----------Interview by Renee Roberson
WOW: Hello, Brigid, and welcome! Your essay, “A Silent Explosion,” is a great example of a braided essay. How did you get the idea to weave the recollection of your dream about the moon explosion with preparing your Thanksgiving turkey while processing your mother’s terminal illness?
Brigid: This is the first creative nonfiction essay I’ve written, so honestly, I’m not well versed on essay techniques and I wrote this without a specific format in mind. I knew that I wanted to write about my mom and this big, heavy, existential loss in my life, but grief on its own is intangible. I needed a hook to snag the grief from the swirling ether and anchor it in the realm of the everyday. That’s where the turkey came in. I’d become the family’s new holiday host because my mom would soon be gone, and the turkey prep – organ bag and all – was a physical manifestation of the anguish I felt. It was only once I started writing that I recalled my moon dream, which I’d had around the time of my mom’s cancer diagnosis a year earlier. The silence of the explosion and the jarring realization that nothing is ever permanent stayed with me and weaved itself into my current narrative. Like the moon, women set the rhythm of family tides in a way that’s often invisible until they’re gone. And in the chaos that follows we find their presence in the smallest things, like handwritten recipes and holiday dinner traditions.
I think most women can relate to a life braided with abstract dreams, ethereal emotions, and mundane earthly demands. My mom passed peacefully a few weeks ago, and even now I fold away my grief like laundry as I head to the kitchen to talk yogurt flavors with a beguiling kindergartner.
WOW: I am so sorry for your loss and I understand what you mean about folding away the grief. I feel like it's something women and mothers have become used to doing in so many ways. What was the process of drafting this piece like? Are you a fan of revision or not?
Brigid: I used to view revision as a sign of failure. I naively felt that if I poured my heart onto paper and it wasn’t perfect, then it wasn’t worth writing. That held me back from ever putting my writing out into the world. But then I read Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, and I found the wonderfully empowering concept of the ‘shitty first draft’. Now when I feel the urge to write I let my brain dump words onto paper with little restraint. Then I set about shaping them into something more meaningful, and as I do, I often surprise myself with new connections to unexpected things (like a moon dream from a year earlier). After that I walk away for a few days and come back to tighten everything into a third and final draft. Giving my brain that break between revisions makes it so much easier to kill stubborn darlings and stay true to my throughline. An added bonus of the ‘shitty first draft’ technique is that I can always go back later and mine it for future topics and twists. No writing is ever wasted!
WOW: As much as I hate revision, I'm happy you had that shift in mindset after reading Anne's book! You mention in your bio that you also write stories for children, and it looks like they have been very well received! What are some of the topics you’ve explored in those works?
Brigid: I started writing children’s stories for my twin toddlers during those mind-numbing days of the pandemic lockdown. My background is a mix of marine biology and global health, and my stories mirror that a bit. Recently I’ve been using examples of symbiosis in nature to discuss social/emotional issues: Woolly bats and pitcher plants show us how new beginnings can bloom in unexpected ways; Pom pom crabs and anemones show us that when we lift someone up, we lift ourselves too. Life on Earth is only possible with teamwork, and the natural world is full of clever teams solving tough problems!
These little stories started as something fun to do with my kids, but they’ve had a profound impact on my writing. I tend to take on topics that are far too broad and hard for a reader to connect with. But a picture book demands that you whittle a concept down to its innermost core – and use very few words to do it. It’s a great writing exercise!
WOW: Selecting a unique topic can be one of the most difficult things to nail down when writing creative nonfiction. What would you suggest to writers seeking advice on selecting themes to write about in essay form?
Brigid: A good theme is like the ocean. At first glance it’s this solid-looking thing, but when you zoom in, you find that it’s liquid – ever shifting, ever flowing. It looks different every time you approach it because it’s teeming with life. But I think we can get overwhelmed with the idea that a good writing concept must be something no one has ever thought of before. The human experience is defined by common themes (i.e. mother-daughter relationships, death and loss) and most readers want to see or feel something of themselves in the work.
Coming back to the wisdom of Anne Lamott, she has an anecdote about a student who wrote an essay on loss by describing her painstaking attempt to sew a button onto her dead mother’s burial coat. Death may be a common theme but anchoring its profoundness with the unexpected simplicity of sewing a button is what made the essay great. To me, it’s the unexpected anchor that makes a topic worth writing. It grounds the reader in something real while they sip on the existential questions that haunt us all.
Another great example of this is Irish poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s exquisite memoir, A Ghost in the Throat. She takes the soaring topic of the historical erasure of female narratives and anchors it in the quiet domestic moments of her life as a stay-at-home mother.
And so many of the essays published by WOW! find equally eye-opening ways to give shape to the invisible burdens of women.
WOW: These are all excellent examples and I love your point about how the human experience is defined by common themes--it's the way we approach those themes that can make for a stellar essay. What is your favorite time of day to write and why?
Brigid: As a mom of six-year-old twins, I have no control over my own schedule! In a perfect world I would spend my nights forming creative possibilities and then spend my mornings putting actual words to paper, but in real life I just jot my ideas down in a never-ending Google doc and squeeze in some actual writing when I can. It’s chaotic and messy…but then again so is life.
WOW: Ah, so true! Brigid, thank you again for stopping by today. We wish you continued success in your writing endeavors.
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