Interview with Frances Figart,
Runner Up in the Q2 Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest with
“The Landing”
Congratulations to Frances Figart from Flag Pond, Tennessee for her amazing nonfiction essay titled: The Landing
Check out Frances’s submission, The Landing as well as all the other winning entries and then stop back here to read Frances Figart’s engaging interview with Crystal J. Casavant-Otto from WOW! Women on Writing.
Frances’s Bio:
Frances Figart (Fié-gert) edits Smokies Life Journal and directs the creative team for Smokies Life, a nonprofit organization supporting Great Smoky Mountains National Park since 1953. She has written three children’s books addressing conservation issues and began to explore creative writing for an adult audience in 2023 after hosting the first Tremont Writers Conference, an annual program she co-founded in the Smokies.
...interview with Crystal J. Casavant-Otto
WOW!: Thank you for being here with me today Frances and thank you for writing such a personal essay. Let’s get right down to it! Can you share a bit about the actual story behind The Landing?
Frances: There are moments in our relationships to other humans that stand out as intensely clear and unforgettable. When we look back on these singular experiences, they are inevitably magnified through the lens of all that has happened since. The moment around which The Landing is framed, a psychedelic experience at a broken-down farmhouse with a college heartthrob, has such expansive power for me. When the psilocybin took effect during that January sunset, the cold drove me inside, but my friend stayed out in the fields. At some point later, we simultaneously felt to need to check in with one another, and we ended up meeting on the landing halfway between his first-floor apartment and mine upstairs.
In the decades since that trip, my friend and I have stayed in touch, but the timing was never right for us to be in a romantic relationship. Of course, we have each led rich lives with different significant others. When I reflect on all our missed opportunities, I trace our connection back to that magical moment on the landing. So for this piece, I poured all of that energy and emotion into the landing as a pivotal point, and gave the main character, Eve, a psilocybin-induced precognitive understanding that she and Adam would never actually be together. When I hit upon their names, I knew I had something with legs, because she was the one who procured and provided the magic mushrooms, just as Eve gave Adam the apple from the tree of knowledge. But in this case, the trick was on her: she was the one who saw all the way through to the disappointing ending.
The great news is, my friend loves the story and totally gets how I spun off from our real-life experience into a piece of magical realism in which the tone still echoes our memories and the story of our ongoing friendship, forever draped in the colors of a lost romance.
WOW!: I absolutely love that back story - thank you for sharing it with us! What is your history with writing contests? Tell us what prompted you to submit to this particular contest. What would you like to tell other authors concerning contests and submitting their work?
Frances: I have only been submitting to writing contests for a short time. It started because I helped to develop a writers conference in Great Smoky Mountains National Park a few years ago, and working with our faculty and participants awakened an interest in creative writing that has, in a way, lain dormant since college days. Although I’ve written creatively in children’s books as part of my work in the Smokies, I only began to write creative nonfiction as well as some fiction for adults at around age 60.
I became a member of the North Carolina Writers Network, which does a great job of promoting the many opportunities for emerging writers, WOW got my attention, and I just started making a point of submitting to the quarterly CNF contest whenever possible. I like the 1,000-word length as it helps me focus on honing a story into a tight package. I find the community of women involved in WOW to be really interesting and diverse. For me, winning is not so important as the cadence of discipline to submit; it gives me incentive to work hard on developing my craft.
WOW!: Thank you for your kind words about and your trust in WOW! You have an impressive bio—could you tell us more about the Tremont Writers Conference?
Frances: Sure. It’s one of the coolest projects I’ve been involved with in my eight years as the creative director at Smokies Life, which is one of four nonprofit partners of the most visited national park in the US. The conference is the coordinated effort of two of these educational park partners, Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont and Smokies Life. Set on the lush, secluded Tremont campus in one of the park’s most beautiful pristine valleys beside a swiftly flowing river, the event immerses 25 selected writers in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction cohorts in an intensive retreat of brainstorming and fine-tuning their work while learning about nature and writing in small groups from Wednesday through Sunday in late October. It’s a beautiful time of year to be in one of the most gorgeous natural areas in North America.
This year we will have Ron Rash as our special guest novelist, Cystal Wilkinson leading the nonfiction cohort, Linda Parsons teaching poetry, and Kelli Jo Ford working in fiction. Acceptance to the Tremont Writers Conference is based on manuscript evaluation. Additional information may be found at writers.gsmit.org. The deadline to apply for this year was May 15, but if someone is interested in the conference, they can reach out to me at Frances@SmokiesLife.org and I can plug them into ongoing channels of information.
WOW!: Thank you for all that great information and opportunity to still attend the conference! Do you have advice for your younger self when it comes to making decisions, believing in yourself, and/or writing? What would your current self say to the younger you?
Frances: I recently had lunch with a twenty-something conservation professional who asked me this same question. It’s a good one. Here’s a version of what my 62-year-old self might say to my 22-year-old self:
“You have known since you were a child that writing is your gift and it’s what you do best.
Your voice is just as valid as anyone else’s. Focus on your writing, study it and cultivate it.
Read read read. Rank the literary life above sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll.
Writing is a life-long pursuit, and you need these early years to learn all
you can to perfect your craft and become competitive.
Don’t be distracted.
Don’t wait forty years to prioritize your passion.”
Learn more at FrancesFigart.com.
WOW!: Well if that isn't the best advice; thank you Frances! Thank you for your wisdom, your time, your submission, and your friendship! I look forward to working more with you in the future.
Crystal Casavant writes.
Everything.
If you follow her blog you have likely laid eyes on every thought she has ever had.
Her debut novel, It Was Never About Me, Was It? is still a work in progress and shall be fully worthy sometime in her lifetime as she switched gears and is seven chapters in on a psychological thriller that has captured her heart. She has written for WOW! Women on Writing, Bring on Lemons, and has been featured in several magazines and ezines relating to credit and collections as well as religious collections for confessional Lutherans.
She runs a busy household (from her parent’s basement) full of intelligent, recalcitrant, and delightful humans who give her breath and keep her heart beating day after day.
Crystal wears many hats (and not just the one in this photo) including college student, mom, musician, singer, administrator, writer, teacher, and friend. She fully believes in being in the moment and doing everything she can to improve the lives of those around her! She recently moved into her parent’s basement and is enjoying the challenge, recently posting some delicious meals titled: Culinary Adventures in My Parent’s Basement.
The world may never know her name, but she prays that because of her, someone may smile a little brighter. She prides herself on doing nice things - yes, even for strangers. She is always up for a challenge whether it’s living in the basement, living on a boat, or buying a dairy farm! You never know where she’ll turn up next or what she’ll be doing, but it’s guaranteed she’ll be having fun!
Check out the latest Contests:
www.wow-womenonwriting.com/contest.php
Here are some scenes from the Tremont Writers Conference that Frances shared with us:
Photographer: Valerie Polk
Photographer: Joye Ardyn Durham
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