Diana Eleanor Gosselin Nakeeb

1944 - 2021

Diana wrote the following in 2015 for the Smashwords.com publishing web site.

I was born in Flatbush, Brooklyn (NY), as World War II was ending. After the demobilization of my father and cancer death of my grandfather (who had come from Lithuania to open a brewery, closed for Prohibition in 1920), my orphaned parents moved to a housing project in Brownsville, Brooklyn. It ensured a roof over the heads of my brother, sister and me. My favorite childhood hobby was searching for "good places," which eventually led me to Staten Island. However, there are still chunks of Brooklyn deep in my heart, reflected in my comedic sci‑fi novel, "Venus Turning."

Sometimes things are so bad, they're good. Such was my alma mater, P.S. 125 in Brownsville. The 4th‑, 5th‑, and 6th‑grade sewing lessons stand out as a particular highlight. The school did not clutter up my head with excessive knowledge, which left more room to do well in college. Down the street from elementary school was a splendid public library, and I read novels non‑stop. After all, fiction (and its extensions ‑‑ movies and plays and dramatic music) is for most of us the teacher that helps us to make sense of reality itself.

My high school was Thomas Jefferson in East New York, known as the alma mater of Danny Kaye. Though its glory days were over, I was still lucky to be there when I was: my art teacher, Don Fabricant, and creative‑writing teacher, Benjamin Goodman, attained some national recognition for their original work, and their colleagues also had high aspirations. My family moved out of Brownsville for my senior year, when I transferred to Tilden High School (still in Brooklyn), and being fifteen, I dreamed intensely about slipping away after graduation. However, the Tilden faculty made sure that everyone applied to the City University of New York; and so, I ended up with having to accept my acceptance at tuition‑free Hunter College in Manhattan. Unable to find a summer job, in despair I looked for the summer course at Hunter that promised to be the most fun. To a fiction enthusiast, that was Intensive Russian. So began my careers in translating, researching, and ultimately teaching.

At first, in order to acquire a broad background for teaching ‑‑ but later, because I came under a kind of enchantment, ‑‑ I remained in graduate school at Columbia's Russian Institute and their Slavic Languages department for seven years.

When finally pried loose from grad school, I taught at William Paterson College (NJ), Pace University (NYC), and Yeshiva University (NYC), where I started up Russian and East‑European‑related programs. Free at last! I am now retired.

Interview with Diana Nakeeb

What are you working on now?

I've just finished a short story on a subject that I think affects everyone, entitled "In the Kingdom of the Gargoyles." The introductory period of free distribution is now over, and it is available on Smashwords for the most modest possible price!

Who are your favorite authors?

Different authors have been my favorites at different times of my life. Growing up, I was in awe of the major American poets, particularly: Edwin Arlington Robinson, Emily Dickinson, and of course, everybody's favorite, Edgar Allen Poe. As a teen, my attention was divided between Sci‑Fi (Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, and the whole marvelous moosh of pop culture, from comics to films: I never met a superhero/heroine that I didn't like), and ‑‑ in American literature, Henry James. How's that for a schizophrenic background? As an adult, I learned to sample translations from every country and culture. I have yet to find a country that has not contributed something priceless, to the world, through its literature. As a college student, perhaps I had a particular taste for French, Russian, and German authors, enough to give me the strength to persist until I could read them in the original texts. And at the moment? There's so much competition among contemporary authors, from Annie Proulx (Brokeback Mountain, The Shipping News) to Khaled Hosseini (The Kite‑Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns) and Hector Tobar (The Barbarian Nurseries) ‑‑ it would take all day to name just the totally outstanding. It always amuses me when scientists reveal that they are jealous of "Nobel Prize Winners," whom they can count (somewhat grumpily) on their fingers. In literature, there is such an abundance of good writers, from whom I have received so much enjoyment and education, it's too exhausting even to think about, let alone envy.

What inspires you to get out of bed each day?

Got to feed the birds and the cats, both captive and wild.

When you're not writing, how do you spend your time?

Travelling in every possible mode, except by car or plane. On foot, by boat, or by train ‑‑ it never gets old.

What is the future of e‑books?

It's bright; but I also believe that they will not replace print books. It's just more great stuff to carry away the public. Oh, you authors! No sooner do you fill the bookshelves with your insights (which you MUST share with the world), but cyberspace will eventually be dwarfed by the overflow.

Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?

It was a folktale sort of a thing, about a Giant that wanted nobody to be afraid of him, because I was seven years old. It was very derivative.

What is your writing process?

During the first draft, I become oblivious of absolutely every other thing. My works take form through a mishmash of handwritten notes and word‑processing. During the revisions, I am semi‑conscious of the outside world.

Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?

I remember the first story that was ever read TO me: "Little Black Sambo" (alas!), with whom I (a four‑year‑old Europeoid female) totally identified, despite being the opposite of the fearless young African hero. I loved the ending, in which the tigers go round and round and round until ‑‑ they turn into a ring of butter. I vividly pictured them going round and round me, both when waking and falling asleep: pacing in total silence. And of course, it helped me to appreciate William Blake.

How do you approach cover design?

I "do it myself," for better or for worse.

What do you read for pleasure?

Everything and anything interesting.

What book marketing techniques have been most effective for you?

Converting people face‑to‑face, one at a time.

Describe your desk

Yikes! Well, there's a computer ‑‑ deliberately disconnected from and impervious to the Internet, used only as a smart typewriter. I do Internet things elsewhere. Don't look over my shoulder, world! Not till the dish is ready!

There are piles of papers, none of them blank. There are writing implements and scissors which are always on the lookout for their chance to disappear under the papers.

And right smack up against the writing desk is a window facing a tree. A cherry tree.

Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?