Mud Season Review
As a fellow essayist, I’m always interested in learning about other writers’ processes. Where did the idea for this essay start, and how did you develop it from there? It’s taken me a long time to realize this, but I think I build my essays up from connections I see between images. For “Pugilism,” for […]
The title “A Way Out of Nowhere” references your mother physically leaving your stepfather but also invokes larger themes like breaking cycles. How did you choose this title, and what does it mean to you? This was one of those rare instances where the title came to me early. It encompasses the point and arc […]
“A Father’s Legacy” is about a lifelong relationship between parent and child. Given that your relationship spans decades, how did you decide what to include and what to leave out? “A Father’s Legacy” zooms into a particular point in our relationship—an ending, of sorts. Readers are first introduced to my father at this period in […]
When writing about parent-child relationships, it can be hard to know where to start. What made you decide to use shopping for your mother’s headstone as a launching point to explore your family dynamics? I’d been wanting to explore my family dynamics for some time, but I wasn’t sure where the “story” would begin […]