Photo: Ada Limón © Jude Domski

Ten Breaths of Inspiration for the Writing Life

BY MAGAZINE COLUMNIST CORINNA BARSAN

Ada Limón grew up in Glen Ellen and Sonoma, California. A graduate of New York University’s MFA Creative Writing Program, she has received fellowships from the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and won the Chicago Literary Award for Poetry.

She is the author of three books of poetry, Lucky Wreck (Autumn House Press, 2006), This Big Fake World (Pearl Editions, 2007), and Sharks in the Rivers (Milkweed Editions, 2010).

She is currently at work on a novel, a book of essays, and a new collection of poems.

Author website: www.adalimon.com

Author blog: www.adalimon.blogspot.com

The Magazine of Yoga On The Lit Mat Interview

one

Who or what was your greatest influence in picking up the pen?

I’m not 100% certain as to what began my writing life, but I do know it did not seem like a choice, but rather an inevitability.

I have an incredibly supportive family and friend network, who, for some reason, have always encouraged me to write. I think it might be because I talk too much. My conversation with the world started very early and is still, clearly, continuing. With writing, I just began to listen more, pause, and let the world talk back.

two

In what ways do you make room for the creative process in your
day-to-day?

This year, I’ve been lucky enough to write full-time. But even when I worked those wild and hectic hours for magazines, I found some time to write.

Nowadays, I try to work 4-5 hours a day on writing projects. Making time is a huge part of the discipline. It’s hard to force yourself to do creative work, but if you don’t treat it as a job, it won’t treat you like the boss.

three

Which one word, image, sound, feeling, or memory defines the act of writing for you?

I suppose “listen” is the word that defines that act of writing for me. It’s this very odd thing to listen to the sounds the world makes, the sound you make in the world. But it’s absolutely necessary to do so if you’re interested in writing work that is honest and uniquely your own.

four

Where do you find inspiration when the well runs dry?

Ah yes. Reading. Reading. Reading. Books are like jumper cables for writers. Connecting, sparking, saying “go.”

Also, long walks. It takes a lot, especially these days, to quiet the brain enough to listen to the voice underneath the voice, the under-you. I find if I walk for more than 2 hours, by the third hour, I’m plugged in to the body-less me.

five

Is there a tidbit of writing advice that has stayed with you over the years?

When I was going away to graduate school, my stepdad, Brady said, “Don’t let them change your voice, let them teach you, but don’t let them change you.” And I’ve always taken that to heart.

I think it’s easy to get carried away by how everyone else does things and start to distrust your own thought pattern. When in fact, your own thought pattern is, as a writer, all you’ve got to rely on. Trusting your own churning rhythm is essential.

six

What is something you know now about writing that you didn’t know when you were just starting out?

I had no idea how important writing would become, to me, to my life. I started out just enjoying it, its tricks of sound and pow, and now I find it utterly crucial to my sanity, to my being, to how I exist in the world.

seven

Whether you do yoga or another form of physical or spiritual practice, how does it affect your work?

I do yoga at least four times a week.

On a very basic level, if you are a writer, you are often sitting in one place for long concentrated periods of time, and it’s absolutely necessary to strengthen and stretch, simply so you don’t end up crippled by your writing chair.

I feel very centered and connected when I do yoga, the shushing of the brain, the space in things. It’s another way to listen, to open.

eight

What is your most favorite guilty pleasure?

Wine. Though I don’t feel guilty about it really. Oh, I suppose television.

I have a lot of writer friends who claim never to watch TV, but I do admit that sometimes crawling into bed with some dumb TV show playing is totally satisfying in its own particular way. It’s like eating frosting out of a can but with your eyes.

nine

If you had to pick one book to recommend as a must-read,
which would it be?

Oh, one book? That’s tough. Well, for writers I would say, The Elements of Style (Strunk & White) is an absolute must. Really, it is.

ten

What is on your nightstand now?

I just walked into my bedroom to check, here’s an accurate list of current nightstand books:

Wolf, The Lives of Jack London, James L. Haley
Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
Savage Beauty, The Life of St.Vincent Millay
Suck on the Marrow, Camille T. Dungy
Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales
Come On All You Ghosts, Matthew Zapruder

The pause that refreshes! You can find Corinna Barsan’s musings and discoveries on her blog at Shiny White Page.

© 2011, The Magazine of Yoga, LLC.