.Writers.on.Writing.
Get to know our authors, the foundation and heart of Yellow Arrow Journal, and what writing means to them through our monthly series.
W.o.W. #70
Amanda Kooser
What period of your life do you find you write about most often?
Childhood is a big one. It’s not so much that everything I write is set in my childhood, but that it explores the reverberations from that time. I have a constant sense of the past boomeranging around. I’m also very engaged in the present moment and with experiences in nature.
What is your writing Kryptonite? Your most interesting writing quirk?
I’ve been fortunate to have a journalism career, which means writing on demand and on deadline. That attitude has spilled over into all of my writing projects, so I never fear a blank page. When it comes to quirks, I brainstorm in the shower at night. If I’m stuck on a piece, I contemplate it while shampooing and figure it out. Then I jump out of the shower and get back to writing.
What are you currently working on (even non-writing things)?
Journalism-wise, I’m covering a lot of space stories involving NASA missions. I’m querying a historical literary mystery co-written with my mother and revising a speculative novel about drought, forgotten gods, and human women. I play guitar and write indie rock/Americana songs for my band The Dawn Hotel. You can find me in an Aikido dojo most week nights, training, and teaching and flying around. Journalism-wise, I’m covering a lot of space stories involving NASA missions. I’ve got a couple novels (one a portal fantasy and one a hybrid fiction/nonfiction postmodern metaphysical detective tale) I’m submitting. In poetry-land, I’m working on a series about the body and a series about the Jemez Mountains in New Mexico. I play guitar and write indie rock/Americana songs for my band The Dawn Hotel. Lastly, I’m trying to catch a pigeon with an injured wing that has taken up residence in my backyard so I can take him to wildlife rehab. So far, he’s evaded me, so I’m putting out food and water for him
What does your inner writing voice tell you?
Oh, it’s a chatty beast and it’s fickle. Sometimes it whispers unkind things about the quality of my work, but I’m good at talking back when it gets like that. We’ve agreed not to dwell on the negative, so my inner voice is usually a swell of excitement that’s at its best when we can say “Hot damn, that was fun!” in chorus.
Amanda Kooser (she/they) is a freelance journalist and longtime contributor to CNET specializing in goofy rocks on Mars. They graduated from the University of New Mexico creative writing MFA program in 2022. Their work has appeared in the Harwood Anthology and Conceptions Southwest with upcoming pieces in The Twin Bill and New Mexico Poetry Anthology. Amanda cruises Route 66 in Albuquerque in a pink-and-chrome ‘50s car and plays a pink-sparkle guitar in indie rock band The Dawn Hotel.
Yellow Arrow published Amanda’s piece “Handsome” in Yellow Arrow Journal, Vol. VII, No. 2, PEREGRINE. You can also find them on Twitter @akooser and at their website amandakooser.com.