We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katrin Tschirgi. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katrin below.

Katrin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I suppose my creative “career” started in college, or shortly thereafter. I had always wanted to be a writer, and I wanted to write fiction because that was the genre I read. I think most writers start off as avid readers, and I was no exception, although at the time I had a rather limited understanding of literary fiction or even what kind of books contemporary writers were writing. I started off studying history at Boston College—I wanted to be a foreign service officer—and I loved the subject, but I found myself taking creative writing and literature classes just to keep myself afloat, keep myself sane. Even though I wanted to write fiction, poetry came much more naturally, and I think my professors were shocked when I announced I’d be pursuing fiction instead of poetry. I switched my major to English my final semester in college and applied to MFA programs.

I ended up at a terrific studio program in Bowling Green State University in Ohio, which is in the flattest county in the country. It was there I really learned to write. I loved my cohort, my friends, and I was blessed with supportive professors, who, above all else, were really excellent teachers. I was 22 when I started, which was both a blessing and a curse. There’s a certain criticism leveled at the perpetual student-writer—those who have spent most of their lives within the walls of academia—and I think it’s somewhat deserved. I didn’t have that much to write about, and I was terribly naïve. On the other hand, when you’re that young, you still have an enthusiastic sense of possibility, and you haven’t heard “no” quite so many times.

So, I’d say that my career truly began in Ohio, in a rental that cost me $400/month, because that’s where I learned not just how to write but how to work. If I could go back in time, however, I would wait to get my MFA. I would work a few different jobs before settling down to write a novel. That’s what I would tell my younger self, and it’s what I’d tell anyone interested in attending a MFA program.

By almost any metric, however, I’m still in the early stages of my career. I just finished my PhD in Literature and Creative Writing. I have multiple works in-progress, and I’ve published short stories and poems in journals, but I’m still writing, editing, and revising various manuscripts. I’m still juggling multiple different jobs, and I’m still honing my skills.

Katrin, 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’m a poet and fiction writer. Recently, I earned my PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California, and I earned my MFA in Fiction from Bowling Green State University in 2014. I specialize in literary fiction, but I work in multiple genres, and my literary training is in literature of the American West.

I’m originally from Boise, Idaho, and the West has been a major source of inspiration for me. Right now, I’m working on a short story collection about Idaho. I write a lot about violence in the west, its most topical mythos, and I think all western writers have to deal with the shadow of colonial violence and American mythmaking that’s born out of the so-called frontier. But I’m hoping to undercut some of the narratives that plague Idaho in particular—its extremism, xenophobia, its cults, and Western cosplaying that have come to dominate this region in national media. I want to write about an Idaho that is far more nuanced. I’ve also been at work on a novel about the temperance movement in Montana.

Recently, I’ve started acting as a creative writing consultant and freelance editor, and I’m involved in community events and organizations in a teaching capacity. I want to help aspiring writers tell their stories. I offer month-long intensives that feature weekly craft classes and biweekly one-on-one creative writing workshops. These courses are for beginning and advanced writers, and my lessons are individually tailored. I offer my services to anyone who has wanted to learn how to write a poem, short story, or novel.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Friends and family. There’s so much to learn from the tradition of oral storytelling. If I could go back in time, I would record all of my grandparents’ stories. There are some truly excellent craft books out on the market today, but there’s no replacing research and lived experience. The best and most important resource is the ability to pay attention.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I’ve thought about this question a lot—Would I still write if I knew I wouldn’t have any readers? The answer, fortunately, is yes. I think, ultimately, I want to tell the truth. I want to get to the very essence of something. It’s easy to be swayed by what’s politically or aesthetically in vogue, and I think for this reason, it’s critical for writers to foster intellectual honesty and integrity. I’ve slowly extricated myself from social media for this reason. I want my worldview to be governed by the physical world and not by an algorithm. I want to create art that is lasting and elicits feeling. Truth and beauty. Something outside of myself. That’s what I’m after.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.katrintschirgi.com