Your Writing is a Good Cause: A Conversation with Kory Wells by Michael Barham
In fall 2023, MTSU Write Intern, Michael Barham, talked with long time MTSU Write mentor, poet, community leader, and all around superstar, Kory Wells, about her work as a writer and mentor. Here’s their conversation.
Michael Barham: In your bio, you talk about finally claiming the time for writing despite all the demanding responsibilities of work and family life. What advice would you offer to others in a similar position — those who’ve always had the desire to write but never seem able to find the time?
Kory Wells: You can build your writing skills–and your stories– in tiny increments of time. Whether it’s on your lunch hour at work, or waiting in carpool line for your kids, or getting up fifteen minutes earlier in the morning, simply showing up to the page on a regular basis is paramount. Don’t worry about finishing your poem or story or chapter, or even your current sentence. Just show up and practice getting words down. The practice will make you better.
Although I think consistency is important, I want to say: I definitely experience “seasons” in my writing. For a month or more I may write very little, usually because something has happened to upset my routine–travel, a period of busyness with family or work, etc. I don’t bemoan this. I just observe it and steer myself back to my routine at the page as soon as I can.
Obviously, sometimes you do need larger chunks of time, whether it’s for longer writing sessions, workshops, or retreats/residencies (the latter of which I highly recommend). Put these on your calendar. Protect them fiercely. Don’t view them as something that can be sacrificed. To other people and good causes, practice saying “Oh, I’d love to, but my schedule’s already full.” End of story, no apologies, no further explanations. Your writing IS a good cause. It’s vital to your well-being, so it’s vital to the community.
MB: Once you started, what helped you stick and remain committed to your writing despite time-demanding responsibilities?
KW: Being in a writing group or having a regular exchange with at least one other writer, is tremendously helpful. It means you have a regular assignment to create something new to share for your next meeting. It also means you are experiencing the gift of others paying deep attention to your work. With the right cohort, I’ve found this invaluable for both encouragement and my revision process.
I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to my early mentors, who often understood what I was trying to say before I was getting it right on the page. Their voices in my head were, and still are, powerful inspiration to keep creating, even through periods of doubt and inevitable publishing rejections.
MB: Starting out, how did you find your voice as a writer?
KW: By reading and rereading the voices that I enjoy the most. By reading these authors’ work, and my own, aloud. Sometimes even by copying in longhand a poem or passage that I love. I draft most of my work in longhand (on an iPad with an Apple Pencil and the Nebo app, which I SO recommend–it has great editing gestures, and you can click once to convert everything to text for later revision). We know that handwriting is good for the brain, but I believe it’s also good for teasing out the memories and images that enrich our stories.
MB: How do you often find the subject matter for your poems?
KW: I write about things I can’t seem to let go of, whether they’re making me worried, angry, sad, etc. I also write on the themes and motifs that currently obsess me, and how they intersect with memory and daily life. My book Sugar Fix, for example, weaves my obsession for all things sweet with personal genealogy and national history. Lately, I’ve been working more with memory, so I keep adding to a master list of little things I remember. When I need inspiration, I go to that list and pick one. I try to capture lots of details AND tease out why this memory seems to be important.
MB: What first interested you in mentoring for MTSU Write?
KW: When I first realized, in my 30s, that I wanted to be a creative writer, I enrolled in MTSU continuing education classes that were the precursor to MTSU Write. A few years later, I enjoyed participating in some of MTSU Write’s early programming and community building. When my first chapbook was published, I’d been writing for about 10 years. I knew that wasn’t a lot of experience, but I had the impulse to help beginning writers along with their journey–especially if they were coming to writing like I had, from a radically different discipline (which for me was software development).
MB: What have you learned about yourself as a writer through mentoring?
KW: Oh, wow–on the one hand, how little I know. How narrow my own experience–in life and writing–is. But on the other hand, how much we writers have in common, in both our doubts and our desire to connect. How our greatest strength is often our greatest weakness. And how I strive for my own writing, and that of my mentees, to balance sound and narrative–an impulse that goes back to the strong storytelling and read-aloud traditions of my childhood.
MB: What projects are you working on now?
KW: I’ve been in one of the MTSU Write writing groups for a year now, focusing on CNF (creative nonfiction). We’re writing mostly flash CNF, which feels very similar to poetry, and it’s been great fun. Blue Earth Review recently awarded my piece “Reliquary” their 2023 CNF Flash Contest prize. I feel like the universe is calling me to write more in this genre!
MB: Where can people find your work?
KW: My poetry collection Sugar Fix, from Terrapin Books, is available from your favorite online or brick and mortar bookstore. I also share new poems and nonfiction pieces as they’re published–follow me on IG or FB for updates! @tnpoet
Kory Wells is the author of Sugar Fix, poetry from Terrapin Books. Her writing has been featured on The Slowdown podcast and appears in The Strategic Poet, The Southern Poetry Anthology, James Dickey Review, Ruminate, and elsewhere. A former software developer who now nurtures connection and community through the arts and advocacy, Kory founded and co-manages Poetry in the Boro and in 2017 was selected the inaugural poet laureate of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Learn more about her at https://korywells.com.
