Beth Uznis Johnson is a Chicago-based writer of fiction and creative nonfiction.
Her writing has appeared in Massachusetts Review, Broad Street, Cincinnati Review, Story Quarterly, Mississippi Review, Southwest Review, Gargoyle, the Rumpus, and Best American Essays 2018. She was the recipient of the 2017 McGinnis-Ritchie Award from Southwest Review and a finalist in the 2019 Mississippi Review fiction contest.
She has an MFA in fiction from Queens University of Charlotte, and works as a health care writer for the University of Chicago Medicine Biological Sciences Development.
Her debut novel, Coming Clean, will be released by Regal House Publishing on January 9, 2024. This one-on-one interview shares Beth Uznis Johnson’s background and experience in writing Coming Clean.
Tell us about Coming Clean.
Coming Clean is a novel of forgiveness, family, and fresh starts.
The story follows Dawn, a single twenty-two-year-old whose life is turned upside down after the death of her fiancé in a motorcycle crash. Now, a self-employed cleaning lady, Dawn agrees to pose in the houses she cleans for her friend Matthew’s provocative photography project. Over the course of one week, she and Matthew scour the contents of each home to find inspiration but what she uncovers instead is an unexpected connection to the people who live there.
Set in an unnamed town in upstate New York, the true sense of place in the novel are the five homes she and Matthew examine each day, as well as the trailer Dawn goes home to each night. The novel captures themes of socioeconomic status, seeing vs. being seen, what people’s belongings say about them, and the grief of survivor’s guilt.
What inspired you to write Coming Clean?
Years ago, I had a cleaning lady who kept moving my fake flowers on the TV cabinet. It was like playing a game: each week she rearranged them one way, each week I put them back. It went on and on until, one day, I realized how funny it was. It was like never-ending checkers, with each player refusing to lose.
It struck me that a cleaning lady would make a great character in a novel, and the spark of Dawn was born. There’s a weird sense of power having access to a whole houseful of people’s stuff, despite the socio economic imbalances of being paid to clean up someone else’s messes.
When I began writing the book, I had two questions in mind. First, why did my fictitious cleaning lady, Dawn, move her customers’ stuff around? Was she troubled? Disgruntled? What was her backstory? She grew into a very complicated character dealing with the death of her fiancé in a motorcycle crash.
Second, who were her customers and what did their houses say about them? Each day in the novel, Dawn cleans a different house: from the insecure Bridget Riley to the recent immigrant Wei Chen to the pretentious Robert McIntyre. I have always been interested in people’s houses and the items they keep as a person’s belongings say everything about them.
How did your background and experience influence your writing?
I began writing fiction in my early 30's. After drafting an entire novel, I realized I needed to return to school to learn how to be a better writer.
I applied and was accepted into the low-residency MFA Program at Queens University of Charlotte. For me, the MFA was the beginning of my writing journey. I spent the next decade attending every conference and summer workshop that would have me. Finally, a story I wrote won third place in a contest and was published in Story Quarterly. I published more stories and personal essays and wrote more novels.
Coming Clean is the fourth novel I’ve written, but the first to be published.
What is one message you would like readers to remember?
Dawn’s story is about having to reimagine the life she might have after the one she wanted was taken away from her. I'd like her journey to remind readers that even though people can make a mess of their lives, it's always possible to start over and find happiness.
Coming Clean is about working-class lives, which can be gritty and difficult as people struggle to make ends meet and survive. Even though life might not turn out as we want or plan, sometimes the answers are all right there in front of us.
Purchasing the Book
Unputdownable, original, and thought-provoking, Coming Clean, is available for sale on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, Kobo, Nook, and other online bookstores. Readers are encouraged to purchase their copy today: https://bethujohnson.com/buy-the-book
Connect with Beth Uznis Johnson
https://www.instagram.com/buzjohn/
https://www.facebook.com/buzjohn1
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