Do you knock on wood?

Often! I did not grow up in a religious family, but my family passed on a lot of rituals for safety and luck. When you see a white horse, when you go through a yellow light, when you see a one-headlight car, and a lot around weather and safety on boats. So yes, I often knock on my own skull and say, “knock wood.”

What is your most treasured comfort meal?

Would I lose all respect from everyone if I admit that when I’m sad or in need of comfort one thing that I will eat is a bag of Cheez-Its?

What is a species you feel is frequently misunderstood? 

So many! So many! Mosquitoes. Flies. Slugs. Ctenophores. Sharks. Humans.

In what environment do you feel most at home?

On or near or in the sea.

My favorite tree in the world is _____.

Well, Redcedar. But also, White Cedar, Madrona (please don’t correct my spelling on this!), White Oak, Sassafras, American Beech.  And aren’t Black Spruce nice?  And what about Larch?  And Tupelo, this past year, really captivated me.

What is something you’re looking forward to?

Being in Homer, Alaska this coming spring for the Kachemak Bay Writer’s Conference—both for the people who will be there and also because I haven’t been to Homer in many years and it’s a place I love for its mountains and sea, its vibrant arts community, and so much more. When I lived in Anchorage, I got down there a few times. Not enough. But I’m eager to stand on that shore and stare at that water, look at Kelp, look for Sea Otters, say hi to the spirit of a dear friend.

What was your last memorable animal encounter?

The other morning, I looked up from my reading chair at home to see a Red Fox in the yard. That in and of itself is not strange—it’s not a daily occurrence, but it’s not a shock—but the Fox was rubbing her face on the grass then trotted over to a white thing, which at first I thought was a fallen wasp hive, then thought was maybe Styrofoam blown in from the neighbor’s yard. I didn’t want the Fox to eat trash, so I opened the door and shooed her off. But when I walked over to the white-gray bundle, it was the body of a young gull (either a Herring Gull or Black Backed).  How did the gull get there?  Maybe it was taken out by a hawk. So much mystery that I missed in the night.

If you could, regardless of the local climate, reach out of your kitchen window a pluck a fruit from a tree, bush, or plant, what would it be?

Thimbleberries.

Would you jump at an opportunity to go into space? Why or why not?

No way. No plants! No beings! I hate how in Sci-Fi futures there is often no vegetation or that cities that are all metal or stone are presented as beautiful and idyllic. They look sterile and sad to me. But ask me if I’d like to go down to the bottom of the ocean and I’d be there in a heartbeat.

What are some of your favorite words?

None of them are printable.

Want more writing from Elizabeth Bradfield?

You can find some of her poems

Who are some of your heroes or heroines, real or fictional?

Rachel Carson, Sylvia Earle, Her Majesty Grace Jones (not the singer—a heroine from a kids’ series I read), Peggy Shaw, Anna Deavere Smith.

What is something new you’ve done recently?

Private room karaoke! My sisters turned me on to this. I love to sing and can sometimes have an okay voice, but I don’t like to perform or to think about being seen. To get to sing loudly and often badly and to join in and harmonize with my sisters and all our people? It’s just the best. It is a new holiday tradition for us, and I only wish they lived closer.

What’s the wildest thing you’ve witnessed or experienced in nature?

Gosh. I think this is really all about perspective. About opening my mind and really considering whatever is before me. The more you look, the more you see, the wilder it becomes. Either in a city or way, way off the road system.

When you enter a bookstore, where do you head first?

Poetry!

Where did you grow up?

Tacoma, Washington – actually, across Commencement Bay from Tacoma proper in a suburb named Browns Point. Our house was on the water, on a clay bank overgrown with blackberries about fifty feet above the water, actually. I spent a lot of time on that rocky beach across from the now-gone Asarco copper smelter plant, watching salmon trollers, log booms, and container ships passing by. A different answer: aboard the MV Sea Lion when I worked as a deckhand.  Also: Provincetown, on Cape Cod, where I made my first real home as an adult.

Are you the same person you were as a child?

Sometimes in such surprising ways, yes. At other times, alas, no. A reader, a water lover, a dreamer, a lover of being out under skies rather than roofs, a sensitive kid.

If you could live anywhere, where would it be?

Can it be many places? A bit of every year in Cape Cod, Alaska, Australia, the Pacific Northwest – and part of the year experiencing new places.

What would you like to be most remembered for? 

Caring. Trying. Bringing worlds together. Lifting up others – whether that’s people or more-than-human beings.

If you could come back as any organism, who or what would you be?

A Greenland Shark.

SOFAR is Elizabeth’s most recent collection. Bring home a copy today!