Joyfully and generously living the writing life

The program has been a permission of sorts: a permission for me to take my writing seriously, to talk about it with others, to work on cultivating relationships with my fellow writers. I have been writing for most of my life but there is always more to learn and in the first half of this program I have learned so much.

Halfway into my second year of Monthly Mentorship, I now have a portfolio of revised drafts and first drafts using various techniques that Katey has been introducing to us. These past two months I have been working on adding Magical Realism to an essay about my breast cancer. Katey is also challenging me to self-edit by asking myself questions about what I am writing, paragraph by paragraph.

I hope people see my work as a passage to the vast psychological terrains of Black consciousness — stories that flout self-centered, self-conscious, vulnerable, shameless characters who find themselves drawn to the fringes outside of or within themselves. Characters who thrive or falter in the painful and joyous complications of being human.

I realized that the narrative we weave into existence determines the kind of life we live. Storytelling was more than just a superpower; it is the base of creation. It’s always up to us, we all have that power. My mission changed, as it is now geared towards empowerment through the written word. I truly believe that receiving the Right to Write Award was no coincidence.

One of my fellow writing friends asked me what inspires me to write when I don’t especially feel like picking up pen and paper. My answer to her was: ‘It’s like asking a bird, what inspires you to fly. It’s part of what and who I am. I can’t help myself; it is something I was created to do.’

Although my writing touches on many themes—intergenerational trauma, trauma to the land, posthumanism, folk magic and ancestry, and ecofeminism, at the heart is my concern for our relationships with the more-than-human world. These matter now more than ever, with the onslaught of the climate crisis, the inevitability of mass extinctions, and widening disparities in access to resources such as clean water and secure food sources.