"Writing that book was traumatic": Hanif Abdurraqib and Rachel Khong on Writing

I started WMFA to talk with other writers about writing: to hear, in the middle of what can be such a lonely endeavor, what someone else is thinking about their work. Every conversation has left me energized in different ways: ideas, inspirations, perspectives. Sometimes these gifts are new, fresh approaches that blow dust off an old problem or tired pattern of thought; sometimes they’re familiar, and then the familiarity itself is a salve, a reminder that the worries, fears and doubts that plague one writer usually plague the rest of us, too.

Here’s a sneak peek at what you’ll hear from July’s guests. Visit WMFA  to listen to full episodes and subscribe. Sign up for our newsletter and you’ll also receive WMFA Presents…, exclusive readings by guests delivered straight to your inbox. 

EPISODE 12: HANIF ABDURRAQIB
Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His first collection of poems, The Crown Ain't Worth Much, was released by Button Poetry in 2016. His first collection of essays, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, is forthcoming from Two Dollar Radio in winter 2017.

On writing about his hometown:
I think there’s a historical aspect to gentrification that doesn’t exactly get talked about, or a generational aspect. It is geographical and physical, but it’s also about the erasure of memory. and it’s also about the erasure of touchable artifacts for people who grow up in a place or loved a place. In part that’s why I write about where I’m from a lot, as an archive. But also because I loved growing up in Columbus.

On the beginnings of The Crown Ain’t Worth Much:
I had been listening to good kid, m.A.A.d. city, the Kendrick Lamar album, incessantly, and I started to think about how we have all these great coastal narratives—we have the great Compton narrative and the great New York narrative, even Jersey narrative—I’m a big Springsteen nerd. It dawned on me that, Chicago aside, the middle of the country narrative, particularly for young black people, was not very existent.

On writing a changing city from a distance:
Writing that book was traumatic for me, because I had to dive into experience and memory with the knowing that when I climbed out of the poem, that memory might be all I have left of a place or a person or a time. And so the distance was good because I didn’t have to immediately emotionally answer for all those things I was creating. I was speaking into the world and building the world and I didn’t have to answer for the world responding to me. I was building the city as I loved it most and I didn’t have to be in the city as it no longer was.

EPISODE 13: RACHEL KHONG
Rachel Khong grew up in Southern California and holds degrees from Yale University and the University of Florida. From 2011 to 2016, she was the managing editor then executive editor of Lucky Peach magazine. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Tin House, Joyland, American Short Fiction, San Francisco Chronicle, The Believer, and California Sunday. She lives in San Francisco.

On her fascination with memory:
Part of it is that I have a really terrible memory, and it’s just so interesting to me that it’s different for every person. I once dated this guy in college who could tell me down to the color of my tights what I was wearing on certain days when we saw each other, and that has always been really fascinating to me. What is also concerning to me is that memories make up your life essentially; what you remember is what happened. The selectiveness of it and how your memory can tend toward the happy or the disappointing has always been really interesting me, and something that is very worrying to me.

On writing right after waking up:
There’s just something operating subconsciously that you’re not even fully aware of, and you can really surprise yourself. I’m a morning writer for sure. I try to write as close to waking up as possible.

On working in cafes:
I really love having other people around, that ambient noise of espresso being ground. I have to force myself to leave the house and wear structured clothing. Laughs Otherwise it’s too tempting to stay in pajamas and do chores. If I can’t get to a cafe, I go to this website called RainyCafe.com. The whole idea is you’re more creative when there’s some kind of white noise happening.

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