What does the pandemic currently look like in your city?
Currently is a funny word—it all changes so fast! I'm in Milan, Italy, staying with my family, after doing the first part of the year between London and France. Italy has been really good with masks, restrictions and common sense (the bar is really low, isn't it?), so luckily the country is staying pretty stable, and low in terms of infections and red zones. Schools are open, people are mostly back to work in their offices, masks are always worn in public spaces and normal life seems *almost* back on track. There's a common feeling of time slipping through our fingers, though, and that normality might not last for long.
That's what I struggle with the most: the incredible privilege of living my life without too many hiccups, especially compared to friends in other countries right now, and the sense of dread when I think of how none of this is permanent, and it's probably going to get worse again before it gets better.
What are some favorite books you've read during quarantine?
SO MANY! It's so hard to only name some, I wish I could give you a hundred names, but here are the ones that stayed with me the most: Homo Deus by Yuval Harari, Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel, The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones, Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener, My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Mosfegh, Expectation by Anna Hope and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby.
If you haven't been reading, what are some books you're most looking forward to reading?
Really looking forward to reading Dolly Alderton's new book, and debut novel, Ghost. I love her writing so much, I think she's fantastic.
Have there been any movies, tv shows, podcasts, etc. that have helped keep you at ease the past few months?
I've binged all the creepy procedural dramas that French Netflix has to offer! I'm trying to learn the language, but a weird side effect is that my vocabulary is now primarily words like 'morgue', 'pressing charges', 'footprints', and 'murder weapon'... while I still don't know how to say what I had for breakfast or ask for directions to the train station. I should have planned better, but look, I'm not complaining. Knowledge is knowledge.
How has the pandemic affected your writing?
It really fluctuated: I've had incredibly productive and prolific months, and months where I couldn't open a blank Word document without immediately closing it back up. I tried to give myself as much space to breathe and go from phase to phase, as I know it's pointless to force my brain to be creative if it needs to wallow or distract itself with some silly rom-com. I'm giving my brain free rein this year, there's no point otherwise. It deserves it!
A fun thing I've noticed is that my inhibitions are a lot lower now than they were at the beginning of the year. When you realize that nothing is going to go to plan for a while, and planning was a dumb idea in the first place because anything could happen (we truly did not know the meaning of *anything* before 2020), you sort of throw caution to the wind. For the first time in a while, it's been a lot easier to wrestle with my inner doubts and self-sabotaging mechanisms this year, and it's because I gave myself permission to stop giving a damn about so many things that would have kept me up at night in 2019.
If the world is on fire and we're all doing the best we can, there's really no reason not to pitch your dream publication, start a newsletter, change career path, post 10 selfies in a row, write a thank you note to a high-school teacher who changed your life, tell everyone you love them. Love deeply and recklessly and freely. Write about it with the same freedom. Look for joy wherever you can. Write about that, too. I know it seems obvious, and maybe it is, but it only really clicked for me during the pandemic. I've been better off since, I really have. Oh, and I pitched my dream publications and got to work with two of them!
Are there any projects you are excited to keep working on? If so, can you give us any details (no spoilers please!) about your project?
I'm really excited to keep working on the newsletter I started during the pandemic! It's called Where The Light Is, and every edition is an essay on finding light in the midst of... All This. Plus cultural recommendations, and things that made laugh / cry / think / love during the week. I'd love to expand on it, and I've got some fun ideas already, but it all takes its time. I get the best sense of community out of it, much more than I do social media, so I'd like to slowly move away from Instagram/Twitter and into newsletters as much as possible.
If asked ten years from now what the past few months have taught you about being a writer, what would come to mind?
True for writing, but also for life: if it's not from the heart, it's not worth it. It really, really isn't.
Have there been any fellow writers or people in your life who have helped you stay connected during the pandemic?
I never really got into the whole Houseparty and Zoom craze, at the beginning of spring when everyone seemed to be permanently streaming in one way or another. I had many, many calls with close friends, and prioritized them over virtual big social hangouts—that's the introvert in me. I spoke to my friend Bianca every week, almost religiously. Jamie Varon's newsletter proved a great release as well—her writing speaks to my heart in a really raw, tangible way, and I'm always happiest when it hits my inbox.
Is there anything that excites you about the changes being incited in the publishing world in light of recent events?
I'm really excited about the conversations around race, gender, pay disparity and transparency that started over the last few months due to the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. It's really not much, and I would like to see so much more come out of the hashtags (#PublishingPaidMe comes to mind) and anti-racist reading lists, but it's where we are right now and all we have to work with. It's exciting to see space and time given to young authors who are not white, male, straight and able-bodied. It's exciting to hear Black and minority freelance writers say they're suddenly getting commissions they wouldn't have dreamed of until now. It'll be even more interesting to see where it's all going—I can only hope it's in a good direction.
Is there anything that worries you about the changes being incited in the publishing world in light of recent events?
I'm worried about the way we take art for granted, when it's the first thing we turn to in times of crisis. We're told not to pursue creative careers, not to get useless degrees—because apparently the world needs more hedge fund managers? We tell them to 'retrain' as skilled workers, as if writing or acting or dancing or doing comedy were hobbies instead of thousand-years-old professions. We expect artists to work for free a lot of the time, we don't give them half the respect they deserve. Arts are always first on the list when governments need something to sacrifice. But! Day one of a global pandemic, and we all turn to books and comedy skits, Netflix and Spotify, virtual theatre shows and live table reads, and so many more! I'm worried we don't realize what we're doing to these industries, and that it'll only get harder the longer the pandemic goes on.
Where is your favorite place to write? Has this changed during the pandemic?
I know, I know it's bad for you, but... my bed. It's always my bed. It will never change. My back and neck hate me for it and I'm so sorry to both, but man, it's the best.
If you curated a playlist for writing life in the pandemic, what top 5 songs would be on your list?
Absolute 5 faves would be:
1.) “Something Has To Change” by The Japanese House
2.) “Peace” by Taylor Swift '
3.) “Head & Heart On Fire” by LEON
4.) “Night Eyes” by John Lowell Anderson
5.) “Contaminated - Live and Stripped” by BANKS
I've also made a lot of other playlists, which I usually share in my newsletter, and you can find them all HERE.
While the future is just as unknowable as ever, what is something you are most looking forward to this year?
It might sound strange, but I'm really looking forward to looking back on this year! I think we're still too immersed in it now, for obvious reasons, but it'll be really interesting to start thinking about it all come late December. I'm sure we've all changed in incredibly substantial ways, maybe in some aspects without even realizing, but it'll be good to put pen to paper and spend some time going through our memories from the year—the good, the bad, the ugly, the painful, the boring, the surprising, all of it. This year has felt the slowest and the quickest I can remember. I'm sure I've already started to forget some of it, but making sense of it—as much as we can, at least—is so important to me.
Is there anything else you would like to share?
A favorite quote from a book I read recently, No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July: "Do you have doubts about life? Are you unsure if it is worth the trouble? Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each person’s face as you pass on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you. They are as much for you as they are for other people. Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing. Stand up and face the east. Now praise the sky and praise the light within each person under the sky. It’s okay to be unsure. But praise, praise, praise."
