Through a series of literary events, I’ve become friends with the remarkable author/musician/filmmaker Vivek Shraya (God Loves Hair and She of the Mountains). Check out the photo of us at the most recent Lambda Lit Awards in New York! So when Shraya recently tagged me in this Blog Hop phenomenon thing, I said, “Okay friend, for you.”
Here are my Hop answers:
1) What am I working on?
I am working on final edits for “Where the Word Ends and My Body Begins” which is a collection of glosa form poems. I wrote eighteen glosas as an homage to and an interaction with some of the poets I consider champions of queering verse—from celebrated poets Gertrude Stein, Christina Rossetti and Adrianne Rich to the up-and-coming voices of Leah Horlick, Jillian Christmas and Trish Salah.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Do I differ? I mean, everything I write is part of much larger literary movements and traditions. My writing traverses memory and relations, trauma and healing, and unblushing queer sex and ecstasy. Writers have been exploring narrative medicine for a long time. I owe my work to many others. For example, I admire Jen Cross’ writing ourselves whole model or Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha transformative justice model for writing.
3) Why do I write what I do?
I write what I know. This creative writing credo—write what you know—has come under attack recently, markedly by the New York Times discussion between Zoe Heller and Mohsin Hamid titled “Write What You Know: Helpful Advice or Idle Cliché?” I enjoyed the discussion, BTW, as I have contemplated other discussions of a similar ilk. For me, I write what I know because my life experiences, values and hopes provide me with more than enough material. This doesn’t mean there isn’t magic or speculative aspects to my work. The “unreal” is still based on myself and my experiences.
4) How does my writing process work?
Fake it until I make it. Try not to hurt myself along the way.
Now I get to tag two more author friends in Blog Hop. How exciting! I tag Doretta Lau (How Does A Single Blade of Grass Thank The Sun) and Raziel Reid (When Everything Feels Like the Movies). Look for Lau and Reid’s Hop Answers on September 15.