Hi, Junot. I enjoyed "This Is How You Lose Her" very much. Nilda cemented itself in my head for a while, man. It still comes back to me in jagged icy fragments when I'm on the train back home or other mundane everyday-life moments when I'm most free to let my mind wander particularly. The last line of the story, as well as the pacing (incredibly great rhythm to it), hit especially hard. Maybe it resonated so well with me because I've grown up with a few Nildas and, in my early 20s, continue to meet a few damaged, lost-in-the-world, Nilda-esque girls still...and I tend to feel sad and a bit haunted for them. Anyways, your story brought those feelings to life on the page as I read Nilda and I wanted to thank you for that because that is the true power of literature--the symbiosis between reader and writer.
Quick question, I was back home this past winter from school and had the wonderful opportunity to hear you speak in Amherst, MA. You mentioned how many young writers are viewing writing through the lens of a career-track or within the realm of the Linked-In universe (I'm paraphrasing). Essentially, the topic was that many young aspiring writers view their craft as a job, a task that will end is $$$ signs. I am a 22 year old recent graduate trying to find food pellets from the universe and one of those sources of nourishment from the cosmos is reading literature and writing. What advice would you give to someone who has seriously thought about pursuing an MFA in creative writing--even though it may not lead to a stable source of income afterwards--and is juggling their passion with the economically rational route of settling with a stable job and writing, since it's something they love, and trying to get published in their free time?
WhaleNamedRon3 karma
Hi, Junot. I enjoyed "This Is How You Lose Her" very much. Nilda cemented itself in my head for a while, man. It still comes back to me in jagged icy fragments when I'm on the train back home or other mundane everyday-life moments when I'm most free to let my mind wander particularly. The last line of the story, as well as the pacing (incredibly great rhythm to it), hit especially hard. Maybe it resonated so well with me because I've grown up with a few Nildas and, in my early 20s, continue to meet a few damaged, lost-in-the-world, Nilda-esque girls still...and I tend to feel sad and a bit haunted for them. Anyways, your story brought those feelings to life on the page as I read Nilda and I wanted to thank you for that because that is the true power of literature--the symbiosis between reader and writer.
Quick question, I was back home this past winter from school and had the wonderful opportunity to hear you speak in Amherst, MA. You mentioned how many young writers are viewing writing through the lens of a career-track or within the realm of the Linked-In universe (I'm paraphrasing). Essentially, the topic was that many young aspiring writers view their craft as a job, a task that will end is $$$ signs. I am a 22 year old recent graduate trying to find food pellets from the universe and one of those sources of nourishment from the cosmos is reading literature and writing. What advice would you give to someone who has seriously thought about pursuing an MFA in creative writing--even though it may not lead to a stable source of income afterwards--and is juggling their passion with the economically rational route of settling with a stable job and writing, since it's something they love, and trying to get published in their free time?
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