Juniper White, author of “Let Her Collect Stamps”, joined us for an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Juniper White (she\/her) is a red fox, a librarian, and a ghost haunting a house in Portland, OR, where she studies creative writing and theater. Find her on X\/Twitter @JuneWhiteWrites. She is a trans author of Palestinian descent and believes in a free Palestine. If she was a plant, she’d be a wisteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Apex Magazine<\/strong>: What is the best (or worst) advice you received as a beginning writer? What do you wish you’d learned as a beginning writer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Juniper White:<\/strong> I got to see author K-Ming Chang give a talk a while back. She spoke about how your first draft is all about building a playground for your future self to revise in. I had really struggled with revision beforehand and hearing that opened my mind as to what revision can be! I can just play with the story! As for bad advice, an author told me self-expression is the mark of a bad artist, which I vehemently disagree with. All my art is about my Self!<\/p>\n\n\n\n JW: <\/strong>The Haunting of Hill House<\/em> by Shirley Jackson is my favorite book of all time. I adore haunted houses, and Hill House is one of the best. The shape of that spiraling psychological story is one I\u2019ll constantly be thinking about – it\u2019s gotten me to think about what shape my structures are. I also want to recommend Love\/Aggression<\/em> by June Martin, this amazing surreal story which taught me about writing character, specifically trans characters. Each character has such a sense of self, and they\u2019re much more than their transness but you also see how their gender impacts them, and it\u2019s just really fantastic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AM:<\/strong> What does your creative process look like? Pantser or plotter, bursts of productivity or routine, morning or night, tea or coffee, etc?<\/p>\n\n\n\n JW: <\/strong>My drafts have no set process – I just write and try to make something happen as I go. Occasionally that includes writing exercises that don\u2019t make it into the final cut. The closest thing I get to plotting is daydreaming (seriously, playlists are so helpful for writing!). For revisions, I put the story away for a month, then edit, then ask my girlfriends and my writing partner\/best friend for feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Story Inspiration:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n At dinner with a friend, she said the phrase \u201cshe better have a stamp collection\u201d and I started thinking about how I could use that line. It made me think about the importance of mundane lives. A year ago, I called my mom and had a long conversation with her about the ongoing genocide in Palestine. She told me the most important thing I can do as a woman of Palestinian descent is to keep myself safe. My mundane life allows Palestine to live on through me. Let Her Collect Stamps<\/em> is about that phone call. This story is for her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ~~~<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AM: <\/strong>Tell us about a favorite book or short story and how it has influenced you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n