Larry Bograd spent years honing structure, narrative of his memoir

Larry Bograd is an award-winning, widely translated author whose works have been published by Farrar/Straus, Harper, and Macmillan. Bograd eventually turned to playwriting, screenwriting and documentary filmmaking. He grew up and currently lives in Denver, Colorado.

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SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory – what’s it about and what inspired you to write it? 

Larry Bograd: Two weeks after my 13th birthday, my physician father killed himself. This trauma led me to spend the next four decades learning what I could about him and what may have led to his death. I’ve written and rewritten the memoir many times as new information and insights arrived, and after I decided on a final narrative structure, tone, and chronology.

SunLit: Place the excerpt you selected in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole and why did you select it? 

Bograd: The excerpt represents the opening chapters of the memoir. I selected it to provide readers with the central plot, themes, characters, and emotional tone that unfold throughout “Blood Flow.” 

SunLit: What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write? 

Bograd: Two traumatic experiences informed the project. My father’s suicide just after my 13th birthday and my heart bypass surgery when I was 53 years old. Having written for the stage and screen, I was influenced by how various writers handle monologues and first-person narration.

SunLit: What did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter? 

Bograd: I wrote and revised “Blood Flow” dozens of times over many decades before I “got it right.” These hours and my experience teaching creative writing at Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSUD) helped me hone my narrative skills.

SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book? 

Bograd: At first, the biggest challenge was getting three separate hospitals to grant me access to my dad’s inpatient psychiatric files. Over time, the biggest challenge was craft-based: finding the best narrative structure, chapter length, order of information, adding emotional depth and appropriate humor and so on.

SunLit: What do you want readers to take from this book? 

Bograd: That major trauma never escapes an individual, but one can integrate it into their life in productive ways.

SunLit: Why was suicide such a taboo topic when your father died? 

Bograd: In many ways, suicide remains a taboo topic. Some cultures treat it as a crime. Other cultures refuse to accept it. It’s interesting how many readers have contacted me to share their own stories of a family member taking their own life. Fortunately, there is much more awareness of mental illnesses like depression and better treatment options than in the 1960s when my father died.

SunLit: Tell us about your next project. 

Bograd: I’m completing a short, satirical novel about how contemporary life is increasingly affected by AI, surveillance, paranoia and vengeful politics.

A few more quick items

Currently on your nightstand for recreational reading: “A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck” by Sophie Elmhirst, “The Idiot” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “Underland: A Deep Time Journey” by Robert Macfarlane, and “The Stone World,” a novel by the masterful Joel Agee

First book you remember really making an impression on you as a kid: “My Side of the Mountain” by Jean Craighead George

Best writing advice you’ve ever received: Don’t expect to write a decent novel before the age of 40.

Favorite fictional literary character: Jeeves the valet in many hilarious books by P.G. Wodehouse

Literary guilty pleasure (title or genre): Nonfiction books about science

Digital, print or audio — favorite medium to consume literature: Print

One book you’ve read multiple times: “The Great Gatsby”

Other than writing utensils, one thing you must have within reach when you write: Water bottle

Best antidote for writer’s block: Keep in mind that, at first, you’re only writing for yourself, so don’t worry about what others might think: be free, playful, and let writing flow, whether you end up “using” it or not.

Type of Story: Q&A

An interview to provide a relevant perspective, edited for clarity and not fully fact-checked.