Member Spotlight: Kimberly Dark

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Language is a proxy for meaning, and without meaning, humans don’t survive too well. We need ways to witness ourselves and each other, to make sense–not just of what’s happening around us, but within us too. Writing is one way to do that, artfully, intelligently, sneakily, powerfully.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? I use sleep as a suggestion box. If I have a problem I’m trying to solve in writing, or I’m waiting for a path to make itself clear, I think about it just before bed and request a way to open up either in my dreams, or upon waking. It works for me.

What is your favorite time to write? I enjoy writing first thing in the morning when my mind is fresh, but if I’m working on a project, it pulls me along. I write whenever it tells me to.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? I’d prefer to tell you the WORST piece of writing advice I ever received, because it freed me. My high school English teacher told me I’d never be a great writer because I cared more about what the content of the writing and its impact, than about language itself. Only writers who were language-obsessed could be great. Well, that’s horseshit, but it freed me from greatness, and I’ve felt entitled to write anything I want ever since.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? I don’t feel any more or less excited in this age than any other. I write to make sense of being alive, to offer something meaningful to others. I did that yesterday. I do it today and will continue on any future day I’m given.

Kimberly Dark’s Fat, Pretty, and Soon to Be Old: A Makeover for Self and Society is out now with AK Press.