An Interview with Dawn Sperber

Our featured writer for December is Dawn Sperber! I met Dawn in the MFA program at UNM back in 2007. She has such a warm and sweet energy about her, and her writing hums with magical assuredness. We are so very excited to share her unique work with you, and we couldn’t think of a better writer to go with Plume’s Solstice theme for December. Please enjoy this interview with Dawn.

Plume: When did you know you were a writer?

Dawn Sperber: Fifteen, maybe? Since I was ten, I’d dreamed of being a writer when I grew up. Then, when I was fifteen, I wrote a story for a class assignment, and this short story came out of somewhere, from the perspective of a WWII Air Force fighter who falls in love with a Japanese woman who gets put in an internment camp. The story included all these details and situations I hadn’t thought of before and didn’t even know I knew. It felt uncanny that I’d written a military story, so unlike me. 

I loved that feeling. It was like opening a door, and anything could be revealed behind it, kind of beyond my control, even though I was the one writing it. The words got stilted and wrong if I tried to direct the story too much, but if I followed the feeling of the story, new ideas just swept me up like a current.   

Now and then, I’d think about how it felt to write that story. Then, when I was sixteen, I got a beautiful journal and started writing everything I could think of in it. At eighteen, I started writing every day, and I still do that. So, I guess it all changed for me at fifteen.

P: Where do you get your ideas?

DS: I often get story ideas from images, whether I see them in a dream or my imagination or a moment that I live. Sometimes, I write stories off of writing prompts I find in contests, whether or not I’m not interested in the contest. Other times, I pick a list of random words from the dictionary and build a story around them. Or, I’m haunted by a feeling that I want to explore and try to share; then, I have to build a world around it to make it a story. The places my stories start are often pretty different than the stories they become.

P: Where do you write?

DS: In the morning, I have a writing session in my journal at the café, while I eat breakfast. Then I come home and work at my computer in my home office.

P:  Do you have any writing rituals?

DS: I have a few. I decorate my journals and choose intentions to dress them with. That’s a good one.

I also write with both hands, starting at the top of my journal’s page with my left hand and switching to the right hand halfway down the page. I like how switching hands makes me think a little differently, how I have to slow down and concentrate hard with the left hand, and then I can whizz out the words with my right hand. Changing tempos can make me consider my ideas differently. Plus, I write a lot and by alternating hands, I don’t tire out my right hand as quickly, while also I’m daily strengthening my left hand and making it nimbler. ~Ever since I was seven and saw a schoolmate trying to write after he broke his right arm, I’ve worked on my ambidextrous skills. It’s been a while, so by now, I’m pretty good.

I talk about some fancier writing ritual suggestions in my December Plume letter. (What!?)   

P: How supportive is your local community for writers?

DS: I have a feeling the Albuquerque literary community is a lot more supportive than I realize. I’ve been going to more book readings and slams and writing workshops this year, and each time I do, I end up enjoying it and leave inspired by something and feel more connected to the literary community. Some recent Albuquerque events I’ve enjoyed are the Bad Mouth readings, book release readings hosted by Organic Books and 516 Arts, and Jenn Simpson’s writing workshop meetups.   

P: What are some of your self-care practices?

DS: I write soon after I wake up in the morning, and that’s at least forty-five minutes of letting myself say whatever I want, whether it’s journaling or talking about stories I read or outlining the scene I’ll write that day. 

I feel better in general when I do yoga. 

Taking care of plants calms me. My house has a good variety, and I grew my first veggie garden this year, which has been grounding and rejuvenating. 

I like to listen to podcasts and audio books while I clean or do yardwork. That’s a gentle way to keep my writing brain engaged, analyzing different literary elements while I’m listening without stress, enjoying the stories. (This American Life, The New Yorker: Fiction, and Spookedare some current favorite podcasts).

Cooking and baking are revitalizing creative acts, even more so when I can use local produce. 

I like taking photos of some of the beauty I glimpse all over. 

I also like drumming, singing, dancing, and expressing creative energy however it’s leaning. ~Basically, I seem to get my writing-mind back on track when I let myself express for even a little bit without an agenda. 

P: What is your favorite book about writing?

DS: I’m not good at picking one favorite of almost anything. 

One book I love is The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde. That’s a beautiful catalyst of a book about offering creative works as gifts, rather than considering them goods in a commerce economy. 

Storycraft by Jack Hart is a great book designed toward writing narrative nonfiction, but its insightful breakdown of craft elements applies toward fiction as well.

Strunk and White’s good ol’ The Elements of Style still blows my mind with its concise suggestions for style elements.

P: What are you currently working on?

DS: Currently, I’m doing a last revision of my novella before I send out my short story collection again. I finished my collection and sent it a few places at the very end of 2018, but then I ended up revising a few of the stories and learning more about story structure during the process. A couple weeks ago, I got ready to send out my manuscript again and when I reread my novella, right away, I saw ideas to make it better. So, now I’m committed to this revision before I send out my collection again this month. (But I had missed the novella’s world, so it feels good to briefly revisit the story, anyway.)

Sign up for Plume for December and you’ll receive a letter of encouragement from Dawn, as well as some of her creative work!

Dawn Sperber is a writer and freelance editor living in New Mexico. Her stories and poems contain magic, since that’s what really happens in life, but not the kind of magic with fancy wands or perfect edges, necessarily. She’s drawn to authenticity and healing and to pursuing the mojo of life that motors us through the challenges.

Her stories and poems have appeared inBourbon Penn, NANO Fiction, PANK Magazine, We’Moon, Hunger Mountain, Gargoyle, The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review, Going Down Swinging, Annalemma, Luna Station Quarterly, flashquake, Third Wednesday, Witches & Pagans, The Pedestal Magazine, Rosebud, and other fine publications.

She’s been a freelance editor for over six years, offering copyediting and developmental editing services. Her business is Edit & Shine, and she loves working with other writers to help them polish their work. She’s a reader for Boulevard Magazine,and she’s worked with Blue Mesa Review,the Taos Summer Writers’ Conference, and the A Room Of Her Own foundation. She received her Bachelor’s in English from the University of New Mexico; she studied in UNM’s MFA program in Creative Writing, where she held an assistantship as a graduate writing tutor; and she earned Copyediting Certificates from UCSD-Extension and Poynter/ACES. First afflicted at age ten, she’s been obsessed with writing for most of her life. 

You can read more of her stories at dawnsperber.com.

Contact her for editing services at cleanedit4u.com.