Member Spotlight: Rosemary Esehagu

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Writing is important because it is medicine for the soul– it has the potential to heal you and your readers. Writing also inspires the soul and gives us an opportunity to be creators. When you write, the world is yours to create. That’s very freeing and edifying.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? I can cure writer’s block by doing one of the following: 1) See visual art or read someone else’s art that I’ve never read before. 2) Surround myself in nature. I love watching water or gazing at the sky and admiring the different cloud formations. 3) Start writing nonsense. My writing brain gets intrigued or frustrated by my nonsense and decides to flaunt its perceived brilliance. Next thing you know, I’m writing something (great) that I would have never thought to write without this exercise of just writing something, anything.

What is your favorite time to write? In the middle of the night when everyone is asleep.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? Don’t wait for inspiration to write. Writing is discipline, so just to do it, whether you feel it or not.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? As James Baldwin had said, I am a “witness to whence I came, where I am. Witness to what I’ve seen and the possibilities that I think I see.” In today’s political and cultural climate, I am called to be a writer, to witness, to write, and to describe what others are too busy to describe (another James Baldwin quote).

Rosemary Esehagu’s Out of the Cocoon: The Journey to Becoming is out now with Manhattan Book Group.