EXPLORING THE RIPPLE EFFECT

At the KWA Scene Conference, I had the pleasure of sitting at the table with Molly Wierman, whose story “A Mother’s Love” placed first in the youth division: fiction of KWA’s 2012 writing contest. Since Bonnie had not been able to attend, I quickly engaged Makayla Yokley as interviewer. However, there was too much background noise, so I transcribed the interview. Keep reading to learn more about Molly Wierman, a talented young writer.

Molly Wierman reads from “A Mother’s Love”

Molly Wierman Interview with Makayla Yokley

Makayla: Molly, you’re a senior at Kapaun. How is that going?

Molly: It’s been great. I’ve had the most incredible year with writing and outside writing.

Makayla: Tell us about your contest entry, “A Mother’s Love.” What place did it get and what was it about?

Molly: I received first place in youth division: fiction. At the time I was writing it, there were a lot of teenage suicides. There were a couple where it wasn’t really people I knew, but it was people I knew who knew them. I thought, “How did the suicide impact the people around them? How did their friends react? How did their mothers feel?” I wondered if people would think, “Oh, you’re such a bad mother.” It was an interesting concept.

Makayla: Yes, you do always see just their (the suicide’s) perspective. You don’t see the family members or the ripple effect. You said something earlier about Transcendentalist fiction. What is that?

Molly: Well, normally, when you think of Transcendentalists, you think of somebody like Thoreau, Emerson, and extreme Romanticism, but I would say Transcendentalist fiction is looking at a person, body and soul, and I like to work with the soul aspect and base everything from that. It’s similar to what I’ve heard described as Catholic fiction, taking the spiritual idea of the world into my writing.

Makayla: So that’s how it plays into the Catholic aspect?

Molly: Yes.

Makayla: You also said something about T.S. Eliot.

Molly: Yes. My English teacher had us do a little bit on T.S. Eliot my junior and senior years, and I was reading his writing and thinking that I almost write the same way. I use symbolism and things like that, but it’s also the whole idea of the spiritual world and bringing in the Anglo-Catholic themes, and that’s how I write, too.

Makayla: That’s a cool way to learn—from other writers—and to see what it is that informs how you work with something similar in your writing. It’s been nice talking to you.

Molly: It’s been nice talking to you.

Makayla: And congratulations on winning first place.

——-

Now that you have some background, check out the excerpts from “A Mother’s Love.” To read the complete story and the stories of other winners in KWA’s 2012 writing contest,  download the anthology.

Subscribe to Keyhole Conversations while you’re here!

Thanks to vintagefeedsacks for the use of their images.

Explore posts in the same categories: Video Readings by Authors

Tags: 2012 writing contest, A Mother's Love, Kansas Writers Association, Makayla Yokley, Molly Wierman, suicide

You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.