inspiration to rite.

“For in my life, I had not yet dreamed my own dream.” Amal, in Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin

“I was also interested in writing about mental states that feel omniscient” Chantal V. Johnson, Ten Pen interview.

So many ways for me to start writing:

• What do you find mysterious but still worthy of your full attention?
• Where for you are the paradoxes and challenges of living a just life?
• From Craft Talk’s Jami Attenberg:
  • What’s a book that’s helped you figure out how to be?
  • Why do I write?
• Who else are you reading beyond the traditional and conventional authors?
• What attitudes and approaches do you possess that are necessary for survival?
• What metaphors define or guide your daily life?
• From Imani Perry, on Day 4 of #1000wordsofsummer:
  • What is the point?
  • What are the particulars?
  • What is the mystery?
  • And what is its beating heart?
• What is available to me/us?
  • When I am outside?
  • When we put the phone screen out of reach and out of sight?
• How do institutions impact you?
• What is your origin story?
• What in this—passion, pursuit, project—resonates with you?
• Who enchants you?
• What nourished you now? What excited you then?
• What threads go from elementary school into college into your adult life?
• How does this weave through your journeys in the world?

We humbly encourage readers to reflect upon the historical legacies held in the lands they occupy. [closing sentence from Milkweed Editions on page 103 of Ada Limón’s Hurting Kind]