Missy won first place in the Graduate Non-Fiction category for her piece “Legacy: A Life in Ten Items or Less.” Congratulations, Missy!
INTERVIEWED BY AUBREN KUBICKI
What does winning this award mean to you?
I feel very honored to receive this award. The support and encouragement of the IUSB writing community has been very inspirational as I complete the requirements for my degree and pursue my writing goals.
How would you describe your writing? What themes, ideas, styles do you find recurring throughout your work?
My nonfiction writing centers around my family and everyday life here in the Midwest. I recently dipped my toes into fiction writing when I took Dr. Ervick’s Start Your Novel class. There I began working on a novel that explores themes of life and loss and what literature means to readers. I’m excited to continue work on that project and see where it takes me.
Who are some of your favorite authors? Do you see these authors as influencing your writing?
There are so many amazing writers and so little time to read! Some of my favorite contemporary writers include Jodi Picoult, Kate Quinn, Ariel Lawhon, Barbara Kingsolver, and Ken Follett. In an effort to expand my reading horizons I have recently read some fantasy works by Rebecca Yarros and TJ Klune. And I will always be a fan of classic writers such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Bram Stoker, and Toni Morrison. Everything I read helps me to see new ways of structuring plot or using language that I hope enrich my own writing.
What is your writing process like?
Panic and prayer? Just kidding, I have never been very good at outlining. I usually have to “write my way in” to a topic. So, once I settle on an idea I just try to get my fingers on the keyboard as much as possible and see what comes out. After I get some thoughts on the page I like to read back through and see what could be cut and what threads are emerging that I could build on to produce a finished piece. And, like most writers I go through a “this is great – actually this is awful what was I thinking” stage pretty consistently.
How did this particular piece come about? What was your inspiration?
“Legacy: A Life in Ten Objects or Less” grew out of an assignment in Dr. Mattox’s Prose Style Workshop class. The feedback I received in the workshop from my amazing classmates helped me to polish the essay into what it is today.
The Deadline 