Okay, so it sounds like the setup for a terrible joke, but on Wednesday now, I joined a zoom call with a philosopher, a physicist, a paleontologist, a chemist, and a few other academics to talk about . . . poems. I’m really fortunate to be in a unionized workplace, and one of the cool things my union has started doing is hosting “cultural exchanges” where members share a skill or hobby. I was asked to lead the first one, and I read a couple poems, talked about my process, and roped them all into doing a little writing.
(One interesting comment, from the philosopher on the call: so it sounds like you’re a little like a stand-up comedian, like you’re going about your life and even in the awful parts, you’re kind of taking notes, like okay this could be a good bit. And I thought uh is that not what everyone does? Perhaps that’s part of what makes us writers.)
But it was such a joy to share my work with colleagues whose expertise is so far outside my own and to hear about their own experiences with writing. One woman, a professor in communications, talked about growing up in China and how much she’d loved poetry. I’m often reminded that there are lots of secret poets out there, just waiting to be prodded out of their shells.
Writing is for me a really solitary practice. I don’t usually talk about what I’m working on with anyone, and I don’t really share drafts until things are pretty far along. I like having the privacy of my own head to think and work things out. But I was reminded when I talked to Brownen about the importance of social habits in a writing life, and then this past week I had such a great opportunity to really live that out.
What about you? What habits were you thinking about this week? What’s happening your writing life?
notes and reading suggestions
Just one note for this week, in part because this week’s been such a blur that I genuinely cannot remember what I’d wanted to share with you. I always aspire to be the kind of person who buys their Christmas presents early and can enjoy the season without that stress, and this year I might really make it! I’m going to do my book-buying especially early this year, in part because the supply chain is such a wild mess. This article does a good job of explaining things; I found it via Jasmine Guillory’s great newsletter, which today shared that her new book, By the Book, is a retelling of Beauty & the Beast with a black princess. I will read truly anything she writes, but I’m especially excited about this.
Any books you all are looking forward to buying for presents this year?
And one more note: we found out this week that the panel for The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood, an anthology of poems, essays, and prompts, that I edited with Emily Perez was accepted for this year’s AWP Conference, which will be in Philadelphia in March. Emily and I will be joined by anthology contributors Faylita Hicks, Joan Kane, and Erika Meitner, and we’d love to see you there. (More info about that and other great events coming soon!)
What habits did you work on in your writing this week? I’d love to hear about your writing. You can always reply to this email, comment below, or find me on twitter (@nancy_reddy) and instagram (@nancy.o.reddy).