May Member of the Month, Eileen Mathena. Q & A with Laura Engel

LEEileen, please tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing.
EM:   I’ve been writing since I was a kid. Journaling, letters, and terrible poetry.  After retiring from the service, I became a teacher and I went to work in Oklahoma City. It was there that I took a couple of classes with author Beverly Rorem, and I wrote some stories that made folks laugh. She encouraged me to seek publication. I didn’t. I didn’t think I had anything worth publishing. 

LE:  How did you discover SDMWA?
EM:  I love taking classes. I looked at colleges, but then I happened upon the Writers Ink website. A vibe. I got this positive vibe. This was It. I signed up for a class with Judy Reeves.   

LE: Have you been taking writing classes/workshops and are you in any writing groups? If so where and have they made a big impact on your writing?
EM:  Judy Reeves suggested Marni Freedman’s memoir class. I signed up for a yearlong class. It has been a journey like no other. There was so much I didn’t know about memoir writing. And I’ve been running away from my experiences for over thirty years. But the stories I hadn’t told in the classroom or told anyone – ever were the ones that needed to be written. Especially when one of my students came to visit after her graduation and said she had joined the Army. I wish I’d had my book to give to her.  

I completed the memoir class in December and am working in a Read and Critique group with Tracy Jones.  

I believe Marni and Tracy, along with the writers who have traveled through the memoir class vortex have made a tremendous impact on my confidence and my ability to continually better my writing. 

LE:   Please tell us about what you are working on right now.
EM:  This writing is a complete one eighty out from the writing I did in Oklahoma City. This memoir is a coming of age story. The early days of my journey as a Navy Engineman. I invite the reader to walk with me inside the skin of the ship U.S.S. Hunley, a submarine tender, as I transition from a desperate-to-fit-in sailor without a voice, to a confident twenty year old and brand new petty officer seeking a safe place for young enlisted men and women to work in the engineering spaces.
An excerpt, “The Greasing”, is being published in Shaking the Tree Volume III. 

LE:  Congratulations on the upcoming publication! What are some of your favorite Memoirs? You favorite Authors?
EM:  Top two go-tos: Haven Kimmel’s A Girl Named Zippy reminds me of my childhood. Things That They Carried by Tim O’Brien because we all have tangible and intangible things that we carry. My favorite authors are Claude Brown, Chris Crutcher, Neil Gaiman, Carl Hiaasen, Carol Shields, James Thurber, Kurt Vonnegut, Alice Walker. 

LE:   Any advice for new writers?
EM:   Find a class. Any writing class. Jump in. Keep your mind open to learning. Write. And appreciate. We learn so much from listening. 

LE:  Thank you Eileen, it is a pleasure honoring you as member of the month at SDMWA!

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