We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kris Spisak. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kris below.
Alright, Kris thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
Certain stories we hear and certain truths we learn strike a chord in our hearts. They reverberate, crescendoing over time until we can’t hold them inside anymore. Powerful tales have always been like this for me, as have unexpected facts that have crossed my path–whether these facts are related to the subtleties and etymologies of the words we speak, the history of the folktales that surround our lives, or the little-known realities lived by generations that have come before. Well-written words and well-told stories can change the world, and my pen has been primed for years, ready to join the conversation.
I have been a storyteller since I can remember. The mystery and puzzle is to discover how to bring these ideas to light in a way that fascinates the reader as much as I myself am fascinated. And thus, my creative life was born.
Kris, 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 wrote my first three books—Get a Grip on Your Grammar: 250 Writing and Editing Reminders for the Curious or Confused (Career Press, 2017; HarperCollins India 2020), The Novel Editing Workbook: 105 Tricks and Tips for Revising Your Fiction Manuscript (Davro Press, 2020), and The Family Story Workbook: 105 Prompts & Pointers for Writing Your History (Davro Press, 2020)—to help writers of all kinds sharpen their storytelling and empower their communications. My Grammartopia® events and Story Stop Tour programs follow the same mission and have been enjoyed by audiences across the United States, in person, virtually, on television, and on the radio.
My debut novel, The Baba Yaga Mask (Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, 2022; Tantor Audio, 2023), was inspired by my family’s experience in the post-WWII Ukrainian diaspora and has been called “A complex, poetic tale” by Kirkus Reviews. My fifth book, Becoming Baba Yaga: The Eastern European Witch Colliding with Modernity, will be published in 2024 from Red Wheel / Weiser Publishing. I have been spotlighted in Writer’s Digest and The Huffington Post for my work as an editor and author dedicated to helping other writers, and I am passionate about transforming book signings and storytelling events into humanitarian aid efforts when the opportunity allows itself. When not working on my own projects, I am an active speaker, workshop leader, and creative strategist. You can learn more about me and my work at https://kris-spisak.com/
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
When I was a child, my classmates didn’t know where Ukraine was on a map. They asked if I meant I was Russian, like I was the one confused. Decades later, when my publisher introduced the book cover of my debut novel, The Baba Yaga Mask, I thought the colors of the Ukrainian flag in its illustration would be my own little secret pride. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, weeks before The Baba Yaga Mask’s publication–a novel that focuses on the last time Ukraine was invaded by foreign forces over eighty years ago–I froze. Every writer wants their novel to be pertinent to world events, but no one wants anything like this.
Certain stories simmer in our bloodlines, and for me, the story of World War II Ukraine was a tale the world didn’t seem to know. The first time I tried to write about it, I was in fourth grade. I had since tried to capture it in poetry, in memoir, and in multiple fiction genres, yet when the plotline of The Baba Yaga Mask hit me, I knew I’d found it.
A Ukrainian grandmother declares she must see Ukrainian dancing on soil where it makes sense before she dies, so she books a flight overseas. But as soon as she steps off the plane, she disappears. Her two granddaughters are led on a frantic wild-goose-chase across contemporary Eastern Europe, trying to find her. Is she hurt? Is she ill? Did something happen to her? Or is she up to something? This dual-timeline story, which moves between the present day and the grandmother’s youth in 1941 Ukraine, is inspired by my own roots, as well as the artistic and folktale traditions I’ve always known and loved, yet these characters and their lives have taken on paths of their own.
Since the paperback release of The Baba Yaga Mask in April 2022 and more recently the audiobook release in April 2023, I have held countless humanitarian aid donation events to help the people of Ukraine, while teaching about the history and culture I know. Conversations around my debut novel are nothing like what I dreamed they would be, but I am honored to speak to Ukrainian stories, Ukrainian heritage, and Ukrainian truths–helping where I can as much as possible.
The Baba Yaga Mask is my fourth book, but it’s my debut novel. It has gained awards and accolades, but this isn’t what I’m most proud of. Standing in front of an audience (or sitting in front of my computer!), making connections and introducing ideas unknown, this is where my heart soars. The more we learn of the world, the more we understand each other and the more we understand ourselves. I continue to meet with book clubs, community groups, indie bookstore audiences, and more with these efforts, and I know I’m nowhere close to done.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Here’s the secret I didn’t understand for a long time: an author doesn’t have to stick to one genre.
My first three books are nonfiction. My fourth, The Baba Yaga Mask, is fiction. My fifth will return to nonfiction. I know I will have many more to come, yet even while they are written in different forms and styles, there’s a cohesion that can exist across them all. An author brand isn’t limiting. An author brand can be expansive if you find the connection that brings together everything you do. This discovery revolutionized my creative thinking.
A decade ago, if you asked me what I wrote, I would have answered “fiction,” without a pause or a doubt. Sure, I dabbled in essays and research. My master’s degree stretched my academic expertise, and I could talk for hours with my writing community peers about the evolution of language and little known facts discovered in library archives. But, I was a fiction writer through and through. I still am, yet I’ve also embraced so much more of my writing life.
I began a language tips blog in 2012 (https://kris-spisak.com/category/writing-tips/). Originally, this blog was a place to jot down grammar reminders and word trivia among friends, because conversations about language do not need to involve the grammar police, nor do they need to make you yawn recalling tiresome middle school English classes. This side-project had no publication goals, yet over time, my blog was being used in college classrooms and my Google ranking went through the roof. Not only did this blog build my first literary platform, but it also became the piece that initiated my author life, as I gained a literary agent and my first book deal. Passion projects come out of nowhere sometimes. My fiction life slowly found its way, but in the meantime, nonfiction became a surprise joy in my journey.
Where does it all come together? It’s in an idea I’ve already mentioned. Well-written words and well-told stories can change the world. Everything I do is focused on either empowering my reader’s words and stories or bringing to light powerful stories that have had their own revolutionary effect on the world–whether those tales are of an Eastern European witch named Baba Yaga, or otherwise.
I frequently have other writers ask me about this, because they have yet to unlearn the old advice about author brands built around a single genre. It may be true for some, but it’s not true for all. I’ve found a different way, and my creative life is all the stronger for it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kris-spisak.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kris.spisak/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KSWriting
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisspisak/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/KrisSpisak
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtg-xR-dqKr3UoKgn1dCTAg
- Threads: @kris.spisak