Catching Up with Katherine Egan
Interview by Katie Lynn Johnston
In our first installment of interviews, the Mulberry Team caught up with Katherine Egan (“Finding Angela” and “Not One of Them“) to ask about her aspirations, what inspires her most, and her own personal experiences as a creative person in the world.
What called you to writing? Was there something in particular that made you want to write?
I’ve always been creative, whether it was through music, drawing and painting, or writing. However, writing always came somewhat easy to me. For me, it was cathartic to put my thoughts into words. Whether it was a research paper or something creative, it didn’t matter. I’d say I knew for a fact that I wanted to be a writer by the time I was a freshman in college. At the time, I was a political science major and was absolutely miserable. So, I was forced to think about what really made me happy. For me, that was writing. I love expressing myself through the written word and coming up with stories to entertain people. That’s what pushes me to write—to help myself and make others around me feel heard, too.
Are there particular images, topics, or genres you often find coming back in your work?
One topic that I always go back to in my writing is mental health and mental illness. Having had my own experiences with mental illness, I know better than some how it can affect not only yourself, but the people around you as well. I also recognize that more people suffer from mental illness than many think possible. So, many of my characters have some sort of connection to mental health or mental illness simply for the reason that I want to emulate the world I see around me.
What would you say most inspires you to write? Is there something that always lights that creative fire?
Writing is what inspires me to write. Writing keeps me going. I use it as a form of entertainment and therapy. I’ve been able to work through some really tough real-life issues because of writing. By writing about my own trauma, I am inspired to keep moving forward and sharing what life lessons I have to teach. I also love to read what other talented authors have to say, their words inspire me, too. Virginia Woolf, for instance, is extremely inspiring to me. She had so much to say on the topics of social class, sexuality, gender, love, and so much more, and she talked about these topics with words that glide across the page as easily as an eagle catches the wind.
We all have moments when we feel uninspired. How do you get your creativity flowing and get over your writer’s block? Is there something you find always inspires you to create?
Writer’s block is one of the worst feelings. As a creative writer I sometimes feel a certain expectation to be creative all the time, but that’s just not realistic. Of course there are going to be days when my brain fills with fog and there’s no discerning if what I’m writing is decent or complete garbage. This can leave me feeling down and out, and uninspired. Like I said earlier, I like to read other writer’s work to help get the creative juices flowing. If that doesn’t work I turn to tried and true exercises that I learned in school. It usually starts with me picking a random noun, giving it an even more random adjective and then forcing myself to free-write about that. This exercise isn’t meant to help me create the next great American novel, but it does keep me writing, which I find to be the most important thing. I like to write every day, even when I’m feeling uninspired, because it’s a muscle that constantly has to be worked; just like with any skill, writing takes dedication and perseverance.
Was there anything during the writing of “Finding Angela” that surprised you about its direction? What inspired this piece?
While writing “Finding Angela” I was surprised by the content in which I chose to write about. The story, “Finding Angela,” is a section from a larger piece I’m working on, and inspired by true events. Magdalena was actually the grandmother of a very close friend of mine. There are so many stories that will comprise the final work “Finding Angela” comes from, that I was surprised that “Finding Angela” was the first one that popped into my mind when I chose to start writing about Magdalena. However, looking back on it, I feel like I can’t be that surprised. In “Finding Angela,” Magdalena experiences a major life event that marks a new time in the lives of many young women. When I wrote the first rough draft for this piece, I was also going through a new time in my life, one that also felt transformative so I guess it was only natural that my mind drifted to that specific story about Magdalena.
Where would you like to take your writing for the future? Do you have any exciting projects in the works that you would like to share?
I would love to finish my first novel. I am also excited to announce that I am working on a new non-fiction piece, which is new for me. I usually stick to fiction, but I have truths about my life that I feel need to be shared. I had a professor in college explain to my class once that as a writer, there is going to come a time when there’s going to be a story that you feel so compelled to write that you’ll start writing like a man possessed. That recently happened to me. To be honest, the story is a difficult one to share, because I’ll be talking about some sensitive events that many people in my life don’t know about. However, it’s like I said, I feel compelled to tell my story, and I have a feeling it’s going to turn out great.
Katherine Egan is a fiction and non-fiction writer based out of St. Louis, Missouri. A graduate from Columbia College Chicago, Katherine is grateful to have had a wonderful learning experience. Taking what she’s gained from the valuable tutelage of the professors at CCC, she continues to write not only for herself and her audience, but for companies that stand for something important; like NYC Nature HOPE, which focuses on the de-stigmatization of mental illness. She hopes her writing inspires others as much as it inspires her to keep creating.