Clammer Talks Some Sh*t

argh writerOur very own assistant editor and weekly Salon columnist Chelsey Clammer was interviewed over at The Coachella Review for their Winter 2013 issue.  No, she doesn’t actually talk shit about anything, but she does talk some good shit about writing. Along with discussing her life as a nonfiction writer and editor, Clammer also goes into why in the world she has an MA in Women’s Studies, and how that degree helps her to write. She also ventures into topics about living in a female body, as well as what it is like to be a writer who leaves herself so vulnerable on the page.

And finally, Clammer gets into a lively discussion about what it’s like to write for The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review. In the interview, she says:

“Writing a weekly humor column for The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review has really helped me to learn how to write short, humor pieces. Though at first I had doubts that I could do it. During the time when the editor approached me about writing the weekly humor column, I was in the throws of trying to write very lyrical and emotional writing—quiet essays that felt more like reading poetry than nonfiction. I have always thought that when I try to write humor, it sounds like I’m pushing it too hard, that I’m not allowing the reader to make her own connections with the events.

Doing the weekly humor column has really made me start to trust myself and my readers. That I can put a really embarrassing event on the page, or a weird experience I have had, and that I can play with it, can use a quirky voice and outlandish language in order to write it, and that I can just trust that the readers will get the humor of it. It is also great that I have to push myself to write a new short essay every week. From that, I have learned to trust my brain, to just keep writing because something will come of it eventually.”

Head on over to The Coachella Review to read the full interview.

 

Chelsey Clammer
Chelsey Clammer is the author of the award-winning essay collection, Circadian (Red Hen Press, 2017) and BodyHome (Hopewell Publications, 2015). Her work has appeared in Salon, The Rumpus, Hobart, Brevity, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Normal School and Black Warrior Review. She teaches online writing classes with WOW! Women On Writing and is a freelance editor. Her next collection of essays, Human Heartbeat Detected, is forthcoming (Fall 2022) from Red Hen Press. www.chelseyclammer.com