We love learning more about our contributors, and an interview seemed like a fun way to hear more about the writers and artists we publish, so we gave them a choice of questions to answer. We hope you also enjoy hearing more about the artists and their works. Read on and check out Contest Issue #3 to read "The Ladybug Door" by Allison Burris.
Who or what inspires your work generally?
"I think there is some part of me that is still a young kid obsessed with magic. I wanted to find a magical door. So now I create them myself, having realized that language is that door and also the lands beyond the door. The first poem I truly loved was Emily Dickinson’s “hope is the thing with feathers,” and I love poems that anchor me in feelings of hope and connection. Most of my work skews towards the whimsical. I collect idiosyncratic details and mine my own fascination with books, food, fairy tales, and design. I write a lot about history, both in a personal and larger sense because this is a huge source of connection for me.
What is your #1 advice for other writers?
This is pretty standard advice, but read more and read widely. Find writers you don’t like and evaluate why. Find writers you love and try to figure out how their poems/stories work. It’s crucial to read in your chosen genres in both contemporary and early forms. Who are the greats? Who is writing now? Read about your craft through nonfiction and essays too. And then read something else, unrelated. I read a lot of poetry, but I came to writing through a love of fiction. I find nonfiction books on topics I’m interested in to be excellent places to harvest details and make connections. Keep track of lines/quotes that inspire you. Your work will absorb the craft you read. I was worried as a younger writer that reading too much would change my voice, but instead it helps me express and uncover it.
If you’re a poet (or interested in poetry) I recommend reading The Craft of Poetry by Lucy Newlyn because she crafts poems to specifically embody poetic concepts and forms, using the same subject matter throughout for direct comparison.
What is your creative process? Do you plan pieces out or let them happen as they come?
Generally I plan to let work come to me, giving myself space to think and write as much as possible. I spend lots of focused time reading and editing, but I don’t force poems out except during prompt nights. In that sense, my generative process is kind of like journaling — a phrase or idea will hit and I’ll just note it down on paper until it fizzles out. Then I put it to one side for a while until I eventually type things out and start making edits. Some things get totally abandoned or I’ll keep a single line aside for later. I write a lot, so I’m fairly ruthless at this stage.
At heart I think I’m a better editor than a writer. I love to tinker with work. When a piece is as finished as I can make it (that day, that week), I send it out if it seems right for the journals I’m looking at. If it comes back, which it often does, I examine it again. The submission process grants me time and space from a poem and when it returns to me, I’m a better writer/editor/reader than when it went out. So I make any changes (some large, some small) that the piece needs and I send it out again. This particular poem must have gone through at least 5 or 6 revision stages before reaching its final form.
What is your favorite vice? What are you drinking at happy hour, in a literal or a metaphorical sense?
Even though I spend a lot of time kinkeeping, I crave time with myself and my inner monologue — the other day I intentionally let a call go to voicemail so that I could finish eating a strawberry lemonade popsicle.
I buy too many stamps and am always seduced by the free shipping price point. Shopping generally is my favorite vice — I like well-made things from Irish butter to cashmere sweaters. I love the quest of an estate sale/antique mall/thrift store. So I’ve had to learn to let things go, which sometimes becomes its own vice. I make care packages of books, clothes, puzzles, postcards...I love to give gifts that are probably too much.
As far as alcoholic beverages go, I’m happy to drink pretty much any kind of sake, but my go-to cocktail is a gin martini with a twist.
If you're part of a workshop group or other creative community, tell us about it! How did it form, what all do you do, and how does it help your creative process?
My writing group formed years ago, but I came to it in 2021 or thereabouts. I had just graduated from my online MLIS program during the pandemic and was coming back to writing after a hiatus. While I was a sporadic member at first, this virtual group on Meetup has become such an important support for my writing. Every other week we do a generative night with a writing prompt. The alternating weeks we have a critique. Our critique process is pretty gentle, but you get everyone’s first impressions and learn what’s working/not working for readers. It has not only helped me make friends and new connections, but it also keeps me accountable to my writing. Some of my favorite poems (in their first forms) have come out of our prompt nights.