What are you reading these days? Do you love/hate/feel neutral about it, and why?

 

Fiction-wise, I am reading more horror, especially horror written by women. I’m also reading The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, and Kafka's Letters to Milena. What I’m drawing the most inspiration from right now is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. 

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Have you read a passage of writing that deeply shifts something inside you, if so, please share it with us?

“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.” 

From the opening page of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, published in 1959.

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When you are working on a piece, what inspirations do you draw from?

 

For any artistic medium I might be working in, I find it benefits from completely separate artistic mediums as inspiration. So, when I'm writing, I find music and art to be useful sources to draw from. And, of course, lots of reading! 

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What craft elements are you most interested in/attached to within your writing?

 

In prose, I love a good twist, and many layers. In poetry, I like things to be deliberate and surprising. 

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Who/what are some of your writing obsessions, and why? 

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I am drawn most to women authors. I love a good ghost story or descent into madness. Some of my favorites are Donna Tartt, Shirley Jackson, and Leigh Bardugo. I like writing that is dark, or writing that has teeth.

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What are some ways in which you remain productive/find time to be a writer? 

 

The notes app on my phone is full of half-formed ideas that I come back to from time to time. It’s always convenient to have something around to scribble ideas in.

  

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Tell us what your writing space looks like.

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Messy, of course. And I always write by a window.

 

What are some ways in which you get through a block in your creative work?

Switch to a different medium! Paint for a while, or switch from prose to poetry.  ​

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How do you navigate the experience of submissions/rejections/acceptances?

I try to think more about my successes (any successes, no matter how big or small) than I do my failures, except to learn from them.

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Regarding your piece in Issue 04, what does it mean for/to you and/or how did the creation of it come about? 

 

Writing this poem was outside my comfort zone, as I am used to working in rhyming schemes and much less so with free-verse poetry. This was me trying something new while also drawing from familiar aesthetics and imagery. It was like looking at something familiar in a new light.​

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What is something you would like to share with other writers out there? 

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I could not possibly write if I did not also read.