Interview | SHIFT

July 11, 2023July 12, 2023

SHIFTing Behind the Scenes: An Interview with Editor Jennifer Chesak

Interviewed By: Kylie Petrovich

Jennifer Chesak is known to many of us as the managing editor of SHIFT, but in fact, she boasts a large portfolio and wears many hats as an author, journalist, editor, and educator. Through this interview, we share more about our very own editor, Ms. Jennifer Chesak.

Chesak recently launched her book The Psilocybin Handbook for Women: How Magic Mushrooms, Psychedelic Therapy, and Microdosing Can Benefit Your Mental, Physical, and Spiritual Health (published by Ulysses Press). In a world where the medical community has often overlooked the unique needs of women, Chesak has taken it upon herself to shed light on a groundbreaking subject. Her book dives deep into psilocybin, more commonly known as “magic mushrooms” and its potential impact on the well-being of people assigned female at birth.

Chesak emphasizes the historical glossing over of women’s health. “Women were largely excluded from early-stage clinical trials until the 1990s,” she explains. As an example of the ramifications of that exclusion, Chesak notes the alarming fact that the first drug for male sexual dysfunction emerged 17 years before a comparable solution for women. “Disparities in women’s healthcare have left women seeking alternative solutions, such as psilocybin,” she says. Through her research, Chesak learned that more women use some psychedelics than men do. And while men often use psychedelics recreationally, many women use psychedelics to “self-treat,” she explains. For that reason, she expresses the importance of women having access to educational content on psychedelics. “The book provides accurate and responsible information on psilocybin and the context surrounding the female body,” she says, “because our bodies are not the same as the male body.”

Chesak’s experience as a reporter shaped her approach to writing her book. “I was able to lean on my journalism education and experience to dig into complex medical studies, interview the experts, weave in compelling personal narrative, provide accurate and responsible information, and present the information in an easy-to-read format,” she says. Her journalistic training also taught her to scrutinize her own writing, leaving no room for holes or inconsistencies. She organizes her thoughts and information to build “a completed puzzle from the pieces.”

Chesak is not only a skilled writer but she also has a passion for education. Ms. Chesak teaches in the journalism and publishing programs at Belmont University and mentors students in the MTSU Write program. “To be an effective educator,” she says, “an instructor must be all these things: informative, compassionate, engaging, and willing to learn themselves—both learning from their students and their industry.” These qualities also served Chesak during her book-writing journey. They allowed her to present complex information in an engaging way and remain humble in the face of new knowledge.

In addition to her impressive writing portfolio, Chesak operates Wandering in the Words Press, a manuscript editing company that helps authors transform their drafts into polished works ready for publication or for querying agents. The challenges she encounters in her editing work often revolve around managing expectations and ensuring authors understand the multifaceted nature of editing in the revision process. “I find it difficult when an author’s ego isn’t willing to take a step back and consider constructive feedback,” she says. “To me, a good writer is one who questions their own work, even long after the ink has dried, and their books are on the stands.”

Beyond her writing, educational, and editing endeavors, Chesak is an integral part of SHIFT, an anthology that showcases diverse works from around the world. Her role as managing editor for SHIFT aligns with her freelance editing work, though the nature of the editing is a bit different. “The roles differ in that when I’m working on SHIFT pieces,” she says, “they’ve been voted on by our reading committee and are relatively polished or they wouldn’t be accepted. When I am working with authors on a freelance basis, I generally receive work that requires a heavier editing hand. But I love working with authors on any level of polishing and helping them realize their potential.” Each volume of SHIFT centers around one chosen theme. Past themes have included religion, the pandemic, and climate change. An upcoming topic is identity. “I enjoy working with such a beautiful variety of works all centered around a strong theme,” she says. She also finds helping writers achieve their goals, such as having a publishing a piece, rewarding. Chesak embraces the opportunity that SHIFT provides to curate an anthology that tells a compelling story through a collection of works.

In her free time, Chesak enjoys reading, running, and gardening, all of which influence her writing. When confronted with writer’s block, “I tend to head for the trails” she says, “or I weed my garden.” These activities foster a wandering mind, which she says is “crucial for creativity.” By activating the brain’s default mode network, which is “a resting-state network of brain regions that work together,” she says, “we tend to have some of our most creative moments.” Ms. Chesak encourages all writers to find ways to activate this network, even if it is simply by doing mindless tasks such as laundry or doing the dishes. She is scheduled to teach a class on this via The Porch in early December, as people wrap up National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.

For aspiring writers and journalists, Chesak offers valuable advice. Above all, she stresses the significance of reading extensively. “Read, read, and read your craft!” she says. “Analyze books, short stories, personal and reported essays, poems, news and feature articles, etc., to determine what works and what doesn’t.” Rather than avoiding the influence of other writers, she considers their work a “treasure trove of inspiration and a catalyst for perfecting your craft.” According to Chesak, writing is a lifelong learning process, and embracing the lessons that arise from reading and analyzing others’ works paves the way for growth. As a constant learner and advocate for the written word, Ms. Chesak serves as an inspiration to aspiring writers and journalists, reminding them to embrace the ever-evolving journey of honing their craft. You can find her work, events, classes, and more at jenniferchesak.com or follow her on social @jenchesak.

June 12, 2023July 12, 2023

Caitlyn Osborne-Parris Explores the Creative Process and Themes Behind “We Have Been Advised”

Interviewed By: Kylie Petrovich

Caitlyn Osborne Parris is a middle Tennessee high school ESL teacher, PhD student, and certified yoga teacher. She grew up in the mountains of east Tennessee and now resides in middle Tennessee with her husband (Ben), 2 dogs (Suki & Bumi), and cat (Momo). In her writing, Caitlyn seeks the mystical in the mundane, strives to be perpetually curious, stubbornly hopeful, and unflinchingly honest. (Written by Caitlyn Osborne-Parris)

In an engaging conversation, poet Caitlyn Osborne-Parris shares her insights into her creative process and the underlying themes of her poem “We Have Been Advised.” She reveals the diverse sources of inspiration that helped shape the piece.

Osborne-Parris takes life’s odd moments and turns them into captivating poetry. “A phrase or something will come to me,” she explains, “and I’ll just put it in my phone, and then I’ll sit down every once in a while and look at my phone and write down in my journal the snippets to see if anything comes out of it. That is what happened with this poem.”

Two ideas served as the catalyst for her creativity: encounters with a stranger in Montana during a spate of forest fires and a dream about spiders involving an enigmatic message. “I’m drawn toward nature,” she says. “It inspires me a lot.” She also recognizes the influence of renowned poet Mary Oliver. “She was one of the first poets that I really was drawn towards,” she adds.

“We Have Been Advised” adopts a unique format, with episodic elements serving as a unifying force. Through this stylistic choice, Osborne-Parris weaves together diverse experiences and explores interconnected themes. “I imagined flipping through channels on the TV in my mind,” she explains. “I’ve seen other poets do that when you have these disparate elements that thematically go together. I’ve tried it before and it didn’t really work, but with this one it actually worked. I was just kind of experimenting because I don’t usually do that.”

In one of her dreams, spiders spelled out the word “help.” The spiders reminded Osborne-Parris about the weaver spiders in the porch of her childhood home, so she included them in her second stanza. “They are beautiful,” she says, “especially the yellow and black weaver spiders, and I don’t want to be afraid of them—because I think they’re really cool—but I’m terrified of spiders, unfortunately. I put them in the poem because the yellow and black is a symbol of caution, danger.”

The third stanza is also based on the lived experience of visiting her grandmother in Kentucky, where she would run around barefoot outside. “She was convinced that the starlings’ poop would infect my feet and I would get really sick,” Osborne-Parris recalls. As for the language in the third stanza, she confesses, “It was funny because I just love the word ‘murmuration’ and had been trying to use it in a poem.”

Osborne-Parris further explains the third stanza and the starlings. “They’re an invasive species,” she says. “I’m sure we brought them here or we caused something to happen that they’re so new in the South. I think they’re beautiful; it’s just like the spiders. They’re not necessarily in the place they’re supposed to be, but they’re still beautiful.”

The final stanza, depicting Osborne-Parris’s ever-panting black dog, serves as a poignant reminder of the immediate impact of climate change on individuals and their loved ones. “The poem starts out in this place where I don’t live and I’m seeing how climate change is affecting where I’m vacationing, but it’s not affecting me directly,” she says. “Then there’s a dream, which is very abstract, and then it moves to my grandmother, so this interpersonal relationship to the last stanza is very direct. This thing I’m caring for is being affected and I’m seeing this information on my phone—it’s the hottest it’s ever been where I live. The idea was the movement toward myself.”

The title of the poem reflects that climate change isn’t a surprise, but rather a growing ongoing crisis. Osborne-Parris acknowledges the delicate balance between personal agency and governmental action. “We don’t have control of what corporations do,” she says. “We don’t have control of what governments do. When I say, ‘I wish they would,’ I definitely lean more liberal. I wish the government would enact more regulations.”

The main theme of the poem is that climate change is personal. “It affects you,” Osborne-Parris says. “Not that people should only care about things that affect them—it’s just human nature. We’re going to care more about stuff that we can see. If we keep our eyes open, we will see these things.”

Her advice to fellow writers is to forge ahead with determination and perseverance. “Just keep writing,” she says. “Eventually, you’ll find the gem underneath all the dirt.” Osborne-Parris also offers guidance on getting published. “You submit it,” she says, “and if it’s not right for that journal, it’s not right for that journal. It’s not personal. Keep looking for journals, keep reading journals and seeing what they accept.”

Now Osborne-Parris is working on stepping out of her creative comfort zone. Writers she respects, like Jericho Brown, Ada Limon, and Jose Olivarez, are encouraging people to write from the unconscious mind, but Osborne-Parris says that is novel to her. “They say just write,” she explains, “and whatever it connects to, you write that down. That’s hard for me because I want to say, ‘Wait, why is that connecting or what does that mean?’ I think Ada Limon said you don’t have to understand what it means, but I want to know what it means because it came out of my brain.” Osborne-Parris also cites writing prompts as useful tools for getting out of her comfort zone and writing about new topics.

“We Have Been Advised” serves as a poignant reminder of the power of personal experience to ignite change and inspire a deeper connection with the world around us. Osborne-Parris invites readers to reflect on their own journeys, hopefully paving the way for a more environmentally conscious future.

For more information on Caitlyn Osborne-Parris, visit https://caitlynoparris.wordpress.com/

To read the latest volume of SHIFT, in which Osborne-Parris’s work is featured, click on the purchase tab!

May 19, 2023July 12, 2023

Burning Tensions: Climate Change and Family Dynamics in “Fire Hazards” by Jaymie Heilman

Interviewed By: Kylie Petrovich

BIO: Jaymie Heilman grew up in Sherwood Park, Alberta. She lived in Wisconsin, Peru, and Nova Scotia before circling back home to Alberta, where she taught Latin American and Caribbean history at the University of Alberta. She has written two books about the history of Peru, and her first YA novel will be published in September 2023. When she’s not reading or writing books for children or teens, she’s usually gardening, biking to the library, or dreaming about the ocean. She lives in Edmonton with her husband, son, and a ridiculous number of books. (Written by Jaymie Heilman).

Jaymie Heilman’s short story “Fire Hazards” was featured in volume five of SHIFT magazine. The recurring wildfires in her home province of Alberta prompted her to write the story. “Alberta, Canada, has an economy dominated by oil and gas industries,” she says. “We suffer terrible wildfires almost every year. Blaming those fires on climate change driven by fossil fuels remains a relatively taboo subject.”

“Fire Hazards” is fictional, but the setting is based on actual events. “It’s only May 4^th,” Heilman says, “and several nearby communities have already had to evacuate because of wildfires. It’s incredibly dry right now, and there is a fire ban in effect—no campfires or backyard firepits—and we’re all extremely nervous about the summer ahead.” The story’s vivid scenes evoke this tension. “Descriptions of the smoky air and orange sky and the fear of looming dangers,” she said, “come from lived experience in Alberta.”

The protagonist is watering a roof with a hose. “I’ve read about people watering their roofs during forest fires—please, please don’t do that! In addition, a dear friend’s elderly father stubbornly fixed his own roof after a major storm, leading me to my idea for ‘Fire Hazards.’”

In the story, Heilman not only tackles the subject of climate change but she also delves into the complexities of familial dynamics. The protagonist and her brother have a strained relationship. “I’m fortunate to be an only child,” Heilman says, “but I’m fascinated by the sibling tensions that persist in adulthood.” The story also explores the fraught dynamic between the protagonist and her mother. “In many ways,” Heilman says, “the protagonist treats her mom like she’s a stubborn teenager. She thinks that she can just reason with—or guilt—her mom into moving out to the coast.” Ultimately, the protagonist comes to a crucial realization. “It takes a hard night of really listening to her mother,” she adds, “for the protagonist to accept that she can’t control her mom, just as she has to be true to her own wishes and those of her husband and child.”

Heilman also engages the reader with the protagonist’s internal struggle. “Her husband and daughter want to live elsewhere,” she says, “and so does she, but she feels responsible for her widowed mother and extremely reluctant to move away from her. The fire emergency brings those internal conflicts into sharp relief.”

Heilman says the most challenging part of writing “Fire Hazards” was “trying to understand the perspective of the mother who unquestionably wants to stay.” She goes on to explain, “Many young (and youngish) Albertans are leaving the province for precisely the reasons my protagonist does, and it saddens me to see so many families having to confront these tough decisions.”

Much of Heilman’s writing tackles environmental issues, but she says she is “extremely wary of writing anything that reads as a call to action or message heavy.” Nonetheless, Heilman hopes “readers find something in ‘Fire Hazards’ that will help them get through the challenging times we are all enduring.”

For more information on Jaymie Heilman, visit her website: https://jaymieheilman.com

To read the latest volume of SHIFT, in which Heilman’s work is featured, click on the purchase tab!

April 16, 2023June 12, 2023

Unveiling the “Soul of the Storm:” An Interview with Robert Morgan Fisher

Interviewed By: Kylie Petrovich

Robert Morgan Fisher, of Los Angeles, is a multifaceted artist and writer whose creative passions range from music to fiction. SHIFT recently published his work “Soul of the Storm” in volume five. The speculative fiction piece explores the possibility of an innate intelligence behind violent storm systems.

Fisher’s inspiration for “Soul of the Storm” stemmed from his fascination with tornadoes, cultivated during his upbringing as a “military brat.” He moved frequently and spent time in Tornado Alley. The story’s setting in Xenia, Ohio, is based on his personal experience traveling there for a high school tennis match. A tornado had hit the area a couple years prior. “[It] looked like a router had randomly carved up the town,” he says.

He also credits his editor at The Wright State Daily Guardian. He calls him a “cool dude” named Chip Swindler, who shared his experience. “He was stoned and hid under the bed when the big one hit,” Fisher says. That planted the seed for “Soul of the Storm.” Fisher cites another influence on the story: the Porter Wagoner song “Big Wind” captivated him as a boy.

The character of Dr. Hale Swinbourne, the protagonist of “Soul of the Storm,” is a former meteorologist whom the scientific community ostracized for his belief that storm systems have an intelligence. Fisher says he derived Swinbourne’s name from his own creative philosophy of “Never Waste a Name.” He credits Chip Swindler as inspiration for the name Swinbourne. Fisher uses language to subtly manipulate the reader’s perception. Swinbourne’s first name, Hale, is an obvious weather reference, while his last name, Swinbourne, connotes “swindle,” referencing his fall from grace.

Fisher drew inspiration from the idea that Indigenous peoples have long believed that nature has a personality and is angry with humans. He recalls singing the song “Nature’s Way” by the band Spirit with an old friend who was in the band. Fisher still often covers the song at Earth Day concerts; he has changed the lyrics to address climate change. He also performs the song during readings of his fiction. “My fiction dialogs actively with my music platform,” he says.

Performing research for “Soul of the Storm,” Fisher delved into documented cases of bizarre atmospheric behavior during tornadoes. For example, storms have appeared to insert paper products neatly into trees and to have carried babies for miles before gently setting them down. He credits The Tornado Project’s “Tornado Oddities” page as a particularly inspiring resource.

Fisher’s writing process involves drinking coffee, taking breaks for exercise, and reading his work aloud. He says he believes in playing discovery and embracing the element of surprise in his writing and edits his work and the work of others to “purge all unnecessary articles, pronouns, and superfluous verbiage.”

Using a tornado as the main character of his story was not a challenge for Fisher; he found it to be one of the most enjoyable parts of the writing process. “Once I got that the Tornado was trying to express itself,” he says, “the rest was easy.” He hopes that readers take away a sense of caution when it comes to natural disasters, emphasizing the importance of having a plan and shelter ready. “These things can literally be meat-grinders,” he adds, so having a plan of action is imperative.

With “Soul of the Storm,” Fisher crafted a thought-provoking speculative fiction work that engages with themes of climate change, scientific ostracization, and the possibility of a sentient natural world. “As artists we have a responsibility to bring light into the world, shine it on the dark, unseen places,” he says. He recalls reading Jim Shepard’s story “The Netherlands Lives with Water,” which is about rising sea levels due to climate change. Fisher explains “I was already leaning towards believing, and that short story convinced me.” “There’s something about well-executed fiction that grabs the reader in ways that nonfiction cannot,” he says, “because fiction/poetry offers us the possibility of truth as opposed to something that might just be propaganda.”

As a writer, musician, and all-around creative thinker, Fisher continues to explore the interplay of different artistic forms and themes in his work. Currently, he coaches manuscript writers, teaches creative fiction at the collegiate level, is working on several short stories, and is near completion on a novel. Fisher does not shy away from the work. He says he is “always revising, improving, and updating the unpublished manuscripts. It never ends and I’m happy about that.”

One of Fisher’s proudest achievements is conducting a writing workshop at the West Los Angeles Veteran’s Center. Now known as the Wordcommandos, many of the veterans from Fisher’s workshop “have been published, won huge awards, fellowships, gotten their MFAs.” Fisher also expresses that he is “proud to say that we’ve managed to get this far without having a single suicide.” To mark the 50^th anniversary of the withdrawal from the Vietnam War, Fisher and his Wordcommandos held an event at a large theatre in Hollywood. Stars such as Sharon Stone, John Savage, and Bill Pullman read the short stories; it was a sold-out event.

Fisher’s main advice for aspiring writers is “Do it.” He also encourages writers to “find the funny,” and “dig a little deeper” in their work. He has been quite successful in his life and is inspirational. He uses his writing and knowledge to give back to the community and the world at large. We can all learn a thing or two from that.

For more information about Robert Morgan Fisher visit his website: www.robertmorganfisher.com

To read the latest volume of SHIFT in which Fisher’s work is featured, click on the Purchase tab!