Incubation Summer

A peek into the slow kind of creativity

Hi good people,

Despite feeling my slowest, despite my feet becoming baked potatoes and my energy rivaling that of an intoxicated sloth, this has been my most creative summer. I say that because I created a new human being in July.

I’ve come to think of the last few months as an incubation period—for my little one and several other projects too. With a new reality on the horizon but not here yet, I wrote and read as much as I could, eager to make the most of my last months as a non-parent. Now I’m in the thick of that other reality, surrounded by words like lanolin, wake window, diaper cream, and swaddle. Everything I was working on during pregnancy is temporarily on hold, or emerging on its own like a stubborn daisy. I have a new short story out and an upcoming event at my favorite festival in Chicago (more below). I have a manuscript I haven’t looked at for weeks, but am excited to return to one day. What did I write? Can’t wait to find out. My attention has shifted, but my creative work, like my sleepy/hungry/cuddly child, has no sense of time. Wherever I set it, there it is. I’m grateful for the productivity of this summer, and the simplicity of my days now: full arms, damp clothes, tiny fingers wrapped around much more tired ones.

Now, on to those daisies.

Non-fiction

Come see me at the 40th Printer’s Row Lit Fest! I’ll be on a panel event on Saturday September 6 at 1 pm called Holocaust Lit in the 21st Century. (Full schedule here.) Along with novelists Lisa Barr and Tod Lending, I’ll be in conversation with Anca L. Szilágyi about contemporary Holocaust literature and my memoir Also Here. There will also be a book signing afterwards. I used to volunteer for the festival, so this is a full-circle moment for me. Come say hi!

Come see my free panel event at Printer’s Row Lit Fest in Chicago on September 6. Full schedule here.

Fiction

SFWP Journal published my short story “Nostalgia Was My Dog,” a piece about death, dying, and making impulse decisions at a dog shelter. I started this story several years ago when it felt like death was all around me, so it’s funny to see it published now that new life swarms. Check it out.

Read: Nostalgia Was My Dog

Hope you’re finding your own balance between effort and rest. I am running on very little sleep, and a scary amount of love.

Brooke