Q & A with Summer Festival Day One Sponsor Jerry Yudelson and San Diego Writers Festival

SWDF: What inspired you to write The Godfather of Green: An Eco-Spiritual Memoir? 

JY: I wanted to show how the twin threads of my life, spiritual inquiry and environmental activism, wove together to create a tapestry that would appeal to readers.  

SDWF: Which writers have influenced you most? 

JY: For the past ten years, I have voraciously consumed contemporary fiction, particularly from writers based outside the U.S. So you can say, I’ve picked up something from all of them. Elizabeth Gilbert’s last two novels are about as smooth and enthralling as one can get. Most recently, I found the storytelling skill of a young Indian writer, Shubhangi Swarup, magnificent in her debut novel, Latitudes of Longing.   

SDWF: What’s the last great book/play/poem you read? 

JY: Javier Marías’s Berta Isla (2019, in translation) is about as skillful a novel as I’ve read recently. 

SDWF: If you could give your younger self a piece of advice, what would it be? 

JY: Keep a journal! Record conversations, feelings, experiences and insights as they happen or soon after.   

SDWF: What was the first piece of writing you shared with someone else? 

JY: I’ve always written and shared poems with family, friends and lovers, but I didn’t start seriously writing until 2005, just after my 60th birthday. Then my wife became my chief muse and critic.    

SDWF: Where can we find your blog/website or any other online links (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)?

JY: https://jerryyudelson.net (memoir) 

www.reinventinggreenbuilding.com (blog) 

Twitter: @jerryyudelson 

LinkedIn: jerryyudelson 

Instagram: jerry_yudelson  

SDWF: Thank you, Jerry!