Interview with an Author: Dr. Joyce Huff

Our June guest author is Dr. Joyce Huff.

Joyce Huff teaches Victorian British literature at Ball State University. She co-edited the long nineteenth-century volume of Bloomsbury’s Cultural History of Disability. Her essays have appeared in collections such as The Fat Studies Reader, Bodies Out of Bounds, and Victorian Freaks, and in journals such as Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies and Fat Studies. Her poetry has appeared in Gargoyle and on the Library of Congress’s Poetry 180 website.

Tell us a little about your specialty studies.

I am interested in the representation of human bodies in literature, particularly in those bodies with proportions, features, or functions that challenge socially constructed norms about what bodies should be and do.

I am interested in the representation of human bodies in literature.

My work examines the role of literature in the construction of these societal norms and asks why certain bodies have historically been stigmatized and how we can create more just, equitable, and diverse ways of envisioning bodies. Although my main focus is on Victorian British literature, I have also written about freak shows, diet crazes, and airline seating, and I am currently researching the diary of a nineteenth century graverobber.

Tell us about your writing journey. Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Yes. For me, writing is a way of working through ideas. I use writing to process my experiences, thoughts, and emotions. When I send out something out to be published, I hope that it will contribute to a larger conversation and also that others will be moved to respond with their own ideas, so that the discussion will continue to grow.

Can you explain a little of the background on how you became an editor for A Cultural History of Disability in the Long Nineteenth Century?

A Cultural History of Disability in the Long Nineteenth Century is part of a six-volume refence set that covers disability history from the ancient world to the present. The idea for the project came from the general editors of the set, Robert McRuer and David Bolt, both scholars I greatly admire.

While excellent collections on the history of disability already exist, most of the essays within them focus on particular places and isolated moments in time: how blindness was understood in Ancient Greece or the development of sign languages in 19th-century Europe and America.

This set has the much more ambitious goal of providing an overarching perspective on disability history.

This set has the much more ambitious goal of providing an overarching perspective on disability history; each volume contains chapters on the same eight topics (such as mental health issues and mobility impairment) with a general overview at the beginning of each volume.

I was very fortunate to be asked to participate in this project, and even luckier to get to work with my co-editor, Martha Stoddard Holmes, whose book Fictions of Affliction: Physical Disability in Victorian Culture, has had a huge influence on my own work.

Are there other books you’ve authored or collaborated on? If so, can you tell us a little about them?

This was my first, and it was so exciting! I have published chapters in other people’s books, but this was the first time I got to see my name on the cover.

How does the process of collaboration work between multiple editors? How does it differ from working on a piece of your own?

Working with Martha was a wonderful experience. Writing can be lonely sometimes, and I find that doubts can creep in when you are working alone. It was lovely to have someone with whom I could talk through ideas and who would give and take encouragement and constructive criticism as the project developed.

Writing can be lonely sometimes, and I find that doubts can creep in when you are working alone.

Our goals for the project were very compatible, and our strengths complemented each other well. For example, I tend to have more fun at the beginning of a project, whereas I think Martha enjoys the end stages more. I learned a lot from her about how to finish things, which is something I always need to work on.

What was your process for putting the collection together?

Martha and I sought out experts on each topic to write the individual chapters, and we co-authored the introduction. I was so pleased with the group of writers that we assembled, many of whom have inspired my own research and teaching.

We gave feedback on multiple drafts from each author, while the general editors provided feedback to us on the collection as a whole.  Martha and I divided up the drafting of the introduction according to our research interests and then shared sources, added to each other’s drafts, and edited each other.

When we pulled the sections of the introduction together, we found that our writing styles meshed so well that we had to color code blended drafts to remember who wrote what!

Academic writing, and oftentimes creative writing, requires a lot of research! Can you describe a little bit about how the research process works with your writing?

Because I feel that writing is joining a conversation, I write best in response to other authors. I often compose with a book open on my knee, alternating between reading and writing. Because my work is historical, I also do primary source research, examining written artifacts from the time period under consideration.

The best part of research for me is finding “hidden treasures.”

The best part of research for me is finding “hidden treasures.” Once, I asked to see a book at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. I was told that the book wasn’t in the computer system. I followed the librarian to a basement with a massive card catalog and located the card, which was handwritten in cursive. According to the card, I was the first person to request the book in over a hundred years.

Describe your biggest writing obstacle and how you overcame it.

Writer’s block. Overcoming writer’s block is an ongoing process, one that you have to keep working at – or, at least, I do. You have to just show up at the page and trust that the writing will happen, which is hard.

There are several works on writer’s block that I’ve found helpful. Probably my favorites are Julia Cameron’s The Right to Writeand Patricia Goodson’s Becoming an Academic Writer.

What is the part of the book (or process) you are most proud of?

One of the best parts of working on this book was how much I learned in the process. My own research focuses on British literature and culture, but, for this project, I needed to think more globally. Because of the scarcity of sources in translation, we ended up focusing on the English-speaking world, which, in the nineteenth century, covered more than a quarter of the globe.

One of the best parts of working on this book was how much I learned in the process.

I particularly wanted to learn more about disabled populations who were not part of the white majority that dominated the Anglophone world. One book I found very helpful was Dea Boster’s African American Slavery and Disability: Bodies, Property and Power in the Antebellum South, 1800-1860.

I also learned a great deal from all of the chapters that our authors submitted. Because I knew almost nothing about the history of stuttering, reading the chapter on speech dysfluency, written by Daniel Martin, was especially illuminating for me.

Do you have plans for another book or additional published writing in the future?

Yes. I am working on the manuscript of a book tracing the history of some of our current attitudes about fatness back to their nineteenth-century roots.

Do you, or would you ever consider, doing creative writing? If so, how do you think that differs from your academic writing?

Though academic writing is my main focus, I occasionally write poems. You can read one of them on the Library of Congress website here and I have a few more coming out in the Spring 2021 issue of Gargoyle.

I write poems when I have an emotional response to the material I’m researching.

I write poems when I have an emotional response to the material I’m researching, but it would not really be relevant to my goals in writing an academic work. Poetry is the perfect form for working through those feelings.

What do you want the world to know about you as an author?

I really want people to start rethinking the narrow limits we have created to define socially acceptable embodiment. Human bodies are very diverse; they come in a range of colors, sizes, configurations, sexes, sexualities, and abilities. I see that diversity as, not simply normal, but also valuable. I hope that my writing will lead other people to think more deeply about that.

What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to aspiring writers?

If I had it to do over, I would have started writing and sharing my writing with others earlier.

I postponed writing until later in my life, and, when I started, I waited too long to show my work to other people and seek out their feedback and advice. If I had it to do over, I would have started writing and sharing my writing with others earlier.

If you would like to read Dr. Huff's collection A Cultural History of Disability in the Long Nineteenth Century you can request your local library purchase it for their reference collection. Purchases can be made here.

If you know an author (or of an author) you would love to read an interview with, email me at rachel@capturingyourconfidence.com!