Creative Input
What I'm reading and listening to as we ease into summer.
This is (was) a little strawberry candle. A student gave it to me, back in May. It was perfectly strawberry-shaped and strawberry-colored and strawberry-scented, with imprints of tiny strawberry seeds. It fit in the palm of my hand and I loved it so much that I kept it in its little plastic wrapper for over two months and then I wondered . . . what was I saving it for, exactly? So I lit it at my desk at the start of summer vacation, on the morning of summer solstice, which is also (hopefully) the restart of a writing routine. Because little strawberry candles are meant to be enjoyed.
Things I’ve Read and Listened to Lately
This conversation between Andy J. Pizza and poet Maggie Smith on Creative Pep Talk. Smith has so much to say about writing outside of your genre, and how she entered memoir writing as a poet.
Speaking of Maggie Smith, I’m really enjoying her playlists on Spotify.
I happened to catch Jenny Sturgeon on the radio as I was driving to my sleep study (not a great time!). Her songs remind me a lot of Katherine May’s writing—- both are beautiful meditations on the natural world.
This beautiful essay, “The Island” by Tove Jansson, captures so much of what I feel about summers and seasons and going someplace wild (returning someplace wild) to reset.
Trying to ease into a slower, more meditative pace this summer, I’ve been using the bookends approach to reading, starting right now with poetry in the morning and reading fiction at night, with craft books in between. What poetry collections would you recommend? So far re-reads of Maggie Smith, Ruth Stone, and Mary Oliver are on the list.
At the beginning of the year, I restarted my subscribtion to One Story, which I loved way back when the magazine launched. It features a single excellent short story per month, nothing else—- no articles, no ads, no images. The year got away from me, and I’ve been working through a few months worth of stories and then leaving them for someone else to find in a Little Free Library.
In my day job as a school librarian and in my writing life, there’s a lot of discussion about artificial intelligence, which is why I appreciated Jaswinder Bolina’s editorial in the Washington Post: “How to defend against the rise of ChatGPT? Think like a poet.”
Books I’ve Read Lately (for Adults)
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert (a re-read for me to start off the summer)
Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May
Goldenrod: Poems by Maggie Smith (a re-read to kick off my bookends approach)
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
Books I’ve Read Lately (Picture Books)
Big by Vashti Harrison
My Indigo World: A True Story of the Color Blue by Rosa Chang
There Was a Party for Langston by Jason Reynolds, Jerome Pumphrey, and Jarrett Pumphrey
The Tower of Life: How Yaffa Eliach Rebuilt Her Town in Stories and Photographs by Chana Stiefel and Susan Gal
*Please note that the book lists above contain affiliate links to Bookshop.org, a site that helps support local independent bookstores.
And a quick event reminder!
I’ll be reading from Make Way this Saturday, July 1st, at 10:00 at the Curtis Library in Brunswick, Maine. The event is being held in conjunction with Robert McCloskey: The Art of Wonder exhibit, which looks absolutely wonderful.
I’ll also be signing copies of Make Way at Print: A Bookstore in Portland (pre-order link here!) as well as Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shops in Topsham and Freeport.
What about you? Where are you getting your creative input these days? What are you reading, watching, listening to, enjoying as we head into July?
Some wonderful recommendations here. I especially love the poetry suggestions as I’ve recently been yearning for a bit of poetry and wanted some contemporary works. Thank you.