Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create?
I've been casually interested in photography for a while, so when I was gifted a Polaroid camera last Christmas, it seemed like the perfect time to start taking it a bit more seriously. I feel drawn to the squarish bodies of the physical photographs, which remind me—corny, I know—of a sonnet. When I take a Polaroid, I often find myself looking for stark geometries, such as a church steeple against a clear blue sky, or the soft shape of a cat lounging among rigid stalks of grass. I´m drawn to the tension in the contrast, which I think is also true of my sonnets. 

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received?
I started writing poems in 2020, after COVID caused me to be evacuated from Germany, where I was studying. My first poem was about the experience that caused me to go vegetarian and then eventually vegan--a visit to a fancy steakhouse near Palm Beach. The piece was heavy on refrain and had an incoherent image system riddled with cliches I didn´t even know were trite at the time. I´m forever grateful to the graduate teaching assistant running that poetry workshop for being both firm and kind in his feedback. If he hadn´t called out the images and metaphors that were overused, who would have? By the same token, if he hadn´t told me he thought the use of refrain was almost working, would that rhetorical device still feel available to me? 

What piece of creative advice have you received that sounded good, but was ultimately not useful to you?
One of my first poetry teachers told me never to begin or end a poem with a question. I recall him giving what sounded like a sensible reason for this, but not the reason itself. These days, I prefer Richard Hugo´s advice from The Triggering Town, where he writes that if a poem asks a question, it should follow up by, for instance, answering a question other than the one that was asked. As a technique for keeping a poem surprising and revealing something about the psychology of the speaker, I think this makes good sense.

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
I think most of my poems have in one way or another to do with questions of access—specifically, access to divinity. I was raised very religious, and as a kid was almost constantly troubled by my apparent inability to contact something it seemed most everyone else in my immediate circle could get in touch with and, importantly, feel. Today, as a queer secular adult, I continue to be interested in avenues of access to that very real experience of divinity, even if I don´t believe it originates in a supernatural force removed from time and space. 

When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
Usually in the middle. This isn´t by choice, but rather because the first language that often comes to me is near the heart of the poem, so I inevitably find myself building outwards from there. If I´m lucky, I find the title early on in the writing process as well, turning it into a game of filling in rhetorical and imagistic gaps.

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
I think I´d buy a motorcyle and get really into working on it. I think learning to work with my hands, especially on something mechanical, would train my brain to work in new and exciting ways.

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received?
I was in my mid-thirties and had moved around a lot—from London to Pittsburgh, to Boston, to Los Angeles and finally to Princeton, New Jersey, where I wrote what I recognized as my first poem. Up until then, I had been writing copy for newspapers and magazines. I’d often jotted down lines of thought or observation on bits of scrap paper, but hadn’t thought of them as potential poems. This piece, about my father, who had died when I was still in my teens, surged out of me and took me by surprise. I think it had been gestating for some time and it felt cathartic. I immediately joined a local poetry group and began sending out to small journals. This poem was one of the first to be published. I was thrilled.

Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education? 
Initially, my educational background was in the sciences but when I eventually found my way into higher education, I was drawn to the humanities. My formal training was in philosophy (I have a Master’s in Logic and Scientific Method). I see philosophy, physics and poetry as ways of exploring and discovering truths about the world, of nature and of culture. These aren’t in opposition to one another. Physicist use metaphor just as much as poets do!

What is your biggest creative doubt? 
Like most writers, I have many doubts about my work but the biggest is that my poetic output is a self-indulgence. 

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
For years, I spent most of my poetry-writing time on exploring my own personal history. Since I lost both of my parents before experiencing most of the milestone happenings in my life: going to university, getting married, having a child, getting divorced, and moving from my native Scotland to the USA, and so on, the themes of loss and dislocation, of grief and nostalgia were recurrent in my poems. Memory and dreams continue to be important to me but their role has changed somewhat. Poetry for me, more recently, is an act of discovery and connection rather than of observation and recording.

When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start? 
A new poem usually starts with phrase or a sentence that rattles around in my head for a while until it grabs onto something that seems to make sense of it. It’s a bit like a spider ballooning into the wind not knowing where it will end up. “I bite my tongue, I bide my time,” is currently flitting around trying to find a place to land. It may be nothing or it might launch itself into a new poem. Sometimes though, it’s an image that prompts a poem. It might be a painting I see in a gallery or it might be something in nature. I’m currently working on a series about spiders after finding my garden in Scotland draped in dewy webs on the morning of the first frost. Autumn, I discover, is Spider Season. Who knew.

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create?  
In 2022, compelled to escape the ravages of war in Ukraine, I sought refuge in Finland, a journey that marked my transformation into a refugee. In the wake of this displacement, I left behind my home, my job, and found myself navigating a foreign language environment.

Prior to the conflict, my creative focus was centered on the written word, particularly in the realms of poetry and prose. I proudly served as a co-organizer of a Ukrainian contest for short stories. However, in Finland, the linguistic barrier posed a formidable challenge; my native language found few listeners.  Faced with this communicative obstacle, I turned to the universal language of visual art, drawing upon my background as an artist-decorator to convey my narratives.

Art, in this new chapter of my life, became more than a means of expression; it evolved into a therapeutic refuge.  Art, for me, serves as a resilient source of strength, a beacon of beauty in times of upheaval.

What is the single best sentence you've ever read? 
The single best sentence I’ve ever read hasn’t been written yet, but I hope it will soon be printed in every headline around the world: "The war in Ukraine is over."

Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
I did receive formal training at Boris Danchenko’s National art studio, and later worked as an artist-decorator at a large chemical plant. At first, I thought being an artist-decorator was my dream job—until I realized it included labeling electrical panels with "Danger: High Voltage!" Maybe I touched one, because for years, my creative spark was a bit... short-circuited. Now, however, I see art as a powerful tool for expression and exploration. I’m always learning from life, others, and new techniques. This year, I even created my first fabric prints—who knows where this journey will lead!

What is your biggest creative doubt?  
My biggest creative doubt? That my art might only be appreciated by aliens... and they haven't visited yet!

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
There’s definitely a theme running through my work—it’s usually either exploring a specific idea or seeing what my materials can do. I love working in coffee painting, but I often add doodle elements depending on my mood. It’s kind of like fortune-telling with coffee stains—whatever I see in them, I draw!

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
If I had unlimited time, I'd definitely take up dancing! It’s a bit embarrassing how bad I am—there’s this joke that Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn’t dance, he barely walks. Sometimes I feel like that joke is about me. So yeah, I’d love to prove myself wrong and learn to dance!

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create?
Drawing, primitive carving, styrofoam board constructs, story books for loved ones.

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received?
Probably four. My mother was very proud and put it on the refrigerator.

What is the single best sentence you've ever read?
"After the Industrial Revolution everything happens at the same time."

Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
I had mentors rather than formal training, and peers in writing groups.

What is your biggest creative doubt?
"Is this what I was called on to bring forward or is it just the ego talking nonsense to itself about living forever?"

What piece of creative advice have you received that sounded good, but was ultimately not useful to you?
"Don't trust what you love."

What change would you like to see in the publishing world?
I'd like to see it expand.

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
Those two form a continuum on which whatever comes to me to be written can be plotted. But one recurrent theme seems to be making contact and maintaining a relationship with something that's in the same psyche that produces me, yet is not itself a product of the ego. Even a very few centuries ago I would have been religious, or a victim of religion, but this is the form the impulse takes in our present age.

When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
An object takes my attention and shows me that if I contemplate it, it will release information. Sometimes a line will present itself.

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
Calligraphy. That's an ongoing possibility when I retire, when time if not unlimited will likely be more than I know what to do with.

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create? 
I'm a powwow drummer and singer and have written some songs about various sacred sites across Chiricahua lands/Nde benah.

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received? 
I was probably in kindergarten when I wrote my first story. It wound up on a refrigerator under magnets. I couldn't even tell you what it was about, but if I had to guess I'd say it was a micro-fiction piece about Aquaman.

Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
The only formal training I had in literature comes from a class I took in creative writing. What I have is informal training: I've spent uncountable hours listening to elders tell stories around fires, and studied what they say, how they say it, and why they say what they do. I've studied the effects on their listeners. And I've studied those stories as the connective tissue of my people. And I've studied people from everywhere in the world and across the world. That sort of training you just can't get from a class.

What is your biggest creative doubt?
My biggest creative doubt is whether there is a future for literature, given the rise of streaming services and video games. Not only are attention spans shorter, but it seems like the visual media in electronic forms are coming to dominate everything else. Will anybody still be reading in twenty years?

What change would you like to see in the publishing world?
I don't think the current publishing industry is committed in practice to Native voices—in general, but specifically in terms of Native male voices that tell stories that aren't historical fiction or about broken-down reservation life but rather contemporary Native heroes and Native triumphalism. We are a present people, and our stories shouldn't be confined in little boxes that recapitulate negative, if unconsciously expected, tropes about Natives. 

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
The overarching theme to my work is that there is a hero in every one of us just trying to break free, and the best way to access our innate heroism potential is to look to our ancestor's traditional stories and either live them out in the present or write about characters that do.

When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
When I begin a new piece of work, I start with Why questions? Why does this story need to be told? What's so broken about the world that it needs to be shouted from the rooftops? Why am I the right author to do the shouting? Then I conceive the ending, then the beginning, and the rest is just making the ends meet.

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create? 
I try to be a good cook and gardener. I’ve drawn and painted on and off since teenage and once had a public showing of my work, but I don’t try to market it. In my twenties, I sang professionally in an opera chorus for a few years and did some amateur and professional acting—the latter was in dinner theater comedy. I also worked briefly as a film editor and production assistant. The work was sporadic, and I had very little income.

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received? 
My first publication came when I was thirty-nine. It was a philosophy article, which has since been anthologized, used as a reading in college courses, and cited by various authors.

What is the single best sentence you've ever read? 
Wow! What a question! I have no idea. 

Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
I’ve had no formal training in writing, but I once participated in a fiction writers’ group for a few months. I’ve done years of professional editing and writing in technical and educational contexts. Being multilingual helps me navigate my main language. While I was a philosophy student at the University of Arizona, my wife pursued an MFA in creative writing, so I often hung out with writing students and faculty and attended virtually all the readings by visiting and local poets. That might have influenced my poetry writing, but I’m not sure. I have formal training in operatic singing, cinematography, and film editing. My continuing creative development is now mostly through experimentation, meditation, and a little psychological therapy.

What is your biggest creative doubt?
I have too many, and they’re too big, to name a biggest one.  

What piece of creative advice have you received that sounded good, but was ultimately not useful to you?
I once heard that if you think you’ve written a great poem you should stash it in a drawer for ten years and then see if you still think it’s any good. Good advice but not very useful for me because (1) when I heard the advice, I was already doing this by accident, apathy, and reasonable self-doubt;  (2) if I continued to do this now, I’d probably waste time and submit almost nothing. After gaining more experience and insight, I now think for any work that I truly believe in after intense critical reflection, I can go ahead and accept the judgments of good publishers—hoping their inevitable biases will cancel out.

What change would you like to see in the publishing world?
Well, here are two: (1)  Where space allows for a richer, more natural and reader-friendly wording, stop banning ‘of’ and relative pronouns, and bring back more disambiguating commas and hyphens where they help readability. (2) I wish journalists could sometimes drop their requirement for using  pseudo-cute substitutes for certain words. Sometimes just call a dog a dog instead of a pooch or a doggo, say ‘eat’ instead of  ‘nosh on’  or ‘munch on,’  and just say ‘New Orleans’ instead of ‘The Crescent City’ or ‘The Big Easy’ (yikes).  These are supposed to make the text more appealing, but they have become almost the epitome of triteness.

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
No. Yes.

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create? 
In high school and university I was very invested in theatre (specifically acting). Theatre Arts was my major in college, and, for many years after graduation, I continued to be involved in various theatrical productions. The theatre training I received became very helpful when I began teaching high school. Students are much more invested in a topic when it is explained to them in a compelling, clear way.

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received?
I wrote my first short story in 9th grade. I had a wonderful English teacher who encouraged my work along the way. 9th grade was also my first opportunity to act in a theatre production. So, looking back on it, it seems clear that two important things happened during my fifteenth year.

What is the single best sentence you've ever read?
For its brevity and impact I will chose: "Jesus wept."

What is your biggest creative doubt? 
Probably like most writers, I wonder off and on about what success means in writing. I can't fool myself into thinking I am only writing for my own joy. I definitely want people to read what I write. But I also hesitate when I imagine truly many people reading my work...especially in the egg-shell world of social media. Anonymity always seems like the sensible final choice when I'm imagining the future.

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
Many of the things I write tend to fall into two categories: recovery and appreciation of culture. I am a recovery alcoholic, so it makes sense this would be one of the areas of interest for my writing. I have also lived on three continents over the last 25 years (North America, Europe, and Asia), and I have been blessed to experience a great number of fascinating cultural journeys.

When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
Most ideas for pieces come from times when I'm jogging. I rarely sit down with the goal of trying to come up with something. I usually have a thought during a jog and will then take out my phone and make a few quick notes. I'll return to the notes once I'm freshly showered and see what becomes of them.

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
I would gladly take piano lessons. I briefly studied piano when I was young, and now I regret not continuing those studies. I regularly listen to Schubert's lieders, and I truly wish I could play them myself.

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines.  What other types of art do you create?
Poetry is relatively new to me as I only began to attempt it in the last few years following a workshop with poet Áine O’Neill.  I write a great deal of prose as well, and journal on a daily basis.  Most of my prose pieces began life as storytelling and spoken word performances with groups such as the Cork Yarnspinners.  I have acted in various plays, and written additional scenes for dramatic productions.  The discipline of the theatre and the energy of audiences have helped me to develop the confidence to write and to edit.  I have also been involved with Toastmasters International for many years, and co-host a monthly Open Mic online for Toastmasters and guests based on the creating and sharing of story, song and verse.

How old were you when you produced your first work?  How was it received?
My earliest work was produced when I was twelve years old.  I wrote a story as an end-of-year school assessment that was inspired by the recent death of my grandmother in Cork.  It began as an attempt to process the loss I was feeling by recreating my grandmother’s perspective as a very elderly woman who was dealing with the growing confusion of dementia while at the same time looking back on her long life and being gradually reclaimed by her childhood memories.  The story was entered in a national competition for children’s writing and was one of those selected for publication in an anthology.  I remember seeing it very much as a tribute to my grandmother and feeling both happy and astounded at how well it was received.  

 What is the single best sentence you’ve ever read?
The single best sentence I have read is probably the closing sentence of James Joyce’s story ‘The Dead’, from his collection Dubliners.  Joyce’s prose is extraordinary here: lyrical departures such as “falling faintly . . . faintly falling” and the stark final vision of “all the living and the dead” combine with an effect that rounds off the story perfectly and fits its context.  This sentence always resonates with me because of the sense that the protagonist has found his place, despite its painful and imperfect realities.

What piece of creative advice have you received that sounded good but was ultimately not useful to you?
When I was sixteen and near the end of my schooldays in Liverpool, I wrote a creative writing piece based on a deeply harmful experience I had gone through at the hands of a teacher from primary school days.  My English teacher commented, with more than a shade of sarcasm, that “the lady doth protest too much” and hinted in his remarks before the class that I must have found the piece “therapeutic”, bringing laughter from my classmates.  This was the last creative writing piece I was required to produce for school and, in response to the English teacher’s intervention, I stopped writing creatively for many years.  I had only recently felt able to open up about the damaging experience at primary school, so my style of writing would certainly have been passionate and overblown.  But due to the personal nature of the piece, I took the English teacher’s remarks as a very public rebuke  -  an assertion that my perspective on life was out of place and my voice itself was “too much”.  No doubt his use of Shakespeare’s quotation sounded impressive and knowledgeable to hearers, but it was of no positive value to a teenager beginning to write.  What I could never have said to any teacher at that age was that I had always found the exposure of personal writing excruciatingly difficult in the school context, and this incident gave me the excuse I needed to avoid it altogether.  Over time I absorbed the crucial lesson that personal writing was not about seeking approval but must begin with taking the risk of setting down what I felt and thought.  The process of editing, which I always relished, could not start until I had material.  To create this I had to develop the courage to write poorly at the outset  -  to feel the shame and fear and use my voice anyway, whatever the outcome.

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
The overarching theme to my work is probably breaking through silence and speaking out, with the understanding that this will not always be comfortable for the speaker or agreeable to the listener.  For me the struggle between the impulse to create and the fear of judgement and imperfection is constant, and it is a theme that can develop in many directions.  I spend a lot of time in silence and reflection.  This can be counterproductive, as the temptation is always to stay in that place, behind the safe walls I have built up within my mind from a very young age.  But those walls have now become elements I am prepared to climb, exploring them as part of creativity.  Pieces such as ‘Weathering’ are inspired by the strength and courage of the older women who guided me within my family and community, and the awareness that I myself am aging.  The time to celebrate these women, and leave my own mark, is now.

When you begin a new piece of work, how do you start?
I start with a blank page in a notebook I carry everywhere with me, and write down a number of words, an idea, one or more sentences as they come into my mind.  Then I begin the process of editing  -  reshaping the piece over and over again until I’m satisfied it is as right as it is ever going to be.  Sometimes this has taken a few intense hours; more often it involves days, weeks or longer, coming back to read through pieces again and make the alterations that feel necessary.  At a certain point the piece is transferred out of the notebook into a computer file, and the notebook is used to start more pieces while I continue work on the existing piece via the keyboard.  The plunge into writing down those first few ideas is always a struggle.  These days, though, it is a joyous struggle that I know will come to something.  It will never again be left to silence.

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create?   
I am also a painter, although, twelve years ago, when I started learning in earnest to write poetry—actually teaching myself after enduring a forgettable poetry workshop—I became a lapsed painter.  My canvases are large portraits of humans and dogs.  I mix my colors, using only red, yellow and blue plus white pigments. I enjoy both the challenge of mixing complex colors and laying colors side-by-side to create the illusion of a single hue.

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received? 
Around eight years old, I wrote and illustrated a little hand-bound book about a dog, who lived with a woman named Mrs.  Blueberry.  The dog’s name eludes me as does the story. I remember showing the book to my mother, but don’t recall her reaction, although she typically responded with dry understatements.

What is the single best sentence you've ever read? 
The single best sentence I ever read is: “This is a dangerous book.”  (m. Scott Peck - People of the Lie).

What is your biggest creative doubt?  
My biggest doubt—do I have anything truly unique and propellant to say?

What change would you like to see in the publishing world?
I would like the publishing world to set a new grammar standard, that of using the pronouns she, he, her, him, or they, who, and whom for sentient beings—animals and insects—instead of it and that, which refer to them as objects and commodities, and serve as a form of racism. It and that belong to the language of oppressors.

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?  
The overarching theme in my writing—led by a question and then conveyed through insights from odd angles and intersections that connect feminism, animal rights, and environmental and social justice—is that all oppression is the same and evil.  But I attempt to deliver that hard-truth using compassionate stories (including narrative poems) and humor.  Animals almost always appear in my/their poems and their agency and rights shape my/their poems’ outcomes.

When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
Usually, I start in a bittersweet place in tears.

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
No hobbies for me, but I want to paint, again.  The images have begun to crowd my mind.

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create? 
First, I write fiction as well as nonfiction, and I occasionally write a good poem (even though I would never call myself a poet). I also dabble in art—taking an art class here or there, making jewelry, arranging flowers. I am also very musical. No, I do not play the piano or a guitar, but I sing and play conga drums (in a class), and I was recently part of a tone chimes group that won an award. I also have excellent whistling (a tune) abilities, which I was inspired to strengthen when in childhood, we (females in the community) were told that girls should never whistle; of course, I had to then learn to whistle and do it well.

 Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
I have three English degrees (BA and MA in English Literature, as well as an MFA in Writing), all of which helped me become the writer I am today. I am also a teacher of writing, which sharpens my writing skills (if you teach it, you have to know it first). As a writer, I think it comes naturally to want to get better. I look back on my early writing, and I am proud of the writer that I have continued to become.

What is the single best sentence you've ever read? 
I often write down quotes (sentences that reach out and grab my senses), and there are two that I continue to go back to, so much so that I no longer have to look them up; I can recite them by memory. Yes, I am noting two because both have inspired me and continue to remind me of how I should comport myself as a person and as a writer:

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.    
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writers are here to shake up the universe.  
—James Baldwin

What change would you like to see in the publishing world? 
I believe the future of the publishing world will help balance out the sudden onslaught of AI generated texts. We will (sooner or later) come to (fully) understand the value of human creative thought and abilities, and the publishing world will have to adjust by showing the world the difference. It will become extremely important. In the process, the publishing world should place more value on and resources for writers, whether it be funds to help the best writers take the time they need to write these original creative masterpieces, or simply helping to foster an environment where creativity is rewarded. I believe schools, such as MFA programs, can/should also focus on human creative production. If this is done, whenever the time comes (when the world realizes how important human creative works truly are), the publishing world will be ready.

When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
I love this question because it reminds me that Morrison said she often begins with the ending of her works. It still makes me chuckle. I tend to start with either the first line or a first image. For this piece, “You Don’t Know My People,” I began with the image of an old man giving advice to each person he met along the way. In putting together my second collection of stories, I wanted to revisit the first story from my first collection, a story called, “You Don’t Know Me, Child.” So, the image led me to the story and what it might be, and the first line came from mirroring the earlier story. 

Often people tell me they love my first lines, and this makes me quite happy. One of the best things writers can do is be diligent about saving lines that pop into our heads (in the middle of the night, or as we awaken for the day, or even inopportune times such as leaving work or entering a grocery store). These are the lines that often become first lines in my stories and essays.

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
I mentioned being musical, and it becomes more and more important to me the older I get. I would buy an electric guitar and bang, bang, bang until the sounds started to make sense. I don’t think the neighbors would hear me (ha). After I mastered the guitar, I would get a keyboard (no room for a full piano), and learn to play well enough to write all those songs that have been sitting in my head for years.

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received?
I started writing poetry when I was a sophomore in high school. I had an English teacher who inspired me by helping me understand structure and the therapy of the effort. One of my early efforts that I still retain:

lonely shepherd
The feeble written wit, taps through the fog
with an old man’s cane,
while the pompous, elegant verse strides briskly past,
seeking reality at the sidewalk’s end.

Silently surveying his gutter world, the street urchin
humbly wonders, at the tense waves such efforts bring the night.

It wasn’t received as I haven’t really presented it before.

What is the single best sentence you've ever read?
“The way out is through the door.”
Confucius

One of the early lines that I wrote that is still a favorite:
“As we contend with the human need to crush ivory into favorite form…”

What is your biggest creative doubt?
Whether anyone will relate to what I’ve just written. I have a reader list of 130 emails of family and friends. Their acceptance of what I send them has been reassuring, as has acceptance of editors and publishers.

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
“A new exploration” is a great phrase. Depending on the topic, I do some interesting research. I recently reread the book of Revelation wanting to write something about St. John and his scribe Prokhor.

I’m seventy-five and find myself lately writing about aging, retirement and mortality.

When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
It varies. I’m an insomniac, so some of the best poems I’ve written have started with an idea or a line while lying in the dark, getting up in the middle of the night, having a coffee and scribbling on a legal pad to be rewritten and typed in the morning.

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
I would have loved to have gotten involved with archaeology. Discovering things from the distant past and better understanding our heritage and the history of our planet would be incredibly exciting and rewarding.

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create?  
Writing fiction and poetry are my primary forms of art, although I have recently taken up loom knitting. In the past, I have also enjoyed origami but largely set that hobby aside as I can only keep so many folded pieces of paper around my living space without causing uncontrollable clutter. One of my great disappointments in life is my total lack of talent when it comes to drawing, painting, sketching, or any other form of 2D art created by hand. It has been this way for me since childhood and nothing has improved these deficiencies so far. Things I draw on the computer look decent thanks to modern technology, but forget anything involving actual art media. I’m sadly resigned to the fact that I’m a hopeless case.

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received? 
I announced my intention to become a writer when I was four years old and wrote my first poem when I was about five or six. It was a ditty about how little raccoons are lucky because they get to play all day while little children have to go to school. My parents liked it, but it became lost at some point. The short stories I had to write in first grade were badly received, even by the girl who gave everybody a thumbs up. My own mother said my stories needed work, talk about discouraging! But I didn’t give up, and now I have a few short story publications to show for my perseverance.

What is the single best sentence you've ever read? 
The sentence that comes to mind with this question was in a book about best opening lines in fiction. It went like this: “‘Hello,’ I lied.” I never forgot that quip and am annoyed that I haven’t been able to find it since, either in the book where it originally appeared or in the book of quotations where I saw it.

Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
Other than a general K-12 education highly supplemented by my talented, artistic mother and summer art classes for children in addition to a computer graphics class in high school, I have not had any formal training in art or literature. These days, I continue my creative education through free classes at the local public library and other similar venues either in person or online. The internet has been another wonderful way to learn new art skills. As a visual learner, I much prefer watching YouTube tutorials than reading about them in a book, especially for loom knitting instructions. Written patterns make little sense to me.

What is your biggest creative doubt?  
While I would like to write a novel someday, I am filled with doubt when it comes to actually achieving that endeavor. I get bored easily, don’t think in a linear fashion, and often fail to complete large creative projects, which is why short stories and poems have been a better pursuit so far. Also, research for certain genres, particularly historical fiction, is difficult despite help from the internet. Speculative fiction is much easier for me as it deals with the realm of possibilities. True, there must still be a degree of accuracy and believability, but not having to worry about accidentally creating anachronisms makes the genre far less stressful than others.

What piece of creative advice have you received that sounded good, but was ultimately not useful to you?
I’m not in the habit of accepting advice that sounds good only to realize that it turned out to be lousy. At the risk of boasting, I can generally tell when advice sounds awful without having to implement it. On that note, it bothers me when people say you can’t be a good writer unless you read, read, read. Baloney! To be a good writer, you need to have a solid grasp of the mechanics of writing including grammar and punctuation combined with a lot of practice. Being a prolific reader doesn’t necessarily make you a good writer. The standard advice should instead be to write, write, write. You have to put pen to paper, or at least type. No one should feel obligated to read other people’s fiction writing in order to be considered a good writer. If you have something to say, say it and say it well. And be willing to accept that good writing, like good art, is sometimes just a matter of, “Either you have it, or you don’t.”

What change would you like to see in the publishing world?  
I am pleased with the direction publishing has been going in the past few years, especially the increasing number of independent publishers accepting unsolicited work. Small presses present a hopeful future for freelance writers who don’t like mainstream publishing’s archaic rules including the need for an agent. And as much as I love Kindle Direct Publishing, I want to see additional prominent players in the world of accessible print-on-demand publishing. Vanity presses definitely don’t count. In the 21st century, no writer should have to pay to play.

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
While some of my work is similar in nature, each piece is a new exploration. Speculative fiction is my go-to genre, but, so far, each story stands alone. I have toyed with the idea of sequels for some of my existing short story characters but tend to move on to new work once one piece is complete.

When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
My writing method is often haphazard. Sometimes, I start at the beginning and write toward the end. Other times, I’ll have a flash of inspiration and write down a sentence or scene then fill in the rest later. Generally, I only have premises and characters in mind when beginning a new project. I’m definitely what Brandon Sanderson calls a “discovery writer” rather than a plotter. If I were to write an outline for a story, I would probably become too bored to actually write it. Incidentally, one of the most consistent criticisms I receive for my writing is that it “has no plot,” “has a weak plot,” or, “is more of a vignette than a plot.” This is a true weakness that I fully admit to having but also defend my style as a matter of taste. Character pieces, “shaggy dog stories,” and other written forms that don’t use the traditional three act structure don’t get enough respect. For me, even when reading others’ work, it is enough to follow interesting characters around and see what happens to them. I don’t need a hero’s journey or another traditional form of resolution. If the dialogue and characters are well-written, you can just have a series of interesting things happen, and that’s good enough for me.

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
I am fortunate that my schedule permits me to explore various areas of interest, which are usually fleeting. Right now, I am not currently seeking new hobbies as I am satisfied with my current creative endeavors.

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received? 
I wrote my first story in second grade. My teacher read it to the class at Storytime. I remember being embarrassed when everyone liked it. I wrote my first “real” or “intentional” poem in fifth grade. I ran up to the substitute teacher for her to read “The Death Clock Tolls.” She asked if I was okay or needed help. I probably did need help, but she did not offer literary advice. She told me to keep going.

What is the single best sentence you've ever read? 
“Sky mirrors sea, and sea reflects sky…until the eye is baffled and looks for somewhere to rest, anywhere, any difference of color.” seaQuest DSV: The Novel

Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
I earned my MFA from American University but lost words for five years because of a medication for bipolar disorder. I have permanent brain damage and aphasia. After re-learning how to read and write, I took classes from The Writers Studio for seven years. Now, I take at least one course a year from a variety of sources, and I attend many classes, workshops, and lectures. I participate mostly online because I can listen and learn from the entire world.

What is your biggest creative doubt?  
Will I make a difference? What will I be known for? I worry that I will be known for a throw away poem and not one that changes the world. I aim to correct injustices in the world and to break language so that my work cannot be read or understood by the layperson but that they can feel it and understand my poetry in their bones. Unlike the Dada movement, the experts in the nomenclature will understand my poetry completely.

What piece of creative advice have you received that sounded good, but was ultimately not useful to you?
I was told to set aside my work and look at it later and to keep tinkering with it. I might change a line later, but the vast amount of my work has been thrown into the wind raw. My advice is simple. Write like the stars will shatter like glass tomorrow. Or as it’s been shortened to write like the stars will shatter by publishers. I am too intense to wait. I fling myself into the wild and if I need to rearrange my work—it happens after many rejections and perhaps, years—after I learn the authentic experience in my bones and the words are no longer fictional.

What change would you like to see in the publishing world?  
I want to see fairness. A lot of the publishing business is about who you know and what names you can throw around. Early in my career, I masculinized my name so that I could break into speculative poetry. I was published alongside Neil Gaiman with the name Kim and not my scholarly Kimberly L. Because of this, Kim became my pen name. The industry has changed, and I have expanded to all forms of poetry and a great deal of prose—but my name follows me. My name appears first in many journals despite writers having more pieces or more quality writing than me. I am never asked about journals using my name to get more readers. Journals request stories and poems that they want, not my art—just a used-up plot and my name. I detest that. I have never felt more used than when a trusted publisher bluntly told me that my publication rate was due to when they needed a boost in readership—and worse—she explained it was true of all my publications. I was hurt and felt used. My publication wasn’t because of my artistic vision or my skill, just the use of my name. I want publishers to go beyond names and bring in new faces and new perspectives. Of course, I still want to be published. But I want to rely on my skill and continued innovation not just because of my past works.

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
I am always seeking the idea of home and the concept what it means to be “real.” I never belong to a place or a person. I certainly don’t feel at home with myself. It’s some yearning that I attempt to capture in my work. I also don’t know what it means to be “real”, and I explore and adapt my work according to my current feelings. I haven’t figured out if you become “real” when you get paid or have a traditional career or a traditional education. I am not an archeologist, but I go on several digs a year and volunteer twice a week at a lab—when do I become “real?” I write, teach, have the credentials to be a writer—but what makes me “real?” What makes me valid is another expression of this perspective. I hunt in life to become real and feel real and my work reflects it. The perspective and narrator are never the same, but the yearning is there. Home and the idea of being valid become an exploration of gender identity and the feeling of being both male and female—and consequently explore roles in society and where comfort and home is. My work explores belonging and where we fit with people and places and craft or more likely, where we do not. I feel that I am a wanderer, somewhere between a pilgrim and the Fool.

When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
This depends on the form and genre. My verse novels and prose begin with numbered pages and a broken-down story arc. They later are placed into junk journals. Because of the themed artwork and lack of space with odd sized pages, my story or language shifts. Writing large works with my pen or even colored pens if I have multiple perspectives, always adds depth to my work.

My poetry is like throwing paint on a canvas. I might allow a line or idea to simmer but true creation happens when I allow myself to relax and record my lines. I respond to disasters and world events with bursts of passion and intensity. I don’t usually plan—I adjust my words. I tease that I never know what will come out of my mouth at any time (truth) but the same is true of my pen. I might be scathing with words daggering into someone or I might change history with my ardent truths—but I never know the end of my work until I feel awe.

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
I want to explore new places and have extreme encounters but in truth, I make the time to do what I yearn to do. I plan to become a lithic (stone artifact) expert and while it takes time, I’ve already had more than 200 hours training with an expert. Much to my chagrin, I go out into the world with an intensity that burns everyone around me, and I go where I need to go and do what I need to do somehow and someway. For example, I attended field school as a volunteer and was so desperate and determined that I had already figured out financial aid and cried when the professor told me that I could attend without tuition. I needed to know what the beach was like when it snowed for a poem in my chapbook Death: A Love Story. I went and took in every sensation—the ocean warmer than the sand and the way my bare feet felt from the surf and the snow on the dunes. I have made my own journals and have pricked my finger with the needle and bled on them—I have used them with love and have let the sensations seep into my work. I learn how hard whatever whimsical activity I dream up is. It’s the understanding that it’s hard that keeps my literature fresh and humbles me. I remain authentic as a person and that creates authenticity in my work that readers can taste.

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received? 
When I was in second grade, my little cousin drowned in a pool. I couldn’t understand how a toddler could die. When you’re that young, you believe dying is reserved for the ill and elderly. While working out my feelings, I wrote my first poem called Rain, Rain, Go Away, then went to a friend's house to play. Feeling proud of my work, I showed it to my friend’s mom who immediately began to cry. I was shocked that written words could do that: make someone feel something so deeply to have a physical reaction. That concept, that words carry power in an often powerless existence, has always motivated me to continue writing.

What is the single best sentence you've ever read?
This is such an unanswerable question, which is probably why I love it. I suppose that the sentences that strike closest to your heart often reflect themes you think and write about. With that said, I have to cheat (just a little). One near-perfect sentence is from Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko: “(Stories) are all we have, you see, all we have to fight off illness and death.” I’m drawn to writing about writing, and how it’s a life-hack to cheating death. 

Another beautiful sentence is from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green: “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” Clear, concise, and moving are my jam.

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
Time is definitely a recurring theme- the savageness of it along with how humans often attempt to slow or alter it. Another theme is the dichotomy of humanity (and life in general), somehow existing as both strikingly beautiful and unbelievably horrendous.

When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
I often start with place. I write a lot of historical fiction and in those stories, the setting is a character all on its own. But even outside of historical fiction, there is so much wrapped up in the setting that it deserves to be at the forefront.

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
I follow many Aurora Borealis Hunters on social media and live vicariously through them. I’m amazed how they follow the geomagnetic “weather” and travel to the best spots for viewing to witness the earth and heavens coming together in such a magical display. What an amazing way to spend your night hours. Fortunately, the northern lights made their way down to my hometown on my 40th birthday this year!

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create?  
I'm self-taught on piano and guitar. I've written many songs and instrumental pieces. Nothing for public consumption… yet.

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received?
Fourth grade. I was nine. For the fun of it, I wrote a poem during class called "Koala Bear Underwear", which, when passed around, got some laughs, and got me in trouble.

Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
No formal training. In fact, I was writing poetry long before I read my first book for pleasure at sixteen years old. After that, I was hooked, and poetry evolved into stories, and writing became one continuous learning process, story after story, book after book.

What is your biggest creative doubt? 
That I won't have enough time in this life to put down on paper all the stories that are housed in the library in my head.

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
I wasn't aware of any themes until I had written enough to look back on. Themes of loss and hope seem to be the predominant ones.

When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
Because ideas are unpredictable creatures, I mostly rely on inspiration and trying to capture that inspiration when it comes. I generally have an opening scene and a core feeling (the heart of the piece) to start with. The rest usually follows. Or doesn't. Sometimes the creature gets away.

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
Ceramics. I've always envisioned having a potter's wheel and kiln, my hands dirty, the smell of clay in the air. I'd make bowls and vases and bring to life creatures that only exist on paper.

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create?  
The art I make encourages me to breathe. My blog contains posts that are like public diary entries - I use them to untangle my thoughts and I end up with a piece that endeavours to express me. I enjoy editing videos that capture beautiful things I've filmed, with music I love, and sometimes I like to turn on my camera and just talk. I find it easy to be myself in front of the lens. I have a podcast with my friend, where we discuss our lives and faith. I also love pottery. It always feels like the right thing to do when I’m doing it, and the feel of clay connects me to the earth. Then I get beautiful ceramics at the end!

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received? 
I wrote my first poem when I was 18, titled, Pouring. It describes how beautifully the sun pours through the clouds in the sky. I wrote this in my first poetry module at university, and this is when I began to fall in love with poetry. People liked it, and I eventually put it in my poetry book, You can change your mind.

What is the single best sentence you've ever read? 
The end of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, "Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, south-east, south, south-south-west; then paused, and, after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left. South-south-west, south, south-east, east …" What a way to describe the end of a life.

Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
I studied English with Creative Writing at university, and I continue my creative education by consuming the art I want to make, and by being open to different approaches to creativity. To see what is out there and what I may also be capable of inspires me to develop my craft.

What is your biggest creative doubt?  
My biggest creative doubt is whether I can effectively communicate the depth of my emotion through my words. Since words are all I have, I can only pray they portray the images in my mind.

What piece of creative advice have you received that sounded good, but was ultimately not useful to you?
That I can write anything about anything at any point. For example, using a shoe as my starting point, and being told I can write something great about it, right now, if I tried hard enough. Sometimes that’s just not the case. I often prefer to lean into inspiration.

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
Observation and self-reflection are running themes of my work because poems develop within me upon noticing something; a habit, drawing a line between a visual and a feeling, finally having a word for a recurring thought - these open the doors to my poetry. Each poem is a different exploration, but they stem from this theme of observation.

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
If I had unlimited time, I would take up painting. I’d draw landscapes, the sky, and the sea. I’d like to capture the natural beauty of the world.

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create? 
I am a visual artist as well as a writer, often combining the two in visual poems, collages / constructions, and illustrations to my words.

What is the single best sentence you've ever read? One of the most diabolically delicious and difficult queries ever posed!  Depending on the hour, the speed of the wind, the angle of the sun and the stage of the moon, I could give you any one of a hundred examples. So, how about this one?  "In this circle of water whose glittering had caught his eye, for to him it appeared about the size of a coin, he could see that something white was swimming" (Chap. 20 of Titus Groan by Peake).

What piece of creative advice have you received that sounded good, but was ultimately not useful to you?  
"Write what you know."  I understand the principle and the point, but -- for me (not commenting on or for others) -- I write precisely to discover and explore what I don't know.

What change would you like to see in the publishing world? 
I am heartened by the increase in the number of indie presses / journals and likewise indie bookstores, as a necessary counterweight to corporate consolidation. Diversity is crucial; it thrives in the hedgerows, not in the vast acres of monoculture.

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?  
Like Tolkien's "Smith of Wootton Major," I am most interested in understanding -- if only for a bit and, alas, most likely only in the shallows -- the act of creativity itself. I am searching in a Blakean way to connect the spiritual with the life our bodies live.

When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
Most of my best work emerges unbidden from the "night kitchen," i.e., I wake up before dawn with my dreams still dancing in my head, and rush to scribble down and sketch with my pen whatever I can recall. I am most definitely a pantser, not a plotter. 

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up? 
Learn to play the bass guitar and/or drums.

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create?  
I took up weaving on a frame loom earlier this year, and it’s been good for my mental health. The repetition of over-under-over-under allows me to relax into it and get lost in the yarn for hours. Weaving is also a folk art in both of my cultures, Appalachian and Palestinian, and I’ve been able to raise money for Gaza by selling Palestinian flag weavings (https://www.instagram.com/p/DBhCfRHy1dz/?img_index=1).

I’m also an avid roller skater, which I think is equally sporty and creative since it’s essentially dancing on wheels. My love of skating also fueled my first book, Midwest Shreds: Skating Through America’s Heartland (https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/products/9781953368713/), so roller skating is a form of art to me.

Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
I have a bachelor's in English Literature, and that’s the extent of my formal education. I actually got rejected by a handful of MFA programs a decade ago and was so demoralized that I decided to hone my craft on my own. I joined See Jane Write, a writing group for women and nonbinary people, in 2011, and have taken countless workshops through Lit Reactor (https://litreactor.com/), Brown Bag Lit (https://www.brownbaglit.com/classes), Electric Lit (https://electricliterature.com/product-category/video/), various libraries and conferences, and any free or cheap workshops I could join virtually.

I’m immensely grateful for the plethora of resources out there because these teachers raised me into the writer I’ve always wanted to be, especially in poetry. Prior to 2021, I thought I was squarely in the creative nonfiction realm and was poetically inept, but these teachers unlocked something for me, and I’ve been writing poetry obsessively for three years now. Ironically, even though I have far more experience in CNF, poetry is the genre I’ve been nominated for and won the most awards in, the reason I’ve been given two writing residencies, and it’s the genre of my second book, We Had Mansions, which is forthcoming from Diode Editions in 2025.

What change would you like to see in the publishing world?  
I have a thousand rants and could talk about this for hours, so I’ll be concise. On the scale of Fuck/Marry/Kill, I’d fuck Taco Bell Quarterly (https://tacobellquarterly.org/), marry magazines that pay writers, and kill submission fees and Amazon. 

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
A little of both. I write frequently about Palestine, nature, love, and family, but I’ve also been known to surprise myself with humor poems centered on queerness or internet drama. A sampling of my recent titles illustrate this point: “ode to cows & clitorises,” “mx. potato head at the gender swap meet,” and “day 3 telekinesis with my twin flame.”

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
I’ve always wanted to learn how to bind books and make letterpress prints. While not entirely surprising given that I’m a writer, I have great respect for the tactile artisanship of these trades and want to one day create my own works of art using these methods.

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create? 
Beyond poetry, my creative expression includes the art of innovating and strategizing solutions on a wide variety of challenges, the art of selling (not telling), the art of headhunting (which I did for four decades), and art culinaire.

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received?
Through much of grade school, I enjoyed journaling and creative writing. At 10, I wrote my first poem and can still recite it. I’m sure I got an A if it was presented in class.

What is the single best sentence you've ever read?
Bibical verse (Mark 13:7) "But the end shall not be yet.” I read it passing by a Christian Science Reading Room window when I was having a bad day.

Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
As a Business School undergrad at Washington University in St. Louis, I took creative writing courses (which I likely got a C), withdrew from numerous English Literature classes taught by prominent professors in large lecture halls, completed courses in Comp Lit and two advanced poetry writing classes took by Arthur Brown and Donald Finkel (both planting a deep seed). I have been in several poetry workshops, including one taught by Marie Ponsot at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan. What has taught me the most about poetry and its education was starting and running six years of school-based poetry contests involving 7th graders nationwide as a program initiated and led by The 7th Grade Poetry Foundation. And, as every MFA student has been told, I do follow the mandate to read as much poetry written by others as I can. Several novelists have also influenced by writing style, notably Gertrude Stein and José Saramago. My Poetry Slab project has involved expensive research in literary public art and concrete poetry, including connecting with notable poets, collectors and academicians in North America and Europe as well as attending major concrete poetry exhibits at The Getty and the Pérez Art Museum.

What is your biggest creative doubt?     
Typos in submitted final drafts.

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
While I continue to work with several prompts and several forms of writing, I like not limiting myself.

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
Designing and learning to craft rusted metal sculpture.

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create? 
Plays, Screenplays, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received?
I was nine writing stories that I send to my mother during the summer.

What is the single best sentence you've ever read?
For the first time I realized adults could back themselves into corners so remote that love, or its memory, could no longer reach them.

Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
MFA in Creative Writing. My creativity is inspired through overseas travel. 

What is your biggest creative doubt?
Fear I will not finish my manuscript about a Hawaiian leader.  

What piece of creative advice have you received that sounded good, but was ultimately not useful to you?
Having a routine daily schedule--I'm an all or nothing sporadic writer. 

What change would you like to see in the publishing world?  
More emphasis on writing literature.

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
Sharing stories about Hawaii and its people are major themes, especially stories about father/son conflicts. 

When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
I almost always begin with poetic observations.

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
Directing plays for community theatre. 

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create? 
Along with writing, I'm a visual artist. For the past forty years, I've worked primarily in collage and photography. I have an MFA from the Studio for Interrelated Media at Mass. College of Art and belong to a small cooperative art gallery in western Massachusetts. My collages are analog— hand-cut and hand-pasted—from discarded print materials. My visual work is often related to a story or a narrative. One collage series was created in the artistic style of a character from my novel-in-progress—sort of a collaboration between me and my fictional companion.  

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received? 
As a girl in the 60s, I kept many of my stories private. Sure, I wanted to be a princess, but I also wanted to be Batman, or Batman's girl-wonderful niece. For two or three years I was obsessed with Batman and created a character—named her, imagined her secret identity, designed her costume, backstory, and redesigned the Batmobile to give her a seat. It was my first exercise in world building, but I kept it all in my head. Even though she was a superhero, I felt the need to protect her and her secrets. When I started writing speculative fiction as adult, the process was almost like coming out. Stories on paper! Wham! Although I still feel very protective of my Bat-persona

Thinking about childhood, I wonder about the dividing line between play and art. The division might be the moment when the work is judged. I'd like to bring more play and spontaneous energy into my work. And I might get a tattoo honoring my Bat-persona (in code, of course).

What is the single best sentence you've ever read? 
It's difficult to choose the best, but here's one I love.

“For it would seem - her case proved it - that we write, not with the fingers, but with the whole person. The nerve which controls the pen winds itself about every fibre of our being, threads the heart, pierces the liver.”
― Virginia Woolf, Orlando 

What is your most evocative memory?
When I was eighteen, I had a chance to go sky diving. I have a fear of open spaces, but I wasn't afraid of stepping out into the sky. And I was skinny girl who didn't follow instructions well, so I did the wrong thing and fell with my back to the wind, floating like a baby spider for three miles before landing. I dropped and rolled in a fallow area next to a field full of grazing pigs. 

What is your biggest creative doubt? 
I worry that I won't finish. One, that I won't finish the stories in my "mending basket." But also, that I won't have enough years to develop the craft I need to write the stories I want to write. 

What piece of creative advice have you received that sounded good, but was ultimately not useful to you?
"Write a garbage draft." I know that idea works for some people, but I stumble on the language, which feels judgmental. After all, we throw garbage away. Shouldn't drafting be like creating a mirepoix? It's prep, and it sets us up for the next delicious step. Recently somebody suggested the term "discovery draft." Discovery brings in playfulness and exploration. It's a more energetic and expansive idea.

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
I want to learn the complexities of nature: trees, rocks, flowers, and especially birds. Raptors fascinate me. I stream the Cornell and Audubon bird cams, but maybe it's time to get binoculars and a great hat.

Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create?  
Other art that I have created encompasses oral storytelling with impromptu pieces where I’m discovering the narrative right beside my hearers.  I’m also drawn to abstract art and how its interpretation shifts according to the viewer.  Those interpretations can usurp almost as much attention as the visual art itself.   

How old were you when you produced your first work? How was it received? 
I’m not certain if it was my first work, but the first work I consciously remember would have to be when I was in the 6th grade, and Mr. Siegal,  my English teacher, lightly grinned as he told me that if I wanted to be a great writer I needed to...and until this day, I still don’t remember what he said.  As I look back on the event, the absence of memory might have been sparked by the fact that I wasn’t used to him having a private moment of speaking to me independent of my peers.   It was coupled with it might have been too much for my eleven year old shy self to have then heard him say, “if there’s time left at the end of class, I’ll read it.”   By this time, I was utterly speechless.  

What is the single best sentence you've ever read?  
Included in that category would be this one from James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues:

“Isabel finally confessed that it wasn’t like living with a person at all, it was like living with sound. And the sound didn’t make any sense to her, didn’t make any sense to any of them—naturally. “

Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?

No, I don’t have formal training in literature and art.  However, one way I sincerely feel that I continue my creative education is to observe everything as something with an innate right of being the topic of creative expression whether it be through writing or otherwise

What is your biggest creative doubt?  
Even though I truly believe everything has potential to be written about as a poem, play, or otherwise, that biggest creative doubt that exhales and balloons would probably inflate in this form: Will the ideas pop one day and there be no more?

What piece of creative advice have you received that sounded good, but was ultimately not useful to you?

You don’t have to work at it, you either have it or you don’t.  For consistent growth, I now believe some level of conscious work is needed. It doesn’t have to be browbeating, but yes, you can feel it.  It’s comparable to a good workout.

What change would you like to see in the publishing world?  
The normalized, consistent sunshine and watering of cultural expression that benefits all and sutures underrepresented creative literary offerings that embodies pulp resplendent to an aloe vera plant full of healing and ready to evoke its mission.  It just kindly requires the judicious network of a mainstream to distribute the medicinal properties of its unique narratives to nurture all.

Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
I would say a longing and consciousness of the longing.  Perseverance is definitely swirled in there and tastes distinctly like cautious hope.  A hope that nonetheless is rather refreshingly sweet just like peppermint.  And the inevitable exhalation  punctuates the cliché, “even though it wasn’t good, something good came out of it.”

When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
Normal day-to-day life appears to influence conscious and subconscious expression.  Pieces can be totally removed from my life all the way to having a sartorial fit, so it varies considerably.  I’m inspired in The Everything.  It could be in cooking cow peas or  baking Japanese yams or noticing a random leaf in the street.  I’m processing.   It all has potential for fragments to whole pieces of future engrafted expression.

If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
The new hobby would be photojournalism.  That has so many branches of fun for me and it would definitely entertain me to no end...The pictures tell a story.  The stories tell a story.  Instant memories made. Time well spent.  Growth as a writer. Research.  It’s just a win/win without even trying.