Hello, hello, and happy new year!
This last letter of 2022 is a special one, featuring a conversation with my teacher and mentor Miranda Mellis.
This past September, I sat down with Miranda to discuss literary form and the relationship between her writing practice, her politics, and Buddhism. We also explored the tricky work of staying connected to one’s values in and through writing, and seeing creative practice as a kind of refuge.
Miranda is an accomplished writer working in (and at the intersections of!) multiple genres. Through her fiction, essays, cultural criticism, and poetry, Miranda probes the familiar from unexpected angles. The results are often strikingly funny, uncannily accurate, deeply melancholy, or all of the above. Her idiosyncratic thinking conjuncts at a rare intersection of uncommon kindness and radical depth, and the atmosphere created by this conjunction always makes the world feel a little more mutable.
Miranda has also had a profound impact on my own life and writing! When I met Miranda she had recently joined the faculty of The Evergreen State College, and I was a driftless and cynical college student ostensibly there only to knock out pre-requisites in the health sciences. How I ended up in her class has the touch of the miraculous for me, but it completely altered the course of my life. Miranda’s holistic approach to creativity and her generous curiosity allowed for both attention to the world and to the self in ways I’d all but given up on finding; I plunged right in. A decade later, what she taught me about writing and teaching as means of “waking up” (to life, to one’s surroundings, to one’s connection with the world) continue to ground my practice.
But I’ve long been curious about the foundations of Miranda’s own practice, and especially the ways that her ethics are braided into--and shape--her work:
How (or why) did she start writing?
What motivates her to write?
How does she go about crafting the complex, politically-charged, and often surreal narratives that constitute her prose?
It’s a joy and an honor to share Miranda’s thoughtful and rich reflections on these (and other!) topics. I hope you get as much out of it as I did! I’m sharing an excerpt of our conversation below; you can listen to the full audio of our conversation and/or read the transcript on my website.
This interview will also be the inaugural episode of my podcast “Experimental Practice”! The episode is available on Spotify now and will soon be available on Apple Podcasts and other podcast platforms.
I hope the beginning of the new year is a joyful one for you—and that you’re able to find time to truly rest! Take care until next time!
Yours,
Siloh
Interview excerpt
On being a writer
“I think that it's helpful to identify as a reader, first and foremost, especially when you're an emergent writer and you're aspiring and you're coming up and you're finding your way. It will give you breathing room. And at the same time, to have a kind of devotional attitude to your practice as a writer.
To sort of say--not to say religious--but to sort of say that the way that some people would get up every morning and pray, you'll get up every morning and write, you know, because that is what you need. You know, first and foremost, that is what you need. I don't think it's super important to know why, you know. It's a drive. And you know that you'll start to really go awry if you don't. Some people are called to take robes, to go into seclusion or to live monastically to spend their time in meditation and prayer. And if they don't do that, it's not gonna be good. You know what I mean? [Laughs.] They need to do that. And you, I think we all have to figure out what we need to do, you know, and then pretty soon if we just kind of honor that and cleave closely to that then it just becomes something that you can rely upon. And something that you don't allow yourself to get too far away from, or you do—and then you find out what happens to you. You know what I mean? [Laughs.] And it isn't good.”
— Miranda Mellis
Listen to the full conversation
Invitations & updates
Practice Space drop-in writing sessions are on hiatus through January and early February. I’m taking a break to rest, re-establish my own creative practice after moving, and settle into my new space, but I look forward to writing with you again soon!
Writing in Unknown Shapes is also closed for enrollment but will be re-opening in spring 2023.
Experimental Practice Podcast
That’s right—a podcast!
I love listening to podcasts so much—they’re an easy way for me to keep my mind engaged while I go on walks with Bugs or do otherwise boring chores. I am excited to contribute to the endless glut of available audio offerings, albeit in a way that’s more intentional and sporadic than some of what’s out there. You can listen while you, too, scrub your toilet or do dishes.
Episodes will be thoughtfully released on an occasional basis. It’s available on Spotify now and will be live on Apple and Google podcasts within the week.
Join me as we explore cross-genre and interdisciplinary work, writing craft, the relationship between care and creativity, and sustaining creative practice outside of literary and academic institutions.
Happiness touchstones
Here are some things that have been bringing me joy lately:
Watching season 2 of Bridgerton—I loved how the two protagonists were mirrored in each other, driving a charged “enemies-to-lovers” plot
Listening to Awakening Compassion by Pema Chödrön (audiobook)
Listening to How to Keep House While Drowning (audiobook)
Drinking lots of black tea and a little mint tea