Kate Wisel Recommends...

“Recalling memories and taking notes is a practice I prioritize over any writing activity. I don’t know what might interest me until I see it reflected in the physical world. This includes objects, nature, overheard dialogue, and sounds that I encounter in my everyday life. I keep a stack of note cards with context on the front and the visceral memory of what moved me on the back. Even when shuffled and spread out, these note cards reveal patterns I would have missed had I not been careful enough to collect them, allow them their accumulative effect, and speak in that connective language I crave. Billions of things fall away day after day, but what stays, these small shards of cut up life, are beyond resonant and ready to react. Getting those moments onto the page and into a story is a different process, but there’s no denying the live wire at your feet.”
—Kate Wisel, author of Driving in Cars With Homeless Men (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019)