Kelly Garriott Waite Q & A with Eastern Iowa Review
Q: What is your writing routine?
A: My family is very fortunate in that, in less than five minutes, we can be surrounded by acres of woods. After everyone has left the house, I finish the breakfast dishes and then head out for a walk with the dog. When I get home, I make a cup of coffee and write for two hours, trying to minimize distractions. I try, every day, to read the work of authors I admire. Once a week, I meet with my writing partner to do timed writings and then share our work.
Q: What is on your nightstand?
A: A fistful of pens, a thin layer of dust, a journal. I have a tin can of Bag Balm for chapped winter hands, and an uncompleted job application for my son. There's a business card. An article on fermentation. Several books waiting to be read: Mary Oliver's Devotions, The Songs of Trees by David George Haskell, The Achievement of Wendell Berry by Fritz Oehlschlaeger, and Hannah Coulter and Fidelity, both by Berry. With the new year, I made a commitment to read or re-read all the Berry books I own.
Q: What advice would you offer to beginning writers?
A:
Q: What inspired "Symphony of Footprints" (Issue 3)?
A: This piece began, as most of my writing does, with a walk in the woods. I noticed, that day, all of the various prints made in the snow. As a former musician, I liked playing with the idea of music notations and how they tie into the pace of taken steps: whole notes, half notes, the grace notes of birds. The piece was also inspired by the fairly recent death of my father: that Christmas was the first we'd celebrate after his death. So it was a hard year. Finally, it was inspired by my family's decision to help resettle a refugee family and the issue in general of refugees and war. I remember reading the tweets of a Syrian man: he frequently wrote about the bombing and his desperation to get his young daughter away from the shelling. He wrote about how his wife was sewing their daughter a dress, in the midst of the bombing. I wanted to play with the use and the misuse of social media. I often wonder if the family got out of Syria: when someone is lost or when we discount a person or persons as less important, the musical composition of our lives becomes less rich.
Q: What are you currently working on?
A: For about four years, I've been researching and struggling to write about the forgotten second owner of the century home I own with my husband. I'm also writing about my search for my second great-grandfather and trying to uncover the mystery surrounding his life and his death. I'm hoping to eventually combine these essays with others into a collection about the people we forget.
Q: What is your writing routine?
A: My family is very fortunate in that, in less than five minutes, we can be surrounded by acres of woods. After everyone has left the house, I finish the breakfast dishes and then head out for a walk with the dog. When I get home, I make a cup of coffee and write for two hours, trying to minimize distractions. I try, every day, to read the work of authors I admire. Once a week, I meet with my writing partner to do timed writings and then share our work.
Q: What is on your nightstand?
A: A fistful of pens, a thin layer of dust, a journal. I have a tin can of Bag Balm for chapped winter hands, and an uncompleted job application for my son. There's a business card. An article on fermentation. Several books waiting to be read: Mary Oliver's Devotions, The Songs of Trees by David George Haskell, The Achievement of Wendell Berry by Fritz Oehlschlaeger, and Hannah Coulter and Fidelity, both by Berry. With the new year, I made a commitment to read or re-read all the Berry books I own.
Q: What advice would you offer to beginning writers?
A:
- Don't listen to those who say it cannot be done. Better yet, prove them wrong.
- Walk every day. Tuck a pen and an index card into the rectangular space where your phone usually goes. Leave the phone at home. When you return, sit down immediately to write, transcribing whatever it was you jotted on your index card to your notebook or your computer. Then begin writing whatever you planned for the day.
- Whether you're writing or not, throughout the day, keep the radio and the television off. Let silence fill your home: silence beckons to your thoughts. Distractions drive them away.
- Read the work of others every day.
- Read aloud: your work and the work of others. Reading your work aloud will help you catch mistakes, will let you hear the overall pattern and rhythm of your piece, as will reading aloud the writing of others. Too, reading aloud forces you to intently focus on the words before you. It better keeps the wandering mind corralled.
- Have a writing partner or belong to a writing group.
Q: What inspired "Symphony of Footprints" (Issue 3)?
A: This piece began, as most of my writing does, with a walk in the woods. I noticed, that day, all of the various prints made in the snow. As a former musician, I liked playing with the idea of music notations and how they tie into the pace of taken steps: whole notes, half notes, the grace notes of birds. The piece was also inspired by the fairly recent death of my father: that Christmas was the first we'd celebrate after his death. So it was a hard year. Finally, it was inspired by my family's decision to help resettle a refugee family and the issue in general of refugees and war. I remember reading the tweets of a Syrian man: he frequently wrote about the bombing and his desperation to get his young daughter away from the shelling. He wrote about how his wife was sewing their daughter a dress, in the midst of the bombing. I wanted to play with the use and the misuse of social media. I often wonder if the family got out of Syria: when someone is lost or when we discount a person or persons as less important, the musical composition of our lives becomes less rich.
Q: What are you currently working on?
A: For about four years, I've been researching and struggling to write about the forgotten second owner of the century home I own with my husband. I'm also writing about my search for my second great-grandfather and trying to uncover the mystery surrounding his life and his death. I'm hoping to eventually combine these essays with others into a collection about the people we forget.
Thanks to Kelly for a great interview! - Chila
Kelly Garriott Waite writes from Ohio. She's currently working on a compilation of essays about people forgotten to history.
Kelly Garriott Waite writes from Ohio. She's currently working on a compilation of essays about people forgotten to history.