Member Spotlight: Emily E. Johnson

by Kerri Buckley

Your mother will come visit you. She will look at the circles under your eyes and hand you a brown book with a brown briefcase on the cover. It is entitled: How to Become a Business Executive. She has also brought the Names for Baby encyclopedia you asked for; one of your characters, the aging clown-school teacher, needs a new name. Your mother will shake her head and say: Francie, Francie, remember when you were going to be a child psychology major?

    Say: Mom, I like to write.
    She’ll say: Sure you like to write. Of course. Sure you like to write.

                                    How to Become a Writer
                                 Self Help: Stories by Lorrie Moore

Words like these, written by Lorrie Moore in Self Help, affected Seattle writer Emily Johnson so deeply in college that she began to write her own short stories and essays - sometimes in second person view - which is, for many, an extremely interesting twist in writing fiction. Emily’s short story, "In Any, Opposite Direction," was recently published in the second issue of the newly formed Seattle-based literary journal Swivel: The Nexus of Women & Wit. She has also been published in Bricolage and Scribendi. Of writing she says,

       I think the odd and sometimes absurd details that make us
       individuals and make our stories and lives unique is what
       inspires me most. I love reading stories about characters
       who have odd quirks or almost unbelievable traits, but
       because the author has made them seem real in other ways,
       the characters come alive for the reader and become
       believable. I try to bring in a little bit of the odd and
       absurd in most of my work.

Emily chose English and Creative Writing as her major at the University of Washington after much deliberation. She says now that it was the only true option. A legal assistant by day, she also finds time to co-author a nonfiction book on the history of AmeriCorps, its members and its results, a project that sounds like an exciting future read in addition to her short stories.

So how does this talented young writer balance writing, work and home? She writes on her lunch hour, after dinner and on weekend mornings. Although she has an office at home complete with a lovely desk near a painting by her mother, she mostly loves to lie on her sofa, unplug her laptop, and write until the battery runs out of juice. She belongs to a writing group that meets every other week, and that group recently formed a second group for those with longer pieces ready for submission.

It’s clear she takes her writing very seriously, but feels a break is healthy for her work, too. When she’s feeling swamped or overwhelmed, she renews herself by renting a romantic comedy, getting Chinese take-out, and isolating herself for a short time. She has much support from her boyfriend and partner, her mom, and her friends - and finds the Greenwood home she shares with her boyfriend and cat, Izzy, a comforting retreat.

Perhaps her biggest challenge is defining her writing priorities and learning to say no to projects she would like to take on, but projects that would also stretch her too thin, in terms of time and energy. The former Membership Section Editor for Seattle Writergrrls, she is focusing her energy these days on the AmeriCorps book project, and her own creative writing. She’s considering pursuing an MFA someday, and wants to publish a collection of her own short stories.

       My biggest change recently is realizing that although I
       need to keep writing in my life, I also need to not say
       yes to everything and remember that I also enjoy spending
       time other ways.

Her advice for other writers? Find a way to keep writing in your life, and set small goals for yourself. She also advises all young women writers to read Lorrie Moore’s Self Help. In this book she found not only her own voice, but a mentor as well. She said that with this book, especially, she "felt like a writer." Emily is taking her own advice in keeping writing alive in her life, but she’s doing something bigger, too. She’s blazing new trails for other young women writers seeking authentic and true work, and she is establishing a unique, Northwest, female voice. Young women may soon find themselves absorbed by Emily’s stories on lunch breaks, ferries and trolleys, and late at night when they need just the right piece of fiction to read to cross the threshold to tomorrow. Just as she credited her favorite writer with making an amazing difference in her life, Emily Johnson will in turn help other young writers find their voice so that they too feel like writers. That is the sort of fabric of writing life that not only nurtures our talent and ability - it is what we writers live for.

Kerri Buckley is a writer and artist who lives in the Pacific Northwest. Her articles have appeared in publications across the country, and she writes poetry and fiction, too. Currently working on a novel, she hosts a radio show for and about writers on the Oregon Coast called The Literary Cafe. Email her at goldenwordsmith@yahoo.com.