We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Heather Goodrich a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Heather thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
Risk is a delicious subject.
It can be the actual danger, the threat of flukes, or even whiffs of danger from the sidelines. In a writer’s world, I often hear about risk in terms of failure. Failing to get published at a certain place, not getting the award or residency, or getting rejected from a job. Failing at something important to you sucks and doesn’t feel good. I get it…I mean, who likes that feeling?
As a writer, the risk I combat most is self-censorship.
In my early writing days, I was told that the female characters in my prose did not do [INSERT ANY ACTION WOMEN DO IN THE WORLD] in real life. As a result, I took less chances in my prose. I wrote less about female characters. My prose was starting to resemble what was praised in workshops: the boring Iowa Writer’s Workshop realist prose from years ago (think: uber diluted John Cheever or Raymond Carver short stories). Despite this diluted conformity, I progressed as a writer but was stifled. I had the privilege of Bhanu Kapil as my writing mentor. She helped me see what I was doing to myself and my prose. She told me to take chances in my writing, to experiment on the page, and to write something that I wanted to read.
Yeah, OK. That sounds simple in hindsight, but it wasn’t for me because I had to unlearn patterns and vacate mental traps. My eureka moment came when Bhanu said: I give you permission to fuck shit up on the page.
Nobody had ever told me anything like that before and in that way. So what did I do? I began experimenting with my writing and abandoning the work that held me back. This resulted in my first novel Gristle, the chapbook “The Filaments of Heather”, my literary theory called “Hysteria”, and all of my work to date!
I wrote Bhanu’s permission on a sticky note – still taped to my monitor – reminding me that I have permission to fuck shit up on the page. So I do. And you do, too.
Heather , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I write about women, the body, and power. I’m obsessed with hysteria and applying the principles of excess and emotion into my content and form as a logical reaction to the psychological and physical colonialism of the female body.
My work appears in The Filaments of Heather (Sad Spell Press, 2015), Shame Radiant (book & art exhibit, 2021), A Poetic Inventory of Rocky Mountain National Park (Wolverine Farm, 2012), among others. I’m currently writing a sprawling novel about a girl who grows up in a new religious movement (NRM) who seeks nirvana and love. This is an incredible process because not only am I writing a novel, but I also am creating a fictional religion that has a text and other fundamental rules. Can’t have one without the other.
When I’m not writing, I run Gesture Press & Journal. Gesture is a feminist press publishing work that doesn’t bind itself with labels. Running Gesture is my dream come to life, and I love working with Gesture’s authors & artists who trust me with their amazing work.
I live along the Colorado’s Front Range with my hubby, Craig, and our beloved husky, Fiona.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Becoming engulfed in the unfolding of a story is pure magic. Writing characters into life and into a world, getting to know them, seeing how they work, giving them memories, all of it. I love getting to know/create them and getting to be carried away into this other world. A few years ago, I was at a concert, dancing, singing, and fully in the moment. But then, for some reason I touched my elephant charm necklace and began thinking about my protagonist in my novel, what she would be doing in this moment (she wouldn’t be at a concert). I began working out a scene that is an integral part of my novel. I don’t know how long this took me, what I looked like to my family and friends, but it didn’t matter. I was where I needed to be with my character.
As a reader or audience member, I also love getting engulfed in other stories. Especially long, sprawling novels like The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt or 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. Or when novels I love become TV shows/mini series Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid is my favorite example because it was a book, then a miniseries, plus an album from the fictional band. When I get to stay with these characters a bit longer in their worlds…well that is my favorite part about creating or consuming fiction. Pure magic.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Actively make space for art and pay artists for their work. Make time and consume art.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gesturepressandjournal.com/
- Instagram: @drinkmykoolaide
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-goodrich/
