A few years ago I was at the AWP conference in L.A. when I met Brenna Gomez through a mutual friend from grad school. Brenna and I had gone through the same program, but at different times. She gave off a warm, writerly energy, and I knew she was going to be someone I would hear about again. Fast forward a couple years, and I went to a local reading where Brenna was one of the featured writers. I was mesmerized by her visceral work (and you can read that very same engrossing story if you subscribe to Plume for July!), and, I admit, a little intimidated by her publishing credits. Plume is delighted to feature Brenna’s work this summer. We hope you enjoy our interview with her!
Plume: When did you know you were a writer?
Brenna Gomez: I knew I wanted to be a writer after working in the non-profit sector for several years. I was struggling to write and wanted to carve out space in my life for my writing. That’s when I applied for MFA programs. The whole time I was in my MFA, I learned so much, but I felt like I was a baby writer. I knew I was a writer, but I think a lot of the time we don’t feel it despite the knowing. I think the moment it clicked—when I really felt like a writer —was during my first few minutes at my Hedgebrook writing residency. I was walking down the trail from my cabin in the woods on Whidbey Island, and a Hedgebrook staff member was on the phone. “Oh, I’ll have to call you back. Here comes one of the writers.” Swoon! But the reality is it doesn’t have to be a big moment like this. We’re writers when we decide we are. The trick is just to get ourselves to believe it and have that feeling last.
P: Where do you get your ideas?
BG: It really depends. In my fiction, inspiration often springs from a striking image, a line of dialogue I overhear a person say in real life, or a person I don’t know very well that I find fascinating. In my nonfiction, I’m obviously pulling more from my own life. I’ve been reading a lot of memoir to see all the different ways it’s possible to do so. I’ve also found that reading more poetry has helped my language—the way I construct sentences, my word choice, etc.
P: Where do you write?
BG: I write in lots of different places: coffee shops, the UNM campus, in bed, on my couch, at my desk, at the kitchen table. I spent a lot of January writing while sitting on the living room floor. I had printed my entire memoir manuscript and cut it into sections and fragments. I needed all the space to conceptualize the book as a whole.
P: Do you have any writing rituals?
BG: I don’t normally have any writing rituals but a few developed while I was getting close to a deadline in January. It was like I had to cast a spell on myself to get in the right headspace for writing. I’d light a candle, brew some tea, put on a specific set of albums on Spotify (Julien Baker, boygenius, Phoebe Bridgers, etc.), and settle in.
P: How supportive is your local community for writers?
BG: The overall writing community in Albuquerque is super supportive. There’s always someone willing to read your work or come to a reading. Poetry is huge in town, so it has felt a little lonely at times as a prose writer, especially after I graduated from the MFA and didn’t have automatic access to so many writers. Of course, there’s DimeStories! But I’d love to see more happening in the larger Albuquerque community that was focused on longer prose pieces. I did teach a few fiction workshops at the National Hispanic Cultural Center that did this. Valerie Martinez, their Director of History and Literary Arts, invited me to teach. She is really working to make the NHCC a hub for writing again.
P: What are some of your self-care practices?
BG: I need to keep my body moving to make sure my mind stays centered. Yoga, walking, and just getting outside always help with that. I also like to take long hot baths with soothing music. If I’m feeling overwhelmed with a to do list, I’ll throw on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix. Every time they fade to black for what should be a commercial break, I’ll pause the show and tackle one small thing on my list (writing that difficult email, putting a load of laundry in, making my schedule for the week, etc.). That way I can have a little fun while still getting some things done.
P: What is your favorite book about writing?
BG: I remember reading Stephen King’s On Writing a really long time ago. I know I enjoyed that and learned from it. I haven’t read a book about writing in a while. I always read books like this with a grain of salt. Someone’s advice can be so relegated to their own experience that it might make no sense for me. A lot of craft books insist that there are only certain ways to do things, and I just don’t buy into that. That said, I’m looking forward to reading Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison.
P: What are you currently working on?
BG: I’m currently working on two books. One is a short story collection about Latinas in rural Southern Colorado and New Mexico. The other is a memoir on grief and violence.
Brenna Gomez is the recipient of a 2017 Hedgebrook residency. Her fiction has appeared in Prairie Schooner, StoryQuarterly, Year’s Best Weird Fiction Volume 5, and The Dark Magazine. She interviewed Roxane Gay for Blue Mesa Review, and her interview with author Sharon Oard Warner can be found in The Rumpus. Brenna received her MFA from the University of New Mexico, where she was the Editor-in-Chief of Blue Mesa Review and the 2015 recipient of the Hispanic Writer Award for the UNM Summer Writers’ Conference in Santa Fe. She has taught creative writing at UNM and the National Hispanic Cultural Center. You can follow her on Twitter @BrennaGo.