Who are some of your favorite writers, and what do you like about them?
Hands down, my favorite writer at the moment is Ross Gay. I’m carried away by his ability to render delight compelling. He writes the world in the way I want (and try) to see it, only he makes the labor of delight look effortless. I admire Rebecca Solnit’s entire body of work. I’m also smitten with the work of Eula Biss, Jenny Boully and Sarah Minor. I guess you could say I’m interested in work that takes risks in both what it says and how it says it.
What is your #1 advice for other writers?
Treat your writing time as sacred. Even though it can be hard for those who don’t write to respect your writing time as necessary and “real work” – insist on it.
What is your creative process? Do you plan pieces out or let them happen as they come?
I wish I had the ability to plan pieces, but my mind doesn’t work like that. The results never sing. Instead, I tend to obsess over an experience until it spills out of me. I figure the feeling out in my head and the story out on the page, so you could say I write to meaning.
What turns you off when you see it in a work? What are your creative pet peeves?
The biggest turn off for me is an essay that focuses on the writer as a writer. While I understand the audience of litmags may be largely writers, it feels a bit incestuous to write about writing. Unless it’s a craft piece or something thought-provokingly experimental, I don’t want to read an essay about the writer writing it.
What is your favorite vice? What are you drinking at happy hour, in a literal or a metaphorical sense?
Sweet drinks, all day. Thai iced tea and mango lassis and matcha lattes—I would make a meal out of any these if left to my own devices. I’m currently downing Diet Dr. Pepper at a rate that requires weekly trips to Costco, and I wish I were joking.