Member Spotlight: Joan Silber

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Among other things, writing reminds us that other people have interior lives. Which we’re addicted to forgetting.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? I just show up. By now I also know that being stuck is part of the process, if not the best part. I just keep at it.

What is your favorite time to write? I work between lunch and dinner. This seems to be unusual, but I am really not a morning person.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? Cultivate equanimity. Try to resist bad advice. Ask more of yourself. (Nobody told me these–I made them up and they are what I tell people now.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? Although I’m the farthest thing from a techie, I’m actually happy about the way we can communicate around the world now because of technology. I love not being so parochial.

Joan Silber’s Secrets of Happiness is out now with Counterpoint.