“I’ve found that my best writing comes when I have to fight for it.” –Kimberly Garza
Kimberly Garza is the author of the critically acclaimed novel The Last Karankawas, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and an Indie Next pick. Her stories and essays have appeared in Electric Literature, Texas Highways, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere, and she is a 2024 National Endowment of the Arts creative writing fellow. A native Texan—born in Galveston, raised in Uvalde—she teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she directs the Creative Writing Program.
On Wednesday, October 23rd, Kimberly Garza is teaching a class for the WLT called “Shape Shifting: Experimenting with Form in Fiction and Nonfiction.” This class will discuss the risks and rewards of writing prose in experimental forms, spotlight published work playing with shape, and share strategies for finding and choosing structures.
Here’s what Kimberly had to share with us:
Scribe: Tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you write? How did you come to writing?
Kimberly Garza: Hey there, WLT! I’m the author of The Last Karankawas, a novel-in-stories published widely in 2022 that earned rave reviews and praise from such places as The New York Times and Publishers Weekly. I write fiction and nonfiction, though fiction has my heart; I would describe my writing as literary fiction rooted in vivid settings—like Texas—and diverse, complicated characters—like Texans. Some of my recent writing has been published in places like Texas Highways, the Houston Chronicle, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere. Like many of us, I stumbled my way into writing—I was a ravenous reader and aspiring writer as a kid, but since I didn’t know any writers or have any knowledge about how to publish or get a job, I found my path through school. I earned degrees in English and creative writing from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of North Texas, and I’m now a professor teaching creative writing and literature (dream job!) at the University of Texas-San Antonio. But deeper than all of that, I’m a native Texan. I was born in Galveston and raised in Uvalde, and I’ve lived all over the state. I’m so happy to be back in San Antonio, close to home and superior breakfast tacos.
Scribe: In your own work, how do you approach overcoming the challenges that come with writing, be it writer’s block or craft or business-related challenges?
KG: Those challenges never go away fully—like the waves, they come and go, and crash on us at the most inopportune times. Embrace them! I have a demanding job and I don’t always prioritize my writing as I should, but I’ve found that my best writing comes when I have to fight for it. I carve out time in my busy life; I tell myself that my writing is as important, as vital to my work and my well-being, as my day job or my hobbies or my Netflix addiction. Whether it’s 15 minutes super early in the morning or a couple of sentences I struggle to type down before I fall asleep, I fight to make space for writing. That challenge motivates me. And I believe that writer’s block arises when we either don’t know what to write, or when we struggle to write “well” (as in, every sentence I write down makes me want to cringe, it’s so icky). For the first, I kick myself through the block by either researching something I can write or simply starting with something easy, like a setting description—when I’m stuck, I reach for setting descriptions above all else. I love vivid, striking places in writing, so I’ll get momentum going by situating myself in the place I’m writing and just telling the reader what it’s like. For the fear of writing well, I have to constantly remind myself that I’m writing the first, probably worst, version of something that I’m going to come back to. I will lay the foundation for those lines now, then next revision round I’ll make it better, make it beautiful.
Scribe: Has there been a moment of epiphany in terms of your work, when you thought, “This is it! Now I know what I’m doing!” How long id that feeling last?
KG: I live for those moments, and I’ve only had a few of them over the years. I remember finding that feeling in 2021 when I was struggling with a chapter of my novel, really working hard and failing to tap into the character’s first-person voice. I realized (after many failed drafts) that the problem came from how I was thinking of her. I was considering her all wrong; she had done selfish, hurtful things but she wasn’t a “villain” so much as the hero of her own story, no one else’s. Once I had that, I began to write her voice again, and it clicked. I heard her patterns of speech, her bitterness and her hopefulness, the things she said aloud and the things she kept inside. The high didn’t last longer than a page or two as I wrote, but it was enough. I’m chasing those moments every time I write and revise.
Scribe: What piece of advice do you find yourself giving to writers again and again?
KG: Read—read widely, and across genres and styles. I write fiction and nonfiction but I read anything from literary fiction to high fantasy to contemporary poetry. Financial books, thriller screenplays, paperback romance novels: it’s all fair game to me. Reading has been my best teacher; I learn more about my own writing and how it evolves the more I read.
Scribe: What is one thing that people will take away from this class?
KG: How much fun it is to break the “prose” rules! When we step out of the traditional forms of fiction and nonfiction writing, it can open up whole new avenues for what story we’re trying to tell. I love playing with form when I write, and I’m excited to talk with members about how we can tell powerful, heartfelt stories in experimental styles.
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Thanks, Kimberly!
Click here to learn more about Kimberly Garza’s upcoming class.
