Boris Fishman is the author of Don't Let My Baby Do Rodeo.From his Q & A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: How did you come up with the idea for Don’t Let My Baby Do Rodeo?--Marshal Zeringue
A: The most literal narrowly defined inspiration—there’s the literal spark and the emotional spark—the literal spark was that a friend was telling me about a coworker who had adopted, and was having a difficult time. The kid was from a different part of the country, or maybe a different country…
The broader [idea] was that I wanted to write from a different consciousness, and get away from the young, male, Jewish gaze. I had grown up with strong women, but with a prescribed cultural path. I wanted to explore a woman who was reared that way but got her groove back…
In some ways it’s also a self-exploration. I’m not adopted, but I’m so different from my parents. With immigration, you become a foreigner to your parents. Through [the character] Max, I’m...[read on]