5th Annual San Diego Memoir Showcase Memoir Showcase Winners: Q & A with Anastasia Zadeik Hipkins & Susan J. Farese
SJF: In a nutshell – tell us about your winning memoir piece for the 5th Annual San Diego Memoir Showcase.
AZH: “Not Fine at All,” tells the story of a predawn telephone call from my husband’s ex-wife’s brother that revealed a complicated web of lies, forcing me to reassess over a decade of my past and setting in motion a chain of events that fundamentally altered my life—and the lives of those I love most.
SJF: What has your experience been taking classes/workshops and writing memoir in San Diego?
AZH: My favorite teachers are other writers. For several years, I’ve been a member of a weekly read and critique group comprised of poets, memoirists, and novelists (including a few therapists, which has been particularly helpful!). And through involvement with the San Diego Memoir Showcase and So Say We All’s VAMP—writing, performing, and coaching—I’ve had the good fortune to learn from an incredibly smart, diverse, and inclusive group of people.
I’ve also benefited from creative writing and copyediting classes at UCSD Extension, as well as classes and workshops held by San Diego Writers, Ink; So Say We All; Last Exit; the San Diego Writers’ Conference (@SDSU); the La Jolla Writer’s Conference; and the San Diego Writers Festival.
SJF: If you had a magic wand, what kind of opportunities would be available to memoir writers in San Diego?
AZH: I would love to see The Moth host a Story Slam event here in San Diego 🙂
SJF: What are you excited about when it comes to participating in the 5th Annual Memoir Showcase?
AZH: I’m looking forward to sitting with family and friends at the North Coast Rep and experiencing the story as an audience member.
SJF: What advice would you give to a new writer in San Diego?
AZH: Read, a lot. Write every day, even if it’s just a little (and celebrate when it’s a lot.)
And get involved in the San Diego writing community.
Here is a sample of some upcoming events to get started…
Halal If You Hear Me, free event, September 21 (4-6pm) at the San Diego Downtown Library’s Neil Morgan Auditorium;
Vermin Turns 15, free event, September 21 (7pm) at La Bodega Gallery in Barrio Logan;
Pop-Up Magazine’s “Escape” tour coming to The Observatory North Park on September 23 (7:30pm);
VAMP: “Experiments” on September 26 (8:30-10pm) at the Whistle Stop in South Park (monthly event held last Thursday of every month);
Memoir writing classes with Marni Freedman at Writers, Ink, Liberty Station (every Saturday afternoon at 12:15);
Long Story Short: Home at Last, October 3 (7-9pm) at Kava Collective (monthly storytelling event first Thursday of every month);
Dime Stories (monthly storytelling event held second Friday of every month) – next one will be October 11, Liberty Station; 6:30pm to sign up, 7pm to listen; and, of course,
San Diego Memoir Showcase, October 28 (4pm and 7pm) at North Coast Rep.
And a little ways out…
Southern California Writers’ Conference, February 14-16, 2020;
San Diego Writers Festival, free to the public, April 4, 2020; and
David Sedaris, coming to Balboa Theater on May 12, 2020 through UCSD’s ArtPower.
SJF: Favorite Memoirs?
AZH: So hard to choose – – Under My Skin by Doris Lessing; The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion; Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates; Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt; The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls; Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy.
SJF: Many thanks, Anastasia!
Photo credit: Chad Thompson