Joanne Lozar Glenn is a writer, editor, and educator whose work has been published in Beautiful Things (River Teeth), Peregrine, Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Under the Gum Tree, Brevity, Brevity Blog, JMWW, and other print and online journals.
----------Interview by Renee Roberson
WOW: Thank you for joining us today, Joanne, and congratulations on placing 2nd in the contest! As a person who has struggled with the very topic of your essay, "Encore" resonated deep in my core. Mental illness can be difficult to explore in creative nonfiction. What was the drafting piece for this process was like, and what do you hope the main takeaway for the reader is?
Joanne: Thanks for sharing your personal experience, Renée. This piece emerged during a 10-year period of trying to figure out a way to tell this story. I drafted multiple first-person narratives, fragmented narratives, and other related "micros" that never quite clicked, grappling with the question of what was mine to tell. I'm not sure where the idea to start this piece with "the boy" came from, but once I did, that particular draft seemed to catch hold. So I kept going, following the image(s) in my head, letting the piece sit, then continually tweaking until it felt done. As for takeaways, I don't believe I consciously was this purposeful at the time, but now I think the use of "the boy" (and letting other characters be identified by their roles rather than by their names) shows both how this loss affected me specifically as well as the swirl of unanswerable questions this kind of loss creates. My hope is that telling such a story will part the curtain on what is often shrouded in secrecy and shame and therefore silenced--and that readers who might have a similar but as yet untold story will feel seen.
WOW: I’ve noticed a lot of your essays explore your familial relationships, such as this one published in Brevity. Both “Encore” and “Solstice” provide poignant descriptive details of everyday life involving mental illness that engage the reader and highlight that you never know what a family might be struggling with. What has exploring this topic taught you about your own role in your family?
Joanne: First, thanks for reading those other essays! TBH, I'm not sure how to answer. Maybe it aligns with what someone once said about the importance of stance to telling a story effectively: i.e., that you must have one foot in and one foot out of the experience. Until recently I lived three states away from most of my family. This layered an "outsider" stance over the "insider" history I had before I moved away. This has advantages and disadvantages: I can bring a different perspective to a situation, but I might also miss something important, despite my best attempts to be as true to the story as I can.
WOW: Having been published multiple times online and in literary journals, what is your process for finding markets to submit your work?
Joanne: I first make notes of familiar journals that I'd love to have publish my work. I also consult lists I keep of lit mags that might be potential markets---markets I've found through research or that have been shared with me by fellow writers---and see if I can read online samples to see if my work might fit. When I've decided which markets might work for a specific piece, I either list each one on paper or open browser tabs to each one's submission requirements. Then I follow their guidelines and submit. If a particular market isn't reading during that period (many lit mags only read submissions during a specific time of the year), I make a note on my calendar for when submissions open so that I can submit at that time. I once read that it takes an average of 12 submissions for one acceptance, so I try to submit to multiple markets when I can and hope one of them picks up the work. (Then, of course, if a piece is accepted I withdraw that piece from other markets.) This process is usually more messy and sporadic than I've described it here; like many writers, marketing is my least favorite part of getting my work "out there," and I do the best I can in the time I have.
WOW: What advice would you give to someone who’s looking to explore writing creative nonfiction for the first time? Any do’s and don’ts you’d recommend for the process?
Joanne: Prompts such as keepsake photos, treasured (and often even random) objects, and/or lines from a poem or memoir can be great starting places for a piece. Once you've got a starting place, write with abandon. Get it down before it's gone. Do not judge how good it is. Simply turn the page, set the writing aside, and return to write another piece later. When you have a lot of pages, maybe a whole notebook's worth, take them somewhere quiet and read them. Pull the ones that make you feel, and acknowledge that yes, you can write. Find a community of others, maybe one or two at a time, and support each other in this work by writing and sharing what you wrote (if you want to). Because this is first-draft work, call out (or mark) only what is strong, what stays with you, what you're jealous of not having been able to write yourself. (Celebrating strengths is how you gain the confidence to write more!) Then decide if you want to develop any of these pieces more fully and deeply. If yes, find people (teachers, classes, published writers) who can teach you by their example and experience.
WOW: I love this advice! Often I already have an idea of a theme when I sit down to write an essay. I'd like to see what I could come up with using a visual prompt. What are you currently working on now? We’d love to hear about it.
Joanne: I''ve been experimenting with creating "snapshots' of a caregiving situation I've been in. The writing is raw, but except for obvious flaws or shortcomings, I prefer it for this project--at least for now. I want to be fair but also honest. It's probably the most challenging thing I've written about--or lived.
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