What a Writer Looks Like: Catching Up with Aaron Zimmerman
For four years, I’ve had the privilege of serving on the board of directors of the New York Writers Coalition (NYWC), one of the world’s largest community-based creative organizations supporting underserved people. A related privilege is knowing Aaron Zimmerman, NYWC’s Executive Director. Aaron is an inspiring leader committed to growing the organization’s impact through its foundational principle: everyone is a writer, regardless of prior writing experience and formal education.
I consider Aaron a true friend, and I know I’m not alone. His ability to connect with people from all walks of life makes him not only a special individual but also an exceptional writer who knows how to uniquely connect the world of words to the readers.
As NYWC is celebrating its 20-year anniversary, Aaron and I caught up recently and talked about his own journey of becoming and identifying as a writer, how his creative process shifted the past few years and the people — and processes — that encourage him.
Laura: When did you know you wanted to be a writer? Was there a particular moment or an evolution?
Aaron: I think it was more of an evolution. When I was younger, I was creative, but never much of a visual artist. I could always write, and I read a lot. When I was in high school, I was in school plays. That felt like a good path at the time, so I planned to go to college for acting. I auditioned for the NYU acting program, but looking back, I realized I wasn’t really ready for it. I also didn’t have a lot of encouragement about pursuing acting as a career, so probably didn’t give myself the best shot.
When I went back to school at Hunter College, I started studying film and I got really into it — it was creative, it was collaborative, and it was a bonus that I loved movies. For once, I was excited about what I was learning, and in my senior year, I wrote a feature length screenplay and entered it into a contest. I didn’t win, but I had a very encouraging teacher at the time. Writing that screenplay started my journey as a writer. But, experiencing what I didn’t want to do also helped me clarify my creative focus. So, I applied to graduate schools for different writing genres, and I got into grad school for creative writing at the City College of New York.
At the same time, I saw a flyer in my Brooklyn neighborhood for a writing group. I thought it would be good to experience before starting grad school. And it was so good. That was really when I knew I could do this — I knew how to write. I felt seen. I’ll never forget my first workshop. I read something out loud, and people understood it and through their feedback, reflected to me that they ‘got it.’ That encouragement helped immensely.
I stayed in that workshop the entire time I was in grad school. It still took a while for writing to become a part of my identity, but simply having people say they understand what I was saying or laugh — that encouragement — helped me go on to want to do more. It gave me a sense of possibility and reminded me that writing wasn’t beyond me.
Laura: When you think about who or what influences you, what comes to mind?
Aaron: I feel like my teachers have been more like facilitators or people who hold space. Of course, there is Pat Schneider, founder of Amherst Writers & Artists, and her book, “Writing Alone and With Others” (Oxford University Press). That’s the foundation of our work at NYWC. I trained with her, and that process-oriented approach really worked for me. In grad school, Frederic Tuten was one of my professors — a beautiful person, very encouraging and a wonderful writer.
But really, all the people I’ve written with in workshops are my community, and they’ve inspired me. I’m inspired more by process than content, so I appreciate seeing other people, how hard they work and what they specifically do. Going to artist residencies has helped my writing over the years. When I’m at one, I usually hang out with the visual artists since they focus so much on process and practice — I’m really drawn to them.
Laura: Speaking of your writing practice, has there been anything about these past two years that’s shifted how you think about your own writing?
Aaron: Sometime early in the pandemic, I realized this was not going to be ‘just six weeks.’ When we realized it would be much longer, I thought ‘how can I use this time?’ I thought it would be perfect timing for writing. But it wasn’t the perfect timing for me. For whatever reason, I just wasn’t compelled to work on my novel with all that was happening.
About a year in, though, something shifted. I started leading a Sunday workshop with a very small group of people I knew really well. I started writing these short pieces that my fellow group members called my ‘pandemic diaries.’ So, I started writing these short nonfiction amusing pieces. A lot of it was about how messy my apartment was and the general chaos of our day-to-day lives, but I was getting it down on the page.
After I wrote one of them, the group encouraged me to publish it, and it got picked up by the Daily News. The piece is about becoming eligible for the vaccine a little earlier than others because I gained so much weight by sitting around, cooking, and eating so much!
So, my body mass index qualified me — the article is about the quandary of that reality. But it was also about my hopes once I got the vaccine — which never fully came true, because the vaccine didn’t prevent infection. The vaccine changed a lot, but not everything.
Laura: What helps you when you get creatively stuck?
Aaron: There’s a guy in my writer’s group who had first novel come out this year — his name is Blair Fell. He is one of those dedicated, obsessive writers who steals 10 minutes here and there on the subway. One day he said something to the effect of, “it’s all about writing the next sentence, no matter what you’re doing.” That’s really stuck with me.
Laura: If you’re talking to the hundred-year-old version of you and that wise person is looking back, what would that person tell you?
Aaron: For about five years, I’ve wanted a tattoo. I don’t have any tattoos and I don’t know if I’ll ever get one. I want the word “create” tattooed in a spot where I can see it. It symbolizes that no matter what the results are from my creative work that the process is more important. The process helps me see the world in a different way. I think that wise person would say: keep creativity alive and be engaged in the process of creating, even when you’re not creating a product. Whatever feedback comes from the outside — it’s not that it doesn’t mean anything, but it doesn’t mean as much to me as the inner process of doing it.
Laura: Last question. Is there a song that inspires your creativity?
Aaron: I love this question. It varies. When I was writing my first novel, there were two things. One was anything by Jane’s Addiction. The energy and the tempo. And then there’s a specific passage in my book that gets very surreal — that’s what I call my Tom Waits passage. You would never know it by reading it, but in my mind it’s so connected.
Now, it’s jazz. I’ve always loved it and playing it while I write puts me in a creative mood. I remember at the beginning of the pandemic I was listening to anything by John Coltrane — and that kind of saved me too. Lucinda Williams’ “Live at the Fillmore” is also really inspiring — it’s her voice, and the lyrics. She goes in so deep.
