The Emerging Reader in All of Us

Brittany and Jeannetta welcome Amelia Louise Herridge Ishak to the podcast to discuss reading as a writer. Amelia comes from London, England and has an MPhil in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic and moved to Aarhus, Denmark hunting for viking myths and monsters. Norse mythology and the rawness of Scandinavian nature inspires her work. She joined the Aarhus Women Write in 2017 and took over the running of it in 2020. The three discuss early childhood reading interests and how that has influenced their writing today, what genres and styles inspire them and the other reasons why they read besides pleasure or craft.  Amelia's piece which is shared on the podcast, "The Hidden Spirit of the Forest" is available in Meet me at 19th St available here: https://archstreetpress.org/2021/11/02/the-hidden-spirit-of-the-forest/. 

Questions

1. How much has your childhood reading interests influenced the way you write or the topics you write about? 
2. How much have your reading habits changed since becoming a writer? Do you read more around the genres and styles you write in? Do you write in the style and genres you read in? Is this different to when you were younger/before you became a writer?
3. We often hear how other writers inspire or influence other writers in a positive way, but what are some things that you have read where you have thought "I never want to write like that" and learnt what not to do? 
4. Besides pleasure and improvement of your craft (which are some of the reasons I read) what are some other reasons you read?
5. As a follow up to #1, what are the other ways reading has improved your creative practice besides the writing itself? (related to your question #2)? 

References in this Episode

• • Learn more about Aarhus Women Writers here https://www.instagram.com/aarhuswomenwrite?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw== 

• The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
• Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Crescent City series by Sarah J Maas
• Jane Austin
• Elizabeth Gaskill
• Margaret Atwood
• Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
• Goosebumps series by R. L. Stine
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
• The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne du Maurier
• Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
• Wuthering Heights by Emile Brontë
• Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
• The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkein
• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
• Log in to the Libby App through your local library here: https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby  
• “Beauty and the Beast” by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve
• The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
• Read Angela Carters’ (not Chambers…lol) reinterpretation of fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber
• Popisho by Leone Ross
• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
• “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri in The Interpeter of Maladies
• Charles Dickens
• Episode 1 of Season 1 of The Write Attention, “Show Tell and Practice”, https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/show-tell-practice/ 
• Episode 9 of Season 1 of The Write Attention, “Personal Revelation & Reader Responsibility” with  guest Collette Walker, https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/personal-revelation-audience-responsibility/ 
• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway