Tag: insights

Author Insight: What have your experiences been like interacting with the publishing world? How about with student editors working on literary journals?

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I’ve had mostly positive experiences. Form rejections (and I’ve received a lot of them) are hard, but occasionally, I get an editor who might really see my work, even as they reject it. And sometimes I’m met with enthusiasm. This is always gratifying. As for student editors, I think there’s a curiosity and wonder present that perhaps more mature editors have lost.

-Joshua Zeitler, “Anna No, Anna No,” Volume XXX, 2026

Young people are going to be the readers of tomorrow and the publishers and editors of tomorrow. I love knowing what resonates with students and younger editors. It is a gift to work with student editors.

-Lynn Levin, “Amanda the Vigilant,” Volume XXX, 2026

Pretty much everybody I’ve interacted with in the publishing world has been nothing short of dedicated, passionate, and amazing. I feel lucky when someone sees what I’m seeing, feels what I’m feeling, and it’s always reaffirming to hear that someone wants to publish you.

-Nicholas Barnes, “twenty-eight pomegranates” & “belonging,” Volume XXX, 2026

I was a student editor on a literary journal. I have also worked for a major publishing house, so this feels a bit ironic for me to answer. I have not been a writer published by a major house, but the micropress that has published me as a writer, Grandma Moses Press, was an absolute dream to work with and all of the editors I have worked with for literary sites and journals have been kind, caring, and dedicated. It’s a tough, cold world out there, but once you do break through, in my experience, you find kindness and love.

–Susan Melinda Morée, “The Fog Sounds: A Tragedy in Less Than One Act,” Volume XXX, 2026

I enjoy student editors working with journals. They tend to be risk takers who appreciate writing that bumps against norms.

-Scott T. Hutchison, “Bowls of My Father’s Anger,” Volume XXX, 2026

Author Insight: When did you realize you wanted to write?

On By clackamasliteraryreviewIn Author Insights, Meet Our Authors

I used to live near a cemetery, where I would walk sometimes to get out of the house and clear my head. In the cemetery, I found a headstone for a woman named Lucy and her husband. Her husband’s death date was in the 1800’s, but Lucy’s death date was left blank. I realized I wanted to write my way into this mystery.

-Joshua Zeitler, “Anna No, Anna No,” Volume XXX, 2026

Tenth grade geometry class. A lesson on cubes wasn’t holding me; a couple of lines came into my head, I wrote them down. I looked at the board, looked at what I wrote—and spent the next three years of high school math class writing. My math grades suffered, but writing took hold and has never let go.

-Scott T. Hutchison, “Bowls of My Father’s Anger,” Volume XXX, 2026

I wrote my first book at nine years old—a story about my sister’s dog, Kazan. I have always had a pencil and paper in hand, always jotting down things that occur to me…words on paper—it’s who I am.

-Judith Mikesch-McKenzie, “Having Faith in the Speed of Light, “Volume XXX, 2026

Early on—probably around grade five. I went to a parochial school and we were given a poetry writing assignment. The next day, there were some VIP visitors making the rounds of the classroom, and I was asked to read my poem for our guests. It was a sing-song piece of work, with rhyming end-words chosen simply because they rhymed (i.e., hill/ill), and the rules said a poem had to rhyme or it wasn’t a poem. Nonetheless, I was very serious about my poem and was mortified when the guests laughed. It was an early lesson in the art of humility, and I vowed to persist.

-T. Clear, “Here on Earth,” Volume XXX, 2026

Author Insight: How have other authors influenced your own writing and style?

On By clackamasliteraryreviewIn Author Insights, Meet Our Authors

I return to the way authors like Sherwood Anderson and Elizabeth Strout have created characters who are oddballs (Anderson’s people in Winesburg, Ohio) and cranky (Olive Kitteredge in Strout’s stories). As a reader, I care about these characters even though they have flaws, and I think it is bold of these authors to create characters like this and to make them the stars of their stories.

-Lynn Levin, “Amanda the Vigilant,” Volume XXX, 2026

I like writers who break down the norms of what is expected. I like Hemingway and Dostoevsky, and the Oakland-based writer, Alison Luterman.

-Paul Rabinowitz, “The Walk,” Volume XXX, 2026

I love Lauren Groff. She has taught me to be bolder with verbs.

-Susan Melinda Morée, “The Fog Sounds: A Tragedy in Less Than One Act,” Volume XXX, 2026

Frost has been crucial in my effort to make my poetry, if not totally accessible, not deliberately obscurantist either. One can be complex without being merely complicated.

-Sydney Lea, “Orb Weaver at My Writing Cabin,” Volume XXX, 2026

Author Insight: Where do you typically seek inspiration and guidance for your work?

On By clackamasliteraryreviewIn Author Insights, Meet Our Authors

For me the two best sources of inspiration are reading and walking. I find that, especially when I’m struggling to write, it’s a good idea to just cram a ton of other people’s writing into my head and hope it sparks something. It doesn’t have to be poetry or literature, either. I just a read a bunch of stuff about televised Senate hearings in the 1950s and somehow even that started to get some gears turning. Then I like to go for long walks with my dog and just let my mind wander as we go. It’s a great feeling to come home excited to write.

-Ben Fowlkes, “The Rest,” Volume XXX, 2026

I look to people. Even the most trivial conversation with a stranger might inspire a scene in a novel or story. Although nothing is ever trivial to me.

-Grace Whitmore, “Beyond the Haze,” Volume XXX, 2026

Family!

-Celia Lawren, “The Problem of Describing Color,” Volume XXX, 2026

Whenever I’m stuck in my writing, I pick up a book and read.

-Joshua Zeitler, “Anna No, Anna No,” Volume XXX, 2026

Author Insight: How do you deal with writer’s block? Do you have any unique rituals you do to keep writing and meet deadlines?

On By clackamasliteraryreviewIn Author Insights, Meet Our Authors

Though I am hesitant to use the word ‘writer’s block’ (especially in the world of creative nonfiction and poetry, where memory and experience are never-ending writing material; Example: any moment from your childhood) I truly believe that reading is the best cure for a creative stall. Read anything; read everything. And most importantly, read for enjoyment. You can’t read a book intending to find a cure for your block. It will ruin the book and you won’t find what you’re looking for. You’re writing will most likely be tainted. Instead, read and allow your mind to rest, to learn from and enjoy the way words dance on the page. In my experience, your next idea will just come to you, as long as you allow it.

-Darius Atefat-Peckham, 20th Anniversary Issue

How do I deal with writer’s block? Badly, of course. It’s terrible and the doubt and frustration from it only make it worse. But I don’t exactly have trouble writing, the times I’ve stopped. It’s more that I have trouble feeling. Feeling deeply enough to reach the level I need or want creatively. Either from being pulled in too many different directions and it’s hard to maintain focus or because I get overwhelmed by personal or professional circumstances. The kind of writing I do is very emotional and I need to have an open channel to those emotions and be able to sustain them to have a chance to do it well.

-Harry Newman, 20th Anniversary Issue

There are two things that thwart writer’s block. In my seminars at Lesley University, William Lychack was fond of reminding us that the only way to write is to keep your butt in the chair. If you don’t sit down to write, you’ll never write. That’s solution number one.

Solution number two is to figure out what motivates you. I’m a people-pleaser, so I love deadlines. They are one of the top ten things I miss about grad school. Knowing someone else is expecting my words is inherently incentivizing. Now, the only person expecting my words is myself—that requires an inordinate amount of self-discipline. When the writing isn’t going well, it’s easy to stumble into writer’s block. I combat this by keeping my butt in the chair and by finding someone else to expect my words. I employ my friends and family members to pester me about my work. Because I don’t want to disappoint them, I plow right on through writer’s block.

-Heather Charton, 20th Anniversary Issue

Writer’s block often hits me when I am least interested in a piece I’m working on. Usually, this happens at the mid-point in a story (after the initial excitement of an idea has worn off) or at the very end (when I need a viable and compelling conclusion to the story). When writer’s block hits I make a concerted effort just to get words on the page. There’s a moment when I stop caring about quality (and maybe even content) and I just try to write whatever I am thinking about for however long I need. I’ll often think about some of my favorite writers, and, in a moment of utter frustration, I’ll try to write something in their voice, to mimic it as perfectly as possible. Though it doesn’t always mean I add great content to whatever piece I’m working on, it’s often a decent exercise to get my brain going again. One of my very favorite professors encouraged taking walks to avoid the zombie-effect of sitting too long staring at words on a screen, and I find that very helpful as well.

-Tyler Wilborn, 20th Anniversary Issue

Author Insight: If you had one piece of advice you’d pass on to other authors, what would it be?

On By clackamasliteraryreviewIn Author Insights, Meet Our Authors

Try to never stop writing. Keep getting to the desk. Get into a rhythm of regular, if possible, day writing. Some kind of discipline above all. Because when you stop it can be very hard to return. And it gets harder. “Back” doesn’t only relate to finding your footing again in life, it’s a metaphor for returning to yourself as a writer. I’ve written that poem too many times.

-Harry Newman, 20th Anniversary Issue

For the most part, I still consider myself on the learning end of writing, so any advice I have is surely advice that was given to me by someone much wiser and more experienced than I am. That being said, though, if there’s one thing that’s helped me immensely in my writing it’s getting into a daily habit, and having people around me that know my work and my style to offer constant critical feedback. Even if it’s small, setting a goal of writing a set number of words a day really does help the flow of ideas. I’m also a firm believer in the idea that you can’t really write a great story until you’ve written the bad version of it, so writing every day is another way of getting the bad out of your system so the good can start to poke through. And with regards to having people around, there’s really nothing that’s helped me learn and grow as a writer more than helpful, critical peer reviewers. Even if it’s over email, having another set of eyes to read your work and critically assess it for what it’s trying to do is essential to improving.

-Tyler Wilborn, 20th Anniversary Issue

“Your words are worth it.”

It’s too easy to say, “I’ll write when…” There is always something else you should or could be doing, but your words are important. If you intend to be a writer, then be a writer. As Theo Pauline Nestor writes in Writing Is My Drink, “What does it look like to give permission to ourselves [to write]?…It’s knowing that all the other stuff you need to do will get done. Or it won’t.” No one else is going to prioritize your work (and writing is work). You have to honor your words and give them the time they need. And you have to remind yourself to honor them every day.

-Heather Charton, 20th Anniversary Issue