at Amazon.
Click Here to friend Shauna on FaceBook.
Click Here to check out Shauna’s website.

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How do you describe Cold Tangerines to someone who hasn’t read it?

It’s a collection of essays about celebrating everyday life. Each chapter is a snapshot from my life–my family, my street, my high school memories, my confessions– not because my story is special but because all of our stories are special. I hope when people read it, they find bits of themselves and their own stories in it.

Were you writing to a specific audience? Were you writing to/for yourself? Or for both?



I was writing for people who love language and image and story. I love those things, so it was really a goal for me (whether or not I accomplished it) to write satisfying, high quality prose. And I was writing as a friend. There have been books that have affected me and when I was finished, I felt like I had met a friend. That’s what I wanted. I wanted people to feel less alone, to feel like they’re not crazy for having questions or for being jealous, and that they’re not crazy for wanting to believe that life, and particularly life with God, is extraordinary and rich and worth loving and devoting yourself to.

Describe the turning point for you, when you decided to start appreciating the “cold tangerine” moments in life? How has this perspective changed you?

I feel like I hit this same turning point about three times a week. I catch myself waiting so often– waiting for things to settle down, waiting to feel more capable, waiting for things to get easy. I know better, but I still do it. So on a very regular basis, I return to the cold tangerines and the pennies and the red tree, literally and figuratively, and I decide once again that today is enough, that God is enough. I decide that what life is offering to me in this exact moment is enough, and is worth celebrating and investing in. I wish there was a before-and-after, but it seems to be more like again-and-once-again, like most of life.

You chose a very unique writing format; 40 short essays. Was there a particular reason why you chose this style versus a more traditional style?



It wasn’t extremely calculated. It was the most natural format for me. I like variety, and I like being able to resolve a set of questions or tell a story in a relatively short period of time, so it’s a genre that works really well for me. The publishers were a little hesitant, because it’s not a genre commonly used in Christian books, but it is one that’s very familiar in wider literary culture. I wanted it to feel like glimpses or snapshots as opposed to a chronological memoir or a more conventional format.



What inspires you when you’re writing?

When I’m living well, everything inspires me. What I mean is that if I’m taking care of myself– reading great books, sleeping enough, spending time with people who restore me and challenge me and make me laugh, then all the world is inspiring….and if I’m running too fast, not connecting well to the people I love, or living for the to-do list, then it all looks flat and gray, and I can stare at the blank screen for what seems like days. It’s a good motivator for me to live well, as if living well was not reward enough in itself.

What do you most enjoy about writing? What do you least enjoy?

What I love about writing is that it forces me to see what’s happening around me, and what’s happening in me, and it forces me to think and feel and notice the world on a deeper level. I’m a multi-tasker: I want to read a magazine while something’s on the stove and something else is in the oven and I’m watching the news and returning a call and folding a little bit of laundry and buying a gift online. That’s my nature.

But I miss a lot that way, and writing ushers me into a much slower, much simpler way of living, and it’s better for me. It’s one of the only spaces in my life that’s very quiet, and very focused, and requires every single speck of attention that I can give it. It feels like very hard work, and is very rewarding to me. I also just love playing with words. There are moments when it feels like play, and I love that. I’ve always always loved playing around with words.



The hardest part is that it requires me to be alone more than I would like, so I have to work intentionally not to get too isolated, and to make sure that I’m getting good time with friends and family, as a balance for all the aloneness. I think good writing comes out of a full life, not from an isolated mind.



Have you ever considered writing a different format, like a novel?



I would love to write a novel, although I’m a little intimidated by the process. Novels are my favorite thing to read, and I think it would be so fun to develop characters and get to know them.

My friend Alison Strobel is a fiction writer in Orange County. Her first two books are Worlds Collide and Violette Between, and she’s in the midst of like seven more in the next two years, along with being a mother to Abby and Penelope. I’m always pestering her about it-”But how, Alison? How?”

It’s definitely on my list of things to try…along with speaking Italian, driving a boat, growing herbs, and making pesto.

Your writing is so honest and transparent. Have you ever struggled with being real with your shortcomings and feelings? What would you say to other women who struggle with this?

On one hand, I always struggle with that–I would love for people to believe that I’m sailing through life without neuroses and missteps. But on the other hand, what draws me to people is their honesty, the cracks in their armor, the tiny vulnerabilities that we reveal when we tell each other the truth about our lives. I’ve watched my friendships deepen in the moments of ugliness and truth in ways that never happen when we’re all dressed up and on our best behavior.

From a writing standpoint, I have worked hard to dance on the line between helpful, sometimes surprising honesty and, say, totally inappropriate over-sharing. I’m not a particularly private person, both by upbringing and by nature, so my housechurch and a few other close friends and family members read through an early version of Cold Tangerines, keeping an eye out for things that might be ‘honest’ among friends but ‘creepy’ in print–and I did change a few things because of their advice.
I’m really committed to honesty as a writer. When I began, I said that I wanted anything I wrote to be honest, brave, funny, and well-written. I’m attracted to honesty in other writers and other people, and I think humor surprises people, especially when the topic is faith. As I was writing, I wrote the most naked, bold, entirely truthful things I knew how to write, and then my editor and close friends helped me decide what things needed to be taken out or changed a little. That’s a really important step, and I did make changes based on their recommendations.

You are a wife, a mom and a writer. How do you juggle all of the demands of life and how did you find time to write a book?

Juggling is a good word for it, I think. It feels like juggling: mostly out of balance, verging on disaster, and occasionally quite fantastic, just for a moment. My friend Denise, a woman, mother, and leader I respect very much, once told me that it’s easy to decide the things you want to do in your life, but the real challenge comes when you have to decide what you’re willing to let go undone. I think there are layers and layers in that statement, especially for women.

There are a lot of things I don’t do, in order to have the time and space to do the things I care most about. My house is not a showpiece. Frankly, it’s as dirty as I can get away with having a two year old, knowing that he’ll eat whatever he finds on the floor. As much as I know it would help me physically and mentally, I don’t spend much time at the gym these days. Let’s be honest: I haven’t been to the gym since April. I blow dry my hair only when I have to speak or go somewhere really fancy, and I wear my pajamas in public fairly often.

I actually made a Things I Don’t Do List, and that really helped me get clear on the Things I Do List. Things I Do: I read, write, cook, and spend time with a few close friends and family members, most important among them my husband and my boy. Those are the things that matter most to me these days, so a lot of the other things go undone.

I also think that especially for mothers, it’s important to think about life in terms of seasons. There is a way of living that works for this season, and we’ll figure it out anew when Henry goes to preschool, or when I have another baby. We’re on like a three month plan these days, constantly re-evaluating.
What is your favorite part about being a mother?


Maybe the kisses. Maybe the way Henry says “beeeoooowww!” instead of “meow.” Maybe the smell of his neck right after he gets out of the bath, or watching my husband play with him, or learning how to be a mother by watching my mother, or watching both our extended families swivel and shift because of this new little life.

My favorite moments might be the moments just Henry and I share, when we read books or put together puzzles, both laying on our stomachs on the living room rug.

 And there’s just nothing in the world like when they fall asleep in your arms. A few weeks ago, we were out on the boat, and Henry missed his usual naptime, so on the way home, with the hum of the engines and the wind whipping past us, he snuggled up on my lap and absolutely passed out, a hot, sweaty little bundle.

Your book is classified as a “devotional,” yet there are very few Scriptural references. Did you feel led to write a devotional or, in your mind, is this book classified as something else?


I’m surprised that the book is categorized as a devotional. It wasn’t written to be a devotional at all, but rather a collection of essays threaded loosely together with a theme.

One of the tricky parts of Christian publishing is that most Christian authors are pastors, and most of their books have an instructive purpose, so it’s easy to think that all books published by Christian authors are instructive, pastoral, or devotional. The same is not true in the wider publishing industry-essentially, writers are just that: writers. I’m a writer, not a scholar or a pastor.

On the topic of scripture, I would say that the writing of the book was deeply undergirded by scripture, meaning that I used it as a guide and anchor as I wrote, in the same way that I use it as a guide and anchor in my daily and devotional life. I made the decision, though, to write in a more story-oriented way as opposed to a more teaching or devotional style for several reasons.

 First, and most centrally, I made the choice because there are many people who are drawn to stories about spiritual things who are not open to a more conventional devotional, and it’s very important to me that this book is a bridge, or a hand reaching out to those people. My prayer is that as they grow and become more comfortable with spiritual language and themes, they will read more and more “weighty” devotional or instructive books. This was never meant to be that kind of book.

In the same way, I believe, that God makes each of us different, He gives each of us a song to sing. This is my song to sing, and if I pretended to be a theologian, or a pastor, or a prophet, or an exegetical expert, I’d be faking it, and the song I was made to sing would go unsung.

 Certainly, when I do teach in a church setting, which is fairly rare, I do use scripture the same way most pastors do, but my primary role is as a storyteller.

There may be a time when I write more specifically about scripture. I’ve been very interested lately in Esther and Joshua and their lives. I’m always drawn to the beauty of the Psalms and Ecclesiastes. I love Hebrews. Who knows?

You articulate your faith and life as one interwoven thing, but a lot of our culture compartmentalizes Christianity more. Have you encountered any friction to your views?

Actually, I have encountered some friction, but only from Christians who wish the book was more like a conventional devotional or a Christian Living book. As much as I struggle to make peace with the fact that criticism is part of the gig for any writer, that particular criticism doesn’t really bother me. There are lots of great devotionals and great Christian Living books that already exist.

I’m trying to do something a little bit different. I’m trying to weave together the moments of life and faith and friendship, of parenting and hope and anxiety all mixed up together, because that’s how they happen in my life. I wanted to write a book for my friends who don’t read Christian Living books, but who care about character and faith and honesty and hope all the same.

To borrow a phrase, I don’t really care about preaching to the choir. They’ve got lots of good preaching coming at them already. I really really care about women like me, like my friends and students who can’t find themselves in a really traditional religious environment, even though they love God or at least want to understand more about him. So being called, essentially, “not-Christian-enough” doesn’t really bother me. It’s a different conversation.

You mention in the book that you have a house church. How did this start?

My very best friend Annette had just moved to Grand Rapids with her husband Andrew. We knew that we wanted to start meeting with a group every week, to share life and pray, and wanted it to be bigger than just the four of us. Joe was a good friend of ours, and was a natural fit. Another couple joined us before Steve and Sarah did, and about a year after we started meeting, the first couple joined another group. We added Steve and Sarah, and continued to meet every week. We’ve done all different things-read sections of books, prayed through scripture, volunteered at the food truck in our neighborhood. In the time since we began, three baby boys have joined us, and Joe’s fiancée Emily, too. Annette, Andrew, and Spence are back in California now, but we continue to meet weekly with Steve and Sarah and their son Emerson, and Joe and Emily, who will be married just after Christmas. Their presence in my life has been one of God’s greatest gifts to me during the last few years.

A big theme in Cold Tangerines is celebration. How do you celebrate?

For me, the first part of celebrating is noticing. I find that it’s easy for me to get stuck in what’s broken or wrong with a situation, instead of seeing the beautiful parts of it, too, or that I move so fast I don’t see anything at all. These days I’m trying to notice everything, to live slowly enough to see what’s unfolding around me, and especially to look for the tiny, beautiful surprises even in the midst of wreckage and ugliness.

What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned since then/ wish you could tell your 20-year-old self?

What a great question. I actually just spoke at a college on Friday, and told them nine things I wish I could go back and tell my college self. If I could only pick one, it’s this: Don’t be so afraid of getting your heart broken, making a wrong choice, or failing at something you love. Pain avoidance is no way to live, and God does some of his best work when we’ve made a mess of everything.

What are some of your favorite books, or what books do you recommend?

On Writing: 
The Artist’s Way Julia Cameron
Bird by Bird Anne Lamott
On Writing Well William Zinsser
Reading Like a Writer Francine Prose

Memoir:
A Moveable Feast Ernest Hemingway
Traveling Mercies Anne Lamott
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Barbara Kingsolver
Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert
The Glass Castle Jeanette Walls

Recent Fiction:
The Time Traveler’s Wife Audrey Niffeneger
The Post Birthday World Lionel Shriver
A Thousand Splendid Suns Khalid Hosseini
Song of the Exile Kiana Davenport
On Food and Cooking Harold McGee
How to Eat Nigella Lawson
The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook Ina Garten
My Life in France Julia Child
Comfort me with Apples Ruth Reichl

On Faith:
Take this Bread Sara Miles
Everything Must Change Brian McLaren
Looking for God Nancy Ortberg
Everything Belongs Richard Rohr
The Alchemist Paolo Coelho

What are Henry’s favorite books?

We love The Feelings Book by Todd Parr and Eric Carle’s I can do it, because we act out what’s happening on each page. He also really likes some of the classic Boynton board books, especially, Oops!, Doggies, and Moo, Baa, La, La La. He has an Elmo counting one that he likes, and a really cute one called Kiss, Kiss-and when we read it, he kisses each animal on the page.

What can you tell us about Book Two?



I’m working on a collection of essays called Bread and Wine about faith, family, friendship, and food-the spiritual and relational significance of sharing meals together, of gathering at the table together. Bread and wine are two of the most central, common items on out tables, and they’re also the traditional communion elements. I want to explore both those things: what happens around our own tables, and how communion and community unfold in all different ways. It’s about the sacred and strange and wonderful things that happen when we gather together to eat– celebrations, traditions, memories of life around the table. When I look back at the last two years, so many of the best moments of family or friendships have happened around the table, so I’m thinking and writing about the significance of what, how, and with whom we eat.