Christina Cooke

How did you become a writer? High school. Junior year. I was tricked by my Spanish teacher into switching from the regular stream of English classes into English III AP (long story). We were studying vignettes. After reading and studying a few, my teacher, Mrs. Dooling, assigned us to write our own. The piece I wrote – about apples; to this day, I still love apples – went on to win first place in my town’s newspaper’s short story competition. “Keep going,” Mrs. Dooling said. So I did.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.). Mrs. Dooling, English III AP. Margaret Atwood, THE HANDMAID’S TALE. Zadie Smith, WHITE TEETH. Miss Lou (Louise Bennett), RING DING. 

When and where do you write? I used to exclusively be a nighttime writer, though life’s responsibilities have recently forced me to become a morning writer. I also used to be a coffee shop writer, but I haven’t had the chance to indulge in that luxury ever since the pandemic hit. So now, I write between 7 and 10 am, in my pajamas, at one of two desks shoved in corners around my apartment. 

What are you working on now? An essay about loneliness and belonging, as well as a short story fragment that I have no clue what to do with.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? More often than I’m willing to admit. That’s often how I know what I’m working on is worth pursuing – the narrative does not flow easily from me. It requires that I pause and dig deeper and work towards change in order to see the story in the way that it needs to be told.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? It’s okay to stop writing from time to time – but never, ever, stop reading.

What’s your advice to new writers? Read more than you write. Doing so gives you texture and context for the stories you have inside yourself.

Christina Cooke’s writing has appeared in The Caribbean Writer, PRISM International, Prairie Schooner, Epiphany, Lambda Literary Review, and elsewhere. A MacDowell Fellow and Journey Prize winner, she holds a Master of Arts from the University of New Brunswick and a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Christina was born in Jamaica and is now a Canadian citizen who lives and writes in New York City. BROUGHTUPSY is her debut novel.

Brendan Flaherty

How did you become a writer? Still working on that, but mostly by just loving to write as an activity and exercise. When I first entered the workforce, I’d get up early and write for at least an hour before going to a job. I’ve kept that habit up for almost two decades now. So, if you are what you do, then little by little, I guess.   

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.). There are too many great writers and teachers to name, of course, but my parents are the biggest influences. My mom is a painter who encouraged creativity. And my dad was a lawyer who stressed linguistic precision. My wife is also a big influence. She’s a psychologist who’s driven by empathy and an understanding of human nature. Finally, my neighbor when I was growing up was the school librarian, and she encouraged my reading early with stuff like Brian Jacques’ Redwall series, which is about rodents doing some kind of medieval cosplay. Those books were inspirations and initiations into the power and beauty of literature. So, if you read my dark and stark novel, The Dredge, and find it disturbing—please don’t blame me. Blame the villainous saber-rattling weasels in those YA stories and also Washington, D.C.    

When and where do you write? First thing, ideally before dawn. I get my coffee and go into my office and try not to wake my kids.

What are you working on now? My second novel, which will be more light than dark.  I’m superstitious and don’t want to say too much about it yet.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? Not exactly, but I’ve been writing slower lately, because I’m anxious about politics, climate change, technology, and the future overall. A book requires such a long investment of time. And the world doesn’t need more clutter. So, I have to keep reminding myself that we will never know what tomorrow holds and just keep going and let the mystery unfold, and then I’m off and running again.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? Interrogate every sentence. Have I said exactly what I meant to say, and have I said it in the best words in the best order? I got that from the wonderful writer and teacher, Sigrid Nunez.

What’s your advice to new writers? Do what you love first. Whether it’s writing or hanging out with your kids or exercising, I think it’s important for you as a person and writer to set the tone for your day with as much joy as possible. It will be whittled down. It will be chewed up and spit out. You will likely lose control. But hey, at least things started off pretty good.

Brendan Flaherty is the author of the novel The Dredge, which came out from Grove Atlantic in March 2024. Per the New York Times Book Review: “Flaherty writes with stealthy acuity, his prose seemingly simple yet full of coiled power.” He lives near Hartford with his family. You can read more about him at bflah.com.

Michelle T. King

How did you become a writer? Byproduct of being a professional historian! We are required to write in academia for our livelihood. 

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.). Dorothy Duff Brown (the late, great writing guru of Berkeley, who gave advice on how to get it done), Advice to New Faculty Members by Robert Boice (invaluable for figuring out how to get writing done in small bits)

When and where do you write? In the mornings first thing, if I can manage it. Always keep to the same best brain time if you can. I write on my laptop in an Ikea Poang chair. 

What are you working on now? Having just spent the last ten years researching and writing my book, Chop Fry Watch Learn, I'm now just doing small projects, with new ideas for some articles. Making room for the next big idea!

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? No, not really. The best antidote to writer's block is to write. Even if it's garbage, just writing ideas down will clear the way for better ideas to follow. 

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? Lots of great advice, but of late the idea of a Zero Draft. Just dumping all ideas, questions, quotes, ramblings into a single file and just getting everything in the brain on the page. Also, the idea that you cannot simultaneously Write and Edit. You have to let the creative juices flow for generative writing; editing should be treated as a different stage that cannot occur at the same time. Forgot where I learned that though, maybe in Boice?

What’s your advice to new writers? Figure out the best time of day that you work and treat that as sacred. Touch the project every day—the longer you are away from a project, the harder it is to get back into it. I think Robert Caro had some kind of word count goal. But you have to treat it like a humdrum job and do it daily, not just thinking of writing during moments of inspiration. 

Michelle T. King is an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she specializes in modern Chinese gender and food history. She was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars grant for Chop Fry Watch Learn: Fu Pei-mei and the Making of Modern Chinese Food (W. W. Norton, 2024). King is a co-editor of Modern Chinese Foodways (MIT Press, forthcoming), editor of Culinary Nationalism in Asia (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019), and editor of a special issue of Global Food History (Summer 2020) on culinary regionalism in China. She is author of Between Birth and Death: Female Infanticide in Nineteenth-Century China (Stanford University Press, 2014). Her work has appeared in Food and Foodways, Global Food History, Gastronomica, Journal of Women’s History, Social History, and other publications.