Member Spotlight: Wendy Johnson

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? For me personally, writing is a way to exercise my curiosity and also come to a more profound understanding of the things I care about. I may start a writing project feeling that I know a subject and what I want to say about it, but almost always the process of writing and revising reveals something more complex and nuanced than I realized at the outset. The final product is rarely exactly what I had in my mind at the outset. It’s a mode of both more intense self-discovery and a way to deeply explore issues I feel passionate about. For the world, it worries me that both writing and reading are becoming endangered. Sharing and developing ideas through this unique art form has been key to the evolution of human thought and ideas. The first time someone I didn’t know read my book and told me it shifted the way they looked at the world and that it changed their behavior, I felt an enormous responsibility. This medium has never been more crucial as a way to share and collectively imagine new ways of living on the planet. It’s critical to our survival as a species.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Usually some kind of meditative physical activity, like a long walk with my dog in the arroyo near my home, or a hike in the mountains.

What is your favorite time to write? I always thought I was a night owl, but now that I’m almost 60, my brain doesn’t really work after about 8 pm, so I’m best in the morning after getting a cup of coffee, around 8 am to noon.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? “Writing is a team sport,” from my friend Robin Mclean. Get yourself a good community of writers to support you. I had an amazing writing coach/editor when I started off, Carolyn Flynn, and I did a number of residencies and workshops as well. Hedgebrook was the most transformative for me. Since our residency, which was the last one in February of 2020 before COVID shut everything down, our cohort of 6 fabulous women writers has continued to meet monthly to support and workshop each other’s work. And Hedgebrook also cultivates an amazing community of alums all across the globe. Another great experience was Hugo House’s book lab led by Sonora Jha. Writing seems like a solitary activity, but like most art, that’s all an illusion. You gotta have a good team to progress and get better.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? I think it’s a great way to express my activism, shift the paradigm, and find new ways of living on earth. Now at the end of my career as a physician, I’m excited to embark on this endeavor share some of the lessons I’ve learned and hopefully affect some meaningful change.

Wendy Johnson’s Kinship Medicine: Cultivating Interdependence to Heal the Earth and Ourselves is out now with North Atlantic Books.