Claire Lombardo earned her MFA in fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois. The Most Fun We Ever Had is her debut novel.A former social worker, she now teaches fiction writing and is at work on a second novel.
Recently I asked Lombardo about what she was reading. Her reply:
Between releasing my first book, packing up my house in Iowa City, and watching seasons one and two of Fleabag on near-constant repeat, I’m afraid I’ve been a less-than-vigorous reader lately, but I have been trying to take advantage ofVisit Claire Lombardo's website.Midwestern porch weather and read a bit each evening. Right now I’m at the beginning of Mona Awad’s Bunny, which called out to me both because it’s been compared to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History—one of my all-time favorites—and because I’m in withdrawal from MFA drama, having graduated from my own fine arts program a few years ago.
I also just reread a beloved YA novel from my adolescence called Anna to the Infinite Power, which came out in the 80s and is about a young woman who discovers she’s the product of a sinister cloning experiment.This book was very arguably the catalyst for my obsession with conspiracy theories and scandal, and it was a delight to return to it and have that wonderful muscle-memory feeling that comes with reading a book that you’d devoured in your youth, where you realize you’ve had particular sentences and prose rhythms stored in your head for decades.
The Page 69 Test: The Most Fun We Ever Had.
--Marshal Zeringue
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