Emma Törzs

How did you become a writer? Reading: constantly! Widely! Playing imaginative games as a weird kid with my weird friends. Growing up in a house full of books, courtesy of my mother, who reads more than anyone I know. Being read to by both my parents. Telling my sister stories late at night in our shared bedroom. Writing fan fiction in college. The truth is, I’ve been writing stories since I learned to hold a pencil, but I’m also pretty much the opposite of a self-taught writer. I minored in Creative Writing in undergrad, got an MFA in Fiction, went to the Clarion West Writers Workshop six years ago, and still take writing classes often (recently took two excellent ones via Catapult—an online seminar on experimental translation with Poupeh Missaghi, and a class with H.D. Hunter on character development in non-linear time). I love any chance to be a student, especially now that I’m a professor. I think I did not “become” a writer so much as am “becoming” one continuously. 

Name your writing influences My very biggest writing influence is, and has always been, my friends. The first stories I created were all in collaboration with childhood friends; we built worlds and populated them with characters and lived in those stories completely. Since then, the different stages of my writing life have all come with different influential friendships, and when I write, I am often writing to delight, impress, and converse with those friends. Also I travel anywhere I can, any chance I get. In terms of my first book, the two biggest creative influences were probably Maggie Stiefvater’s novel Call Down the Hawk, which taught me to plot (finally!), and Joanna Newsom’s song “Emily” from her 2006 album Ys, which I will forever be trying to write into novel form.

Other random influences: A writer whose sentences are so good I’d let her walk on me in stilettos is Patricia Lockwood. When people ask me what to read for fun, I always recommend Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. A story collection with no false notes is Tender by Sofia Samatar. Two books that crack me up are The Idiot and Either/Or by Elif Batuman. A book that recently made me sob in public is The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez. A book I wish I’d written is Piranesi by Susanna Clark. A book I read and loved twenty years ago is Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. A book I read and loved last month is Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott. An author I’d follow anywhere is Leigh Bardugo. An author probably everyone should read is Octavia Butler. A book that made me say “OMG WTF I love this” every fifteen pages is The First Bad Man by Miranda July. A childhood life-changer was Monica Furlong’s Wise Child. A true and present genius is Kelly Link. Two stories I can’t read without crying are “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu and “Wait a Minute” by Lucia Berlin. A story that works for every fiction-writing lesson plan imaginable is “Jubilee” by Kirsten Valdez Quade. A book I’d get into the ring for is Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker. A book that haunts me is Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys. A story collection that fizzes my brain is What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi. A book that lives up to nearly two centuries of hype is David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Ditto The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.

I have to stop there or I’ll be listing forever. I’m already stressed about all the things I didn’t include.

When and where do you write? I used to write exclusively in coffee shops, but during the pandemic one of our housemates moved out and I started renting their vacated room as an office, and now I do most of my work in there. It’s pine green and full of books and plants and art and cat fur, very “dark academia” meets “Wow, I see you just discovered Pinterest.” Also, I have a treadmill desk, and let me tell you, you haven’t written until you’ve written at 3.5 miles an hour. I write on days I’m not teaching, anytime before the sun goes down, after which I’m only good for a good time.

What are you working on now? I’ve just started a new novel. I’m too superstitious to give many details, and who knows, I may end up scrapping it, but for now it’s a contemporary fantasy that takes place on and around the Great Lakes. Keywords include: loon, moon, loom, broom.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? For me, “writer’s block” really means “anxiety” and/or “existential depression,” so, yes. The summer of 2020 was probably the worst writer’s block I’ve ever had. It was the early days of the pandemic and George Floyd had just been murdered blocks from my house, and it felt deeply selfish to devote my energy to fiction when there was so much in the real world that needed my attention. From May through August I wrote not one single word. Writer’s block often comes hand-in-hand with times of questioning my role in the world and in my community, because I cannot help but feel sometimes that my work is inconsequential and will help no one and my short time on this earth should be devoted elsewhere. But I always end up coming back to the page, because for better or worse, I love writing too much to ever truly give it up for a more noble cause.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? Victor LaValle: “Don’t be an asshole to your peers.” Peter Bognanni: “The best books are both funny and sad.”

What’s your advice to new writers? Don’t be an asshole to your peers—or to anyone! Unless they really deserve it. Try to write because you’re curious, not because you think you have the answer.

Emma Törzs is a writer, teacher, and occasional translator based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her fiction has been honored with an NEA fellowship in Prose,
a World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction, and an O. Henry Prize, and her debut novel, Ink Blood Sister Scribe, is out May 30th, 2023 with William Morrow in the US, and July 6th with Century/Del Rey in the UK.

Jack Zipes

How did you become a writer? As soon as I could write and draw as a young boy, I began writing stories about dogs and baseball players. By the time I reached high school, I became the editor of my school newspaper.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.). It is difficult to name influences because there have been so many and because I cover many different fields. In fiction, I'd say Kafka and Camus have had a great influence. The German philosopher of Hope, Ernst Bloch, along with many other philosophers from the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory such as Herbert Marcuse and Theodor Adorno, have influenced me.

When and where do you write? I generally write from 6:30 am to 1:00 pm every day. Then in the afternoon, I read or do some chores.

What are you working on now? I have just finished a new collection of essays, Buried Treasures: The Political Power of Fairy Tales. At the same time, I have edited three volumes of fairy tales by the neglected, author Gower Wilson, who published them from 1929-1931 -- Red Fairy Tales, Green Fairy Tales and Silver Fairy Tales.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? Not really. Writing has been my relief and sanctuary.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? Write from  your heart and write to resist all the brutality in this perverted world.

What’s your advice to new writers? Never let anyone tell you how to write or advise you how to write.

Jack Zipes is Professor Emeritus of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota. In addition to his scholarly work, he is an active storyteller in public schools, founded Neighborhood Bridges at the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, and has written fairy tales for children and adults. Some of his recent publications include: The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre (2012), and The Golden Age of Folk and Fairy Tales: From the Brothers Grimm to Andrew Lang (2013). Most recently he has published The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: An Anthology of Magical Tales (2017), and Fearless Ivan and His Faithful Horse Double-Hump (2018). In 2019, he founded his own press called Little Mole and Honey Bear and has published The Giant Ohl and Tiny Tim (2019), Johnny Breadless (2020), Yussuf the Ostrich (2020), Keedle the Great and All You Want to Know About fascism (2020), Tistou, the Boy with the Green Thumbs of Peace (2022), and Haunting and Hilarious Fairy Tales (2022).

Ann Jacobus

How did you become a writer? Acting or directing were my early aspirations but I was too inhibited, had four kids, and didn’t live in LA or NYC. In fiction writing I get to do both plus produce, design sets and costumes, stage manage, etc. and can work at any hour any place—a necessity if you have four kids. I didn’t start writing seriously though until my mid-thirties and didn’t publish a novel until my fifties.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.). I keep a running list of all my favorite writers and books in order to answer questions like this because I tend to go blank on the spot. But it’s seven pages long now, single spaced. Writers learn by reading—and watching and listening. I’ve always been obsessed with story and felt that plotting and premise were weaknesses of mine. So I studied screenplays, plays and watched films for homework. A few screenwriter-playwrights I revere include Thornton Wilder, Charlie Kaufman, Nora Ephron, and Stanley Kubrick for the way they tell a story as much as for the stories they tell. Novelists whose writing I’m in awe of include Miriam Towes (The Fying Troutmans, All My Puny Sorrows), Jeffrey Eugenides (Middlesex), Virginia Woolf (anything), and J.R.R. Tokien (the Lord of the Rings Trilogy). Other inspiring writers for me include Dr. Suess, Dav Pilkey, Carlos Castaneda, C.S. Lewis and Annie Dillard.

When and where do you write? Mornings—I have just a few hours of semi-productive multi-neuron firing in me and then I’m useless. My “office” is a comfy chair with my laptop screen raised to eye level thanks to a small, foldable stand to reduce neck and shoulder wear and tear. I recommend it. Long plane flights are good—Isn’t there some writer who flies to Tokyo and back to revise manuscripts? I’d like to try that if someone will pay for it.

What are you working on now? A ghost story/thriller set in Arkansas about a religiously conservative family and their increasingly clairvoyant daughter’s relationship with an agitated spirit.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? Yeah, right now. After I send the above ms. off I don’t have any ideas for my next novel. I envy people with a long list of premises just waiting to be spun into prose. Mine come slowly and piecemeal, similar to extracting molars. But I’ll start researching something that fascinates me and wait for a story to bloom.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? An author I admired told me early on that the only writers he knew who were successful were the ones who made it their first priority and never gave up. More myopically, I go by, “Just do it.” Just get something—anything—down and don’t judge yourself. Then, improve it. Also research and write about what pulls you and what you feel passionate about. You may be improving it for a long time.

What’s your advice to new writers? You are perfecting a craft, no different from learning to play a musical instrument to the point where people will willingly pay to listen to your version of “Für Elise.” Don’t be afraid or put off by the work you need to do, but don’t kid yourself either. Write every day, if possible (grocery lists count), take classes, find good readers and/or a writing group. Then, even something that’s well-crafted, and has readers responding enthusiastically, STILL has to be promoted vigorously by you the author, a whole new, unpaid skill-set. If there’s anything else you’d rather be doing, then you are better off doing that. Harumph. But not to be too discouraging—if you can get beyond all the nay-sayers, you’re golden. I wouldn’t do anything else.

Ann Jacobus is the author of YA novels The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent, and Romancing the Dark in the City of Light. She graduated from Dartmouth College, and earned an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has published essays, articles, poetry, and short fiction; teaches YA novel writing for Stanford Continuing Studies; and is a former suicide crisis line counselor and always a mental health advocate. When she’s not reading, she enjoys swimming, sailing, dogs and kids, and binging Netflix series. Find her at www.annjacobus.com, and on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.