Member Spotlight: Kelly Dwyer

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? When I was three years old, I told my mother I needed to learn the alphabet because I was going to be a writer. I can’t remember a time when writing wasn’t important to me as a form of creative self-expression, and as a way to “talk back” to the books I loved. I believe that writing is an important way to communicate during any era, but today, when there is so much turmoil in the world, it seems especially important as a way to create empathy, embrace inclusion, and entertain people when we need it most.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Reading others’ books, going for walks, and reading over your own work are all good cures. However, the most effective cure for writer’s block is to write every day. If you get up every day and write, the way we get up every day to brush our teeth, then it becomes a habit. You might have good days (when the muse visits, as it were) and bad (when you feel thick and slow), but on the good days, you’re prepared. As Isaak Dinesen said, “I write every day, without hope and without despair.”

What is your favorite time to write? I love to have a cup of tea, do the New York Times puzzles, and then get to work. I like to be in a half-dream state. But as a mom, I’ve learned to write whenever I have the chance.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? If you’ll indulge me, there are three: “Write the book you want to read.” –Toni Morrison “Don’t look down, but don’t look up, either.” –Robert Siegal “So what?” –the comment my Introduction to Creative Writing professor wrote on many of our poems. It seemed harsh at the time, but now I think it’s the only rubric that matters.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? Connecting with readers. I wrote two novels pretty much straight out of graduating from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in the ’90s, and my third novel is coming out this August. During that time, pretty much everything has changed. When I wrote my first two novels, if you published a book, the only people who reviewed it were professional critics and reviewers. Now, I have the opportunity to connect with readers throughout the publication process and beyond. I think we’re all essentially cave people standing around a fire, telling and listening to stories. The fact that I can tell a story and know that people are listening, and know what they think and feel about that story, and that I can easily share others’ stories, is incredibly exciting to me!

Kelly Dwyer’s Ghost Mother is out Tuesday with Union Square & Co.