Meet a Staff Member: Meagan Gamble
Yellow Arrow Publishing would like to introduce editorial associate Meagan Gamble. Meg (she/her) is a writer and bookseller living in Boulder, Colorado, for some reason, despite the fact that she is terrified of heights. She graduated from City University of London with an MA in creative writing and publishing in 2016 and now works in academic publishing. She is an editor, writing tutor, and her dad says she’s “Amazing, Beautiful, and Smart.” She hopes to keep working in books in some capacity for the rest of her career, either behind the scenes or as a novelist herself. You can find her on Instagram at @mgnface or on Twitter at @megelissag.
Meg says, “I’m excited to be involved with a creative community that values women’s voices and to help produce some interesting work!”
Tell us a little something about yourself:
Well, usually the first thing I tell people is that I love to read, but I feel like that’s pretty obvious here (naturally)! I’m the eldest of four, so my siblings’ habits have migrated over the years into mine: I love art (art history especially), music, going to watch movies alone in an empty theater, painting, long circular walks (preferably with a dog), Sunday Morning on CBS, redoing my hair a million times before ultimately settling on the same hairstyle I wear every day, etc. I’ve been lucky enough to live in a lot of different places, both here and abroad, and so one thing I do value about myself is my ability to adapt quickly and find meaning in anxious or scary experiences. Good for writing! I also love tattoos. (Don’t tell my grandma.)
What do you love most about where you live?
I live in Boulder, Colorado, at the moment, which is a very strange, vibrant, eclectic little mountain town. Yesterday I saw someone giving a tarot reading at the bus stop outside my office if that gives you idea. (I know her, actually—she charges a fair price!) It’s a college town and a tech hub for the Western slope, so there’s a real eclectic mix of people from all walks of life, most of which are pretty weird. I like it a lot, honestly—there’s a real character to this town that I hope they’re able to preserve and defend against the incoming onslaught of gentrification because it would be a real loss to Colorado to turn this funky little place into your typical slick, expensive suburb. (#KeepBoulderWeird is the slogan if you’re so inclined.)
How did you get involved with Yellow Arrow and what do you do?
I was looking for opportunities to keep me connected with creative writing (as opposed to academic writing, which is what I deal with in my current job), and I was attracted to Yellow Arrow’s mission of amplifying women/women-identifying creatives! I will admit to the somewhat uncool trait of being really into weird grammar questions, so I was also looking for something where I could practice and develop my formal copyediting skills. So that’s what I’ll be doing, for the most part—proofreading and copyediting as well as voting on submissions to certain publications! Exciting stuff. :)
What are you working on currently?
Right now, I am primarily working on some creative nonfiction attempts. It’s been a difficult year with a lot of changes for me! Writing is a good way to work through stuff, so it’s been very helpful. I would like to get back to fiction soon, but I’m in no rush. It will come when I’m ready for it, I think.
What genre do you write (or read) the most and why?
I do read prose primarily because that’s what I write, it’s what I’ve always loved, and it’s where I’m most comfortable. Most people would call my tastes “literary” (some would call them “pretentious,” others, “eclectic,” perhaps depending on which part of my bookshelf they’re looking at) so I suppose that’s what I would say in terms of genre. I do love reading poetry, but I think the disconnect is that I really cannot write it (my brain simply does not work that way) and so naturally I gravitate towards novels for the most part. There are just too many good ones, and I only have so many hours in my life to read them. It’s tragic.
What books are on the top of your to-be-read pile?
I’m having a moment with nonfiction, which may or may not be because of the 75% off sale at Princeton University Press back in February, but that’s between me and my bank account, thanks. I’m reading Shakespeare’s Festive Comedy by C. L. Barber, a somewhat famous piece of literary criticism about the influence of Elizabethan seasonal holidays on Shakespeare’s comedies. (I love a good social/cultural history of Shakespeare, man, I really do.) But that’s a book from 1959 so I suppose it doesn’t really count—as far as new releases go, I cannot describe to you my excitement about Lorrie Moore’s newest, I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home, coming out at the end of June. And I’m also about to start my first Tessa Hadley novel, and I’m rather excited about it.
Who is your favorite writer and why?
Ruth Ozeki, all the way. I’m primarily a prose writer, and I grew up reading stuff I could actually get my hands on in my very small Iowan town (this was presmart phones, you see) so it was a pretty weird mix of “women’s fiction” (Alice Hoffman! Maeve Binchy!) and “stuff my grandpa gave us when he was cleaning out his house” (Tom Robbins! Kurt Vonnegut!). It was somewhat of a revelation to grow up and discover an entire wealth of fiction that was sort of a combination of both—grounded in a female perspective, engaging and readable, but stylistically experimental as well. Ozeki is such a pleasure to read, with a light touch to her prose that is so warm and inviting—but she deals with heavy subjects and takes big narrative swings, which I respect. I will forever remember sitting in a cafe reading A Tale for the Time Being in one sitting, while the very nice manager kept coming over to check on me and ask gently if I wanted a more comfortable chair to sit in. It was 2016, I was 26, and I’m pretty sure I was crying. (She was very nice about it.) Books like that only come along every once in awhile, and I treasure them for a long time when they do.
Who has inspired and/or supported you most in your writing journey?
Forever my family, specifically my brother Taylor. He passed away recently, very suddenly, and we were very close, so everything I do is in his honor, really. He was absolutely my biggest hype man. He loved everything I read, and he didn’t even have to read it to love it. He’d just see me writing something and say some goofy thing like “oh, that’s GREAT! I can TELL!” (He usually could not see my screen. Sometimes what I was writing was an email.) I think everyone deserves a person like that, but specifically writers, who can sometimes get so buried in their own rooms that it’s difficult to step outside onto the balcony and look back in and say, “well yeah, I am cookin’ something in there.” He was wonderful and I miss him very much. Everything I’ve accomplished in life, and everything I will accomplish, will be because he made me believe it was possible.
What do you love most about writing?
What a gigantic question! I’ve been doing it for so long I suppose I haven’t thought about it indepth at any point because it’s always just been the way that I process myself and the world around me. It’s a natural instinct I have, and a compulsion also. I enjoy the way I can sink into it to the point where it becomes almost meditative. My brain goes smooth, and I stop thinking about my problems and I just coast on it—and that’s true for both writing and reading for me. I enjoy the way it connects people and infuriates people. And I love the feeling when you finish something and you’re mostly happy with it, and then you put it in the drawer and think, okay, what next? It’s beautiful, frustrating work. I could do nothing else with my life.
What advice do you have for new writers?
Read! Read widely. This is a cliché, but it’s true. Reading is a skill which is different from writing, but you still need both! From a practical angle, also, you need to know what’s being published! I cannot tell you how many writers I met as a bookseller who had never seriously considered their market: what it looks like, what people want to read, how they discover books, what similar titles already exist. It’s extremely valuable, both from a creative perspective and a very pragmatic perspective, especially if you’d like to publish your work eventually (traditionally or not).
Read bad things, too. Read things that challenge you. Read genres you know you won’t like, won’t write, or both. And try to read critically—when you finish something you didn’t like, ask yourself why. “Oh, I absolutely loved this, I couldn’t put it down” —great! Why? Be specific! Assign yourself book reports. But like, in a fun way. I swear it helps.
What’s your vision for Yellow Arrow in 2023?
I think it’s hard nowadays to keep your focus on your creative life, with the world being what it is, and real life getting increasingly harder. There’s a quote from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos that I love: “Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic.” Art is what connects us and sustains us in a world that often can seem cold and hostile. Keeping that flame burning is an act of courage, and a necessary one, and whatever small part Yellow Arrow plays in that, I’m happy to be involved.
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Welcome to the team Meg! We are so excited to work with you this year. Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts. You can support us as we SPARK and sparkle this year: purchase one of our publications from the Yellow Arrow bookstore, join our newsletter, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter or subscribe to our YouTube channel. Donations are appreciated via PayPal (staff@yellowarrowpublishing.com), Venmo (@yellowarrowpublishing), or US mail (PO Box 65185, Baltimore, Maryland 21209). More than anything, messages of support through any one of our channels are greatly appreciated.