Interview with Author Mish Gajewski-Zambataro

Mish Gajewski-Zambataro's speculative fiction piece "Yellow Feather" struck us with its unique voice and artful prose, dropping us into the world of a woman looking for hope in an environment ravaged by climate change. Read on to find out the author's advice on creating, her favorite weird and obscure art and artists, and why you should only drive by her swamp if you're of pure heart and mind.

Advice on creating that you’ve learned by trial and error.

Just write! Just create! Don’t self-reject! It’s really easy to be discouraged in our over-saturated world, now more than ever with AI slop mucking it all up even further. If you have an idea, a feeling, a phrase, a taste, an anything you can’t get out of your head or keep returning to, write it down. A writer friend and I have a joke: “take a shit and play in it.” That’s gross, sorry, but it’s kinda true? Most of my first drafts don’t become anything. Most sentences don’t become paragraphs let alone stories. But I still write them down. I still play in them. And every once in a while, I find something worth pulling out and continuing. Just write! Just create! Do it now!

What's your favorite obscure novel or short story (a work you never hear anyone else talking about)?

The Kin of Ata Are Waiting for You (1971) by Dorothy Bryant. It’s a strange, mystical, dreamy old sci-fi book that occurs on a magical hidden island in the ocean, but has head-turning ramifications in the real world by the end. It’s loaded with psychology and metaphysics, full of epistemological concerns, is politically and spiritually complex, but I never hear about it, never see it on any lists. Why not, folks?

In your opinion, who is an underrated author that more people should read?

I’m going to be annoying and answer this question with “poets in general.” I am so often inspired by poetry, though I can’t write a poem to save my life. Reading poetry can be so trippy even if it’s about the mundane. I think everyone, but especially fiction writers, should spend more time reading contemporary poets. Some books of poetry I love: Hatch by Jenny Irish, Free Clean Fill Dirt by Caryl Pagel, Forage by Rita Wong, Dear God Dear Bones Dear Yellow by Noor Hindi, and Toxicon and Arachne by Joyelle McSweeney. 

Where do you go when you need to work out a writing block? 

This is more of a mental than physical place I go, but I find it really helpful to pick up a nonfiction book or article thematically related to what I’m writing about and read that for a while. Since I often (kinda exclusively) write about climate, these are usually ecological titles. Some recent examples: The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells; Zoo World by Mary Quade; and Fen, Bog, Swamp by Annie Proulx. Getting out of fiction mode and thinking more materially for a little while usually refreshes me, gives me a new perspective with which I can return to my work.

What is your favorite banned book?

Gotta go with my girl Margaret: The Handmaid’s Tale. 

If you were a cryptid, what would your name be and what strange habits would people whisper about?

I would be Swamp Girl. If you drive by my swamp at night, I will slow your car down, and it will keep slowing until it stops unless you think pure thoughts and speak these thoughts allowed, like a prayer to me. If you’re unable to purify your thoughts and speak them, and your car stops, I will peel back the roof of your car like a tin can and appear horribly above you, not a girl at all but a wingèd and dripping many-eyed angel of the permeable Earth. People who live near my swamp would hear the sound of screeching metal and whisper to each other, she’s got another one, but they won’t feel very bad for they’ll know my victim was impure. 

What is your writing strategy? Do you write every day, as the mood hits you, or do you have a rigid schedule?

I try to do something creative/writerly every day, though this isn’t always words-on-the-page writing. Sometimes this is reading, note-taking, outlining, watching a movie, ruminating, revising. I used to feel guilty if I didn’t get at least 500 words down, but this was exhausting and ultimately counterproductive. I’d write stuff I wasn’t proud of and be convinced I was the worst, dumbest, stupidest writer on Earth. It’s so much better for me to lean into motivation/inspiration when it strikes rather than try to churn out for the sake of churning out. I know other writers for whom regimented, regular schedules work really well, but that’s not me. My commitment is to thinking and behaving creatively every day, and though this doesn’t always translate to a daily product or output, it’s what works for me. On that note, there is a very real and significant version of me that loves to lounge, nap, daydream, snack, etc. I have to be honest with myself about how much primary-motor-control I’m giving Sleepy Me versus Writer Me. Gotta keep yourself in line sometimes. 

Have you ever had a supernatural encounter?

Once I had a dream there was an old man in my basement pointing up a busted pipe, water flowing all around him. He was mouthing something, or saying something very quietly, but I couldn’t make it out. When I woke up and went down into my basement, it was flooded. Not because of a busted pipe, alas, but because of roots in the drain line. I’ve never dreamt of him again (we haven’t flooded like that since), but sometimes I wonder if he was the previous homeowner. Whoever lived here before left handwritten notes all over the place, like marking on a piece of wood in the garage when beans were planted (May 1986) or when a crossbeam was installed and by whom (T 1973). I’ve always felt like someone who lived here before really loved this house, and wants to see it cared for. We’re trying our best!

What is your favorite nostalgic film?

I love John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981). This was a favorite of my parents, so we watched it all the time growing up. Watching it now is like entering a wormhole, I can slide back to my own childhood or to Arthurian England. It’s such a magical, beautiful film. 

Cursive or print?

Do yourself a favor and never try to read my cursive/print Franken-font. I pity my workshop-mates who receive back all these illegible annotations from me—sorry! Anyone with pretty cursive script, I envy you. So I guess cursive. 

Is there a book or film that significantly altered your perception of reality? 

Last year I watched the Jeff Nichol’s film Take Shelter (2011) for the first time. I was dumbstruck by the simple yet intense imagery, by Michael Shannon’s wild performance, by the horror and mystery of the story. While it’s not explicitly about climate change, in my view it seemed to ONLY be about climate change, how climate change is cognized by middle America. I was immediately driven to write a similar short story; I’m not often ‘forced’ to write by other books or movies, but after Take Shelter I felt like I was going to be sick if I didn’t get typing right away. The story that came of it has gone through a number of edits and iterations since last summer but will be emerging into the world as “Where Will We Go?” in the journal EDGE CITY this November. 

What do you hope readers gain from reading your work? 

It would be so sick, I’d be so humbled, if anyone read my work and felt a little more love for Earth and Earth-Others, or felt a little more inclined to reject society as it’s handed to us, or if my work simply prompted the question “Does it have to be this way?” in anyone’s mind. That would be sooooo sick. 

How do you cope with existential dread? How about existential joy? 

Existence is small and temporary; given this, it only makes sense to seek joy and leave the world good for the next generation of life on Earth. Right?

Do you have a favorite weirdo? (Could be famous, obscure, fictional, or a personal connection.) 

Kate Bush! My husband! You! 

Mish Gajewski-Zambataro (she/her) lives in the Lake Erie watershed and studies fiction in the NEOMFA. Her stories can be read now or in the near future in The Dodge; Gramarye: The Journal of the Chichester Centre for Fairy Tales, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction; and some other cool places, such as a zine about a sublime parking lot. Confirm her identity on the 'gram today: @_mgz_zgm_.