Ten Questions for Evan Dalton Smith
“Writing is solitary, but you are not alone.” —Evan Dalton Smith, author of Looking for Andy Griffith: A Father’s Journey
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Genre: Creative Nonfiction
Edible Memories
Many foods, flavors, and dishes hold a wellspring of emotional associations because they remind us of loved ones, habits and traditions, specific locales, and a different time of our lives when we were different people. Write a series of flash nonfiction pieces this week with each segment focusing on an edible item that evokes particularly resonant memories for you. You might begin by jotting down lists of foods you ate regularly growing up—breakfasts, school lunches, vending machine go-tos, favorite fast-food joints, diners, late night spots, home-cooked specialties—as well as a few momentous meals. Who are the people you associate with each one? Aside from taste and smell, consider the surrounding environment, atmospheric sounds, time of year, and who you were at that point in your life.
Julian Randall: The Dead Don’t Need Reminding
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In this Haymarket Books event, Julian Randall reads from his first essay collection, The Dead Don’t Need Reminding: In Search of Fugitives, Mississippi, and Black TV Nerd Sh*t (Bold Type Books, 2024), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine. The event also includes an introduction by Gabriel Ramirez and readings by poets George Abraham and Itiola Jones.
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Chosen Family
Although the origin of the term is unknown and can be defined in many ways, a chosen family is made up of a group of people who choose to embrace, nurture, and support each other despite conventional understandings of biological or marital relationships. Oftentimes a chosen family is formed to take the place of a biological family, however, in some cases, these relationships are formed to expand a family. Write a personal essay about a relationship you have with a chosen family member. How did you first meet? Was there a particular incident that catalyzed what would become an inextricable bond? Has your commitment to each other been tested in ways big or small? Reflect on past memories and experiences you have had with this special person and how your relationship has evolved over the years.
Aimee Nezhukumatathil on Bite by Bite
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In this Square Books event in Mississippi, Aimee Nezhukumatathil speaks about her writing and memories of food with Afton Thomas, and reads from her books World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments (Milkweed Editions, 2020) and Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees (Ecco, 2024), which is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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Christina Sharpe: Ordinary Notes
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“These are notes on encountering the daily, the literary, the visual, violent, the arbitrary, the ordinary, and the beautiful…. They are always concerned with what I think of as the ordinary, extraordinary matter of Black life.” In this Virginia Museum of Fine Arts event, Christina Sharpe discusses her latest book, Ordinary Notes (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023), which weaves the past, present, and future together through various mediums ranging from lyric to photography.
Self-Healing
A recent study in Scientific Reports journal revealed that, for possibly the first time, a nonhuman wild animal was seen using plant medicine to heal an active wound. In a rainforest in Indonesia, a Sumatran orangutan was observed ripping off leaves from a climbing vine plant, chewing them, and applying the plant sap to treat a wound on his face, which then healed after a few days. Write a personal essay on the theme of self-healing. Think about experiences when you’ve witnessed another person perform this task, or particularly resonant memories that pertain to your own past behavior. What are the primary emotions present throughout this process? What instances of self-treatment or self-medication in film, art, or literature created an impression on you?
Paul Auster: How I Became a Writer
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In this 2014 Louisiana Channel interview from his home in Brooklyn, Paul Auster talks about how a chance meeting with legendary baseball player Willie Mays led him to become a writer and what he has learned about writing. “The essence of being an artist is to confront the things you’re trying to do, to tackle it head on, and if it’s good, it will have its own beauty.” Auster died at the age of seventy-seven on April 30, 2024.
Paul Yamazaki on Reading the Room
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“I always start asking myself, if I really love this book, how did it get to me?” In this conversation with Politics and Prose Bookstore co-owner Bradley Graham, Paul Yamazaki talks about his book, Reading the Room: A Bookseller’s Tale (Ode Books, 2024), and discusses his life and career as the principal buyer at City Lights Booksellers & Publishers in San Francisco.
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Wildcat
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Directed and cowritten by Ethan Hawke, Wildcat is a film based on the short stories and letters of Flannery O’Connor and explores both her characters and her life. Starring Maya Hawke and Laura Linney, the film dramatizes some of O’Connor’s most famous short stories and delves into the author’s craft and faith.
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