The IMWA is excited to announce Janell Stube, SDWF Director of Volunteers, as our July Member of the Month! Please take a minute to read Janell’s interview with IMWA Board Member Janet Hafner.
- What got you involved with the International Memoir Writers Association?
I met Marni Freedman at the La Jolla Writers Festival back in 2018. I was there pitching a manuscript that needed a lot of rewriting and I needed to practice the craft of writing. Marni became my writing coach. I’m not even certain what happened after that—something about volunteering at the San Diego Writers Festival and learning about an opportunity to write a piece for the San Diego Memoir Showcase. This was back before I really understood that memoir was a style of writing, but somehow, I knew that this was how I had been writing all my life.
- When did you begin to write, and what was your first project?
When I was three years old, I learned that I was adopted. The next year, I wrote a story, pouring out the tale of what had happened to me. I wrote and wrote, but my dad saw only scribbling. The next major project was when I was thirteen, when I wrote a story about a native American girl adopted into a white family. I got bogged down in the middle and never finished it. My first real piece of memoir was a poem I wrote in college that was published by the L’Alliance Francaise. The piece, whose first lines translate as “I’m not black, I’m not white, I don’t want to be gray,” was written in French because I was too afraid to write the words in English.
3 How have writing classes influenced your writing?
Writing classes have helped my writing immeasurably. I surprised myself and took the entire Memoir certificate program. I also took several classes from the San Diego Writer’s, Ink poetry certificate program, and many other classes. These classes deepen my technical understanding, help me get new ideas, and practice the craft of writing—and find new friends. I also participate in read and critique classes, which give me real-time feedback on my current writing. The community of writers I’ve found is my biggest encouragement to keep going.
- What would you like to work on next?
I have so many ideas for writing going on in my brain. Most days, I try to sit down and entertain myself with morning pages that I turn into essays for my Substack. I also have a lot of poetry that needs to be in a chapbook.
I have a second historical novel set during the French Revolution that I need to finish plotting out, but right now, I’m sidetracked by the idea of writing a story loosely based on my adoptive mother’s family, a family of German descent growing up in Dustbowl Oklahoma during World War II. Of course, I still need to finish my memoir—the first draft is in editing right now, and I’m actively looking for an agent for my first novel.
- What authors do you enjoy reading? What’s your favorite memoir?
I love Amor Towle’s A Gentleman in Paris and just finished Jamie Ford’s Love and Other Consolidation Prizes. For memoir, Joan Didian’s The Year of Magical Thinking, and more recently, my favorite, Peter Orner’s Am I Alone Here? I am currently reading Laura Engel’s You’ll Forget This Ever Happened.
- What can you tell us about your upcoming memoir?
My memoir, Not That Black: Growing up Biracial and Adopted into a White Family in the 1960s, is about growing up in a world where you don’t fit in and how a desperate search for belonging and family does not always mean finding home. It explores the complex themes of adoption and the commodification of illegitimate babies that formed the adoption industry of the Baby Scoop Era.
- You’ve helped coordinate volunteers for the San Diego Writers Festival for the past few years and are now our Director of Volunteers. What inspires you about working with our amazing Festival volunteers?
The volunteers themselves. At heart, I love hospitality, and a festival is like throwing a big party. Knowing that you can make everlasting memories by how you make people feel during such an experience inspires me to do my best to help people feel great about the day—from the speakers, by making them feel at ease, to the festival visitors, who I want to have an unforgettable day, to the volunteers who I love to see working together to create something amazing. I especially love the friendships they carry away from that day. It humbles me to watch someone who feels that they aren’t sure they can do something and ho,w by the end of the day, they’ve done so much, made a beautiful day for hundreds of people, and they’ve walked away feeling appreciated for what they’ve accomplished. That inspires me.
- Please let us know how we can reach you. Website? Social channels?
Janellstrube.com and janellstrube.substack.com