Informing One Art by Practicing Another
Emerging Form talks with Sarah Gilman on the "creative smush"
It’s a big world out there—so many ways to explore it.
Preview: Episode 32 with illustrator/writer/editor Sarah Gilman
I remember hearing the phrase Jack of all trades, master of none, and wondering about the actual truth of it. Equally true is the possibility that by feeding multiple interests and talents, they in turn feed each other, all of them becoming richer for the cross-fertilization. That’s certainly the case with our guest Sarah Gilman, who talks in this episode about exploring both writing and illustration—and we discuss some of the pitfalls and upsides of working in multiple genres. We also talk about the importance of community in a creative practice, and the blessings of getting up from whatever project you’re working on and going outside.
Sarah Gilman is a Washington state-based freelance writer, illustrator and editor who covers the environment, natural history, science, and place. In her writing, she seeks to illuminate the complicated ways people relate to landscapes and other species. In her visual art, she’s most interested in the cultivation of wonder, and the ways it might help more of us come to value and make space for wildness and each other. Her current work is at the nexus of the two fields. Her writing and reporting have appeared in The Atlantic, Audubon Magazine, Hakai Magazine, The Washington Post, High Country News, BioGraphic, National Geographic News, Smithsonian.com, The Guardian, Patagonia’s The Cleanest Line, and The Last Word on Nothing. Her work has been anthologized in The Best Women’s Travel Writing, Volume 11. In 2021, she will be a Knight Science Journalism fellow.
Things We’re Reading:
Rosemerry:
Well, speaking of working in multiple genres, I’m very interested by the novel in verse—which is what it sounds like, a novel written completely in poetry. Why? Because it’s awesome! As evidenced by Alone, a survival story for middle-grade students (great for adults, too), written by Colorado author Megan Freeman. Think Island of the Blue Dolphins, but in your own back yard.
Another example of one of my favorite poets writing in another genre is World of Wonders: In praise of fireflies, whale sharks, and other astonishments. In this gorgeous book of short essays, poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil writes of motherhood, animals, weather, and wonders of the earth, and in every well-wrought essay brings us something of value—a mirror, a question, a way to move forward or perhaps just be more fully here.
Christie:
I just finished reading Normal People by Sally Rooney. The novel is about a complicated relationship between two people, Marianne and Connell, over the course of four years as they go from high school to college. The narrative deals with the shifting power dynamics and insecurities between the two of them as well as issues of class and privilege. Rooney does a wonderful job of conveying her characters’ inner lives, and the complicated, hard to classify nature of their relationship.
I recently picked up a copy of historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s book, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, which tells the history of the United States from the perspective of Indigenous peoples. With all that’s been happening in our country as of late, it feels like a good moment to consider the nation’s history as it was experienced by the people who first inhabited this land.
Four Easy Steps for Finding Metaphors
In this episode, Sarah talks about how working in multiple media helps her to think more metaphorically. For those who feel sometimes metaphorically challenged, I offer this simple formula that I use frequently in my own writing practice.
Rosemerry’s formula for making metaphors of EVERYTHING
1. Let your eyes land on an object, anything
2. Make a list of its attributes. What does it look/taste/feel/smell/sound like?
3. Make a list of its uses. What does it do? What is its purpose?
4. Ask it, what do you have to teach me?
*
a promise: EVERYTHING has something to teach you
EVERYTHING can be a metaphor for life/your life
Two Questions:
(share your answers with us here on Substack or in our FB group)
What two (or more genres) do you work in and how do they inform each other?
What creative practice that you are not doing now would you most like to explore?