Year of the Novel
A 2025 Resolution and Its Impact on My Writing (Thus Far!)
The past two years, I’ve been trying to approach New Year’s resolutions from a place of seeking delight. There were many personally things I tried to work on in 2024 (you can see a reflection on my focus on the word “biospiritual” from early in the year), but my simplest resolution? To listen to more music! A Spotify playlist labeled “2024 getting back into music vibes” (featuring Ashe, Laufey, Chappell Roan, Taylor Swift, FLETCHER, MUNA, Gracie Abrams, and the Wicked soundtrack, among others) attests to the success of that resolution.
For 2025, I want to pursue delight in another direction: reading novels! The goal I’ve set for myself is reading one novel a month, and though I’ll admit I was off by a few days with one book, it’s been a success overall. So far I’ve read Pure Colour by Sheila Heti (January), Scaffolding by Lauren Elkin (February), Matrix by Lauren Groff (March), and Motherhood by Sheila Heti (April). Heti’s Alphabetical Diaries, read in January, is an honorary mention; it’s not technically a novel, but as creative prose, it’s a similar expansion of my reading!
Having to particularly choose to read novels might seems like an odd resolution for a reader and writer, so maybe some of my background is helpful. When I began my undergraduate degree in Creative Writing at Susquehanna University 14+ years ago, my primary goal was to gain skills for a future career as a novelist. Like many young writers and readers, the bulk of what I read and wrote was fiction. The curriculum required all of us young writers to branch out, though, and try our hand at other genres. An Introduction to Poetry class my sophomore year completely changed my creative trajectory – maybe even my life. Poetry, which I had only dabbled in previously, became a powerful means for exploring the kind of subjects that really captivated me (at that time, biblical women and feminist perspectives on faith…I suppose not much has changed!). Very quickly, poetry became my main genre both in reading and writing.
After college, I went off to the Episcopal Service Corps, then divinity school, then ordained ministry. Accordingly, my To Be Read pile usually includes some nonfiction books related to spirituality, church, theology, etc., but otherwise: poetry, poetry, poetry! My reading has provided plenty of delight and inspiration, but it has not necessarily been balanced. For quite a while, I’ve been neglecting fiction.
Last year, I read a novel for the first time in a long time: Namaah by Sarah Blake, who is also a poet. This novel, which imagines the life of Noah’s wife, opened my eyes to the ways that poetic sensibilities can show up in literary fiction. The book’s surreal elements didn’t follow familiar plot trajectories, instead reminding me of the ways that poetry collections can move and leap. I haven’t really been aware of how much novels can do, because I haven’t been reading them!
Setting a goal of reading one novel a month has felt like a manageable way to get reacquainted with fiction. Particularly, I’m getting to know novels’ capacity for weirdness, which feels important, since the weirdness of poetry is part of what’s kept me writing it all these years. Of course “weird” is a subjective word, and the novels I’ve read have been “weird” in different ways! Pure Colour by Sheila Heti, for example, includes a section where a character inhabits a leaf alongside her dead father. Scaffolding, on the other hand, depicts realistic events but plays with time – inserting in the middle of one narrative, the story of a couple who had previously lived in the same apartment decades prior. As a college student, part of what drew me to poetry was that I found it easier to incorporate religious imagery, concepts, and biblical characters without possibly slipping into preachy territory, but Matrix by Lauren Groff showcased how novels can also provide an avenue for complex (and dare I say, weird!) explorations of religion through its following of proto-feminist abbess and mystic Marie.
Only a quarter-way through the Year of the Novel, I’m already seeing how much reading influences writing. Professional writers often give aspiring writers the advice to read a lot, and I’m reminded that it’s for good reason. Reading shows you what is possible through literature, challenges your preconceptions, and jumpstarts thinking about your own creative endeavors in directions you might not have otherwise considered.
After finishing Sheila Heti’s Motherhood this week and listening to some interviews with her about her work, writing process, and the relationship between her work and autobiography, I’ve begun writing fiction for the first time in a very, very long time (excepting a few brief fanfiction forays….did anyone else write Cressida and Eloise fanfiction after last season's Bridgerton or was that just me….?). Particularly, a creative idea I’ve had on the back burner clicked. Maybe the idea that I’d been holding onto for a memoir didn’t have to wait, but could be explored more imaginatively and freely through fiction! Motherhood and Sheila Heti were the strongest influences in terms of the novel idea emerging, but I am sure in the background were some of these other texts too. All of the books I’ve read so far for this resolution have been interiorly focused on their female protagonists in ways that draw in either philosophy or religion; this really resonates with my own goals as a writer!
It is too soon to tell if my novel idea will take off. So far I’m about 6,500 words into an initial draft. Whether or not this novel ever gets completed, I’m excited to see how this year of reading novels influences my writing. Perhaps that influence will show itself through a renewed interest in fiction, or perhaps it will result in poetic experiments I haven’t yet anticipated! If your own creativity is feeling stuck or stale, I hope you join me in this project of reading outside of your usual interests. Even just one book a month - or maybe even few months! - can be powerful.
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Poetry News:
It’s been a long time since I’ve updated this Substack (also I’ve seen some people have shifted away from Substack to other platforms – if anyone reading has made the leap and/or has an alternative they think is strong, I’d love to hear your thoughts!) so here’s some of the writing news since the last time I posted:
Upcoming Reading:
Upcoming Virtual Reading, May 1st, 7:30 p.m. EST with Frances Klein, Matthew E. Henry, and Jared Beloff
I was so excited to be invited to be part of this virtual reading coming up next Thursday! You can register for the reading here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdbaTI-uWMaDDZ4Ac--j9EZe53akIWqXf25cCPiHhcr7YkDog/viewform Please think about joining us!
Recent Publications:
*Last fall, “In some gelatinous ether” came out in Amsterdam Review. This is one of the poems that really feels at the heart of the poetry manuscript I still have out on submission and that I was most happy to have be published last year.
*Anthropoence published my poem “This Morning My Therapist Suggested Reciting Positive Affirmations About My Dating Life, So – ,” another poem from the manuscript out on submission that was so much fun to write. If you’ve ever been struggling with the idea of affirmations, or if you’re in your therapy era like I am, this one’s for you!
*Many of the new poems I wrote last year were ekphrastic, based on visual art. Particularly, I’ve been finding lots of inspiration in women artists. “Beloved Disciple” was the first of those poems to find a home at Maine Review ! The poem is based on a painting thought to be the first Last Supper done by a woman.
*This year, my first poem publication was “Poem In Which I Imagine/Inhabit Your Regret,” with Silly Goose Press. If you need some breakup angst, this poem has got you covered!
*Coming up later this year I’ll have poems in Moist Poetry Journal and Broadkill Review, so stay tuned for those!
Podcasts:
I’ve also been a guest on two different podcasts since I last wrote:
*Millie Tullis and I were on Poetry Medicine for the Soul together. The format of this podcast is especially awesome. Two poets come together reading one poem each and leading discussion on the other’s work. Millie and I chose poems by one another that we wanted to discuss. My poem is from a series of epistolary poems written to, and from, the biblical figure of Ruth; the series is a major component of the manuscript I’m currently submitting!
*I also returned to the delightful My Bad Poetry podcast, where I dove into some bad poems from high school and college (poems that are, to quote my high school self, “dripping with, dripping with, dripping with rain, dripping with, dripping with, dripping with pain”). We get into theology and spirituality and soulmates, for those of you who enjoy that! The podcast also ends with a more recently written unpublished poem that I love, so give the podcast a listen for an as-of-now exclusive poem! Also at some point I confuse Degas and Chagall, sorry to those men.
*As always, Jesus Merch: A Catalog in Poems, Woman as Communion, and Prayer Book for Contemporary Dating (a physical copy or online for free!) are all available for your reading pleasure! Tomorrow is Independent Bookstore Day, so it could be a great day to order Jesus Merch or Woman as Communion from your favorite local bookstore. (Bookstore not an option for you at the moment? You can request that your library order a copy. This is a great support in getting my books not only into your hands, but hopefully in others’ hands after you!)
If you’ve read and enjoyed, please consider reviewing on Goodreads, Amazon, etc. or sharing on social media!
With you in the increased reading of novels!! And so amazed at all you are accomplishing!! Good for you !!