Meet Grace Dobush - SCMF2022 Scholarship Winner

Grace Dobush, a freelance journalist based in Germany, was born, raised and educated in Ohio. The SCMF Scholarship Committee selected Grace on the merits of her comic novel, Dayton Beach, which the writer describes as “a love letter to the Midwest and to queer friendship.”

Grace is currently based in Berlin, Germany, where she works as the editor of ADP ReThink Quarterly, a global business publication. She was born in Lakewood, Ohio, raised in Wellington, Ohio, and graduated from Kent State’s journalism program in 2005.

As part of her prize, Grace was able to attend SWF2022 in Stockholm, and impressed us immediately.

We recently caught up with Grace to get her impressions of the festival, and find out more about her, and her wonderful comic novel Dayton Beach.

Congratulations on winning the Sandra Carpenter Memorial Fund Scholarship in 2022! If I recall correctly, you’re currently living in Berlin, but originally from Ohio, is that right?

Thanks so much! Yes, I am Ohio born and bred, and my family all still lives in Northern Ohio. I lived in Cincinnati for almost a decade before moving to Berlin. When I went freelance in 2012, I did so in part because I really wanted to live abroad again. I lived in western Germany for a year of high school and a year of university, so I was already fluent, and I'd remained in touch with my host mom from my exchange. So I started visiting again for extended periods in 2015, and I made the big move with my cat Lucy in 2017. I've been working as a freelance editor and journalist for various business media since then, and I secured permanent residency this past fall, which was a huge relief.

You had never met Sandra Carpenter, but already knew of her in a business context — how did that come about?

It's so wild. I worked at F+W Media as an intern in 2004 and as a magazine editor from 2007 to 2012, so I knew many people who worked with her. I never got to meet her, but we still got PR mail addressed to her when I was working at The Artist's Magazine. Everybody said she was a really cool lady — I think we would've gotten along like gangbusters! I'm a person who loves making connections between interesting people, and someone at the conference told me that was very Sandy.

What was your reaction when you found out that you were selected as the recipient of the scholarship and would be able to attend the Stockholm Writers Festival?

It was a really emotional time — I had just had to say goodbye to Lucy the week before, and the week before that was my 40th birthday. I'd been doing some intense caretaking during the last few months of Lucy's kidney disease, and I was exhausted. Winning the scholarship felt like a new chapter of my life. That summer of 2022 I did a lot of traveling, culminating in a week writing in Estonia followed by the conference in Stockholm.

Can you tell us a bit about your novel Dayton Beach — what inspired you to write it and what is it about?

Dayton Beach, an upmarket lesbian romcom, was inspired by my own experiences of being a queer woman living in Ohio, and my complicated relationship with Germans. More than anything else, Dayton Beach is a love letter to the Midwest and to queer friendship.

This is the brief pitch: Melanie Strand is living her best gay life in Dayton, Ohio, when she is suddenly overwhelmed by a horde of German tourists at her run-down motel. A terrible travel agent booked out the Strand Motel for the entire summer by fax, assuming it was near Daytona Beach. The Germans want the Florida holiday they were promised, and Mel wants to throw in the beach towel. But when she discovers she owes $57,000 in property taxes, Mel realizes she needs to keep the Germans happy if she wants to save the motel, the only home she’s ever known. Mel enlists her queer community to show the Germans a good time in Dayton, and one of the tourists shows up at the gay bar, catching Mel’s eye. But when her toxic ex-girlfriend resurfaces, Mel falls under Jamie’s spell yet again, ignoring all of the red flags and hiding it from Quinn, her best friend since high school. But the Germans are getting restless, and she still hasn’t seen a dime from the travel agent. If Mel can’t learn to stand up for herself, she might lose her motel and her best friend, too.

The concept for Dayton Beach was born many years ago, while driving through Dayton on my way to a craft show. I began writing in earnest in 2019, finishing a first draft during the early pandemic and a second draft in 2021. Right now I'm working on a third draft and hope to pitch my revised manuscript to agents and editors this summer.

What were some of the highlights of your experience at the Stockholm Writers Festival?

My favorite moment in the conference was meeting Lola Akinmade Åkerström and discovering

that before she moved to Stockholm, she had spent quite a few years living in Dayton, Ohio. Everything in the world can be traced back to Ohio, I swear to god. She recommended that I pitch her editor, who took a chance on her — and then I realized that I had already pitched her editor, who had requested the full manuscript! I'm still waiting on a lot of things, but I hope that the Ohio magic works.

How would you describe the atmosphere and the community of the festival?

The vibe and people were just incredible. It had been so long, more than two years, since I'd attended any conference. And this was the first creative writing conference I'd attended at all! All of my past experiences had been journalism focused or were industry events. I had no idea what to expect, but I was open to anything and everything. I felt like I'd found my people in Stockholm — we're all a bunch of nerds who can't stop telling stories.

How did winning the SCM Scholarship and attending the festival impact your writing goals and aspirations? What are some of the next steps you plan to take as a novelist?

It was such a boost to my confidence at a time when I was languishing in the slush pile. I took winning the scholarship as a sign from the universe not to give up on my little book. In addition to working on the next draft of Dayton Beach, I've been working on a screenplay as well. I used some of my scholarship money to do a DIY writing retreat in Tallinn where I cranked out a really rough draft of the script in a week. Then, of course, I couldn't bear to look at it for another six months, but when I did pick it up again at the start of 2023, it wasn't half bad! It's hard to find time for creative stuff when I'm also working with words during my "day job," but I hope to share Dayton Beach with the world some way, somehow, sometime soon.

What advice would you give to other aspiring writers who are interested in applying for the Sandra Carpenter Memorial Fund Scholarship, or attending the Stockholm Writers Festival in the future?

Go for it. If you think you want to do it, do it. Any time a creative person tells me about an idea but isn't sure if they can really do it, I say: Do it anyway. There will never be a perfect time with no distractions when you can make the thing you want to make. And no one can make that thing but you.