Kristi Joy Rimbach is a Center writer, poet, and personal essayist who has been writing nonfiction through the Center for Creative Writing to self-publish a short collection of her work. Here, she shares a bit about her creative process, writing for an audience, and some other publications and books she’s taking inspiration from as she works on a memoir.
Meet Kristi Joy Rimbach
Center Your Writing: What made you want to start writing online for an audience, and how did you choose Substack as a platform?
Kristi Rimbach: I actually first heard about Substack from Wild Roof Journal after they accepted one of my pieces for publication. I checked it out and was just really drawn in by this idea of a personal publishing platform with a community of readers and writers all loving words and supporting each other. I love the feedback and connection when I share a piece of writing here.
CYW: What’s the name of your Substack publication? How long have you been writing it? How often do you publish new work? Talk to us a little about the mix of writing you do there, from poetry to nonfiction that ranges from creative essays to personal updates and missives.
KR: The name of my Substack is Soul Excavation with Joy because that’s what I feel like I do with my writing—dig deep into my inner being to see what is there. It’s also a play on my last name, Joy, which I chose for myself after I got divorced from my first husband. (I moved it to my middle name when I remarried) It’s a reminder for me to not be too serious, which I can tend toward if I’m not paying attention.
I’ve been writing here for just about one year! It will be a year next month. I publish something every week. When I started I was posting twice a week, but that pace was too much while also working on my memoir (which our lovely Stacia [Fleegal, Center for Creative Writing director and teacher] is patiently mentoring me through!)
CYW: Talk to us a little about the mix of writing you do there, from poetry to nonfiction that ranges from creative essays to personal updates and missives.
KR: I’ve written poetry for years off and on, starting in my angsty teens. I got more serious about it in the last few years and have had a number of poems published in literary magazines. So poetry kind of feels like my foundation, or home base.
I started writing personal essays when I took Writing the Personal Essay with Stacia. I was just coming out of several years of court battles with my ex over our daughter, after an emotionally abusive marriage. I was trying to steady myself, trying to heal, and my new husband kept encouraging me to write about it. It’s turned out to be a big part of my healing process. And those essays were the beginning of the memoir I’m working on now.
I think one of my strengths in writing is that I am willing to reveal myself, to write honestly about my experience. So, if something is happening in my life, or is heavily on my mind, I can’t really skip over it and publish something unrelated. It feels inauthentic, plus the energy just isn’t there.
So, when my husband was in the hospital with encephalitis, that’s what I wrote about. When my sisters and I became estranged, that’s what I wrote about. And, when my father passed away in August, I wrote about that. It can be scary to put my life out there like that, but I almost always hear from readers that they can relate, that I’ve put words to their experience, that they feel less alone, which makes it all worth it.
CYW: How do you know if an idea should be a poem or an essay or another form entirely? Tell us a little about your writing process, including how you decide when a piece of writing is ready for you to publish for readers.
KR: Most of my poems come from 15 minute, pen never leaving the page, free writes. It’s a practice called “Wild Writing” with Laurie Wagner, and I love it so much because it gets past the inner critic to the juicy stuff! Then, if it’s something I like, I edit it and format it into a poem.
For me, poems seem to be an expression of a feeling or experience. It’s like trying to get to the essence of the thing, whatever it is. I’ll write an essay when I am grappling with something, trying to get to a deeper understanding, looking for meaning. Although, sometimes I publish both a poem and a short essay on the same topic in one post.
As far as how I decide it’s ready to publish, that’s a good question. I guess it’s when I feel a certain satisfaction when I read it aloud. If I don’t stumble over anything or feel “cringy” as my teenage daughter would say.
When I read it out loud, I imagine I am reading it to an audience, and if it holds up, I hit the send button.
Check out Soul Excavation with Joy
CYW: Can you share up to three links of recent pieces that you feel proud of and would most like the Center community to read, and why?
KR: “Vanity: a poem about aging” is one of my newest poems, and I like it because it talks honestly, and with humor, about something we all (if we’re lucky) go through. I was trying to poke a bit of fun at myself and not keep my vanity hidden where it could grow bigger and more serious. A lot of people related to this one!
“Not everyone will want you to tell your story—tell it anyway”—This topic is in the forefront of my mind as I work on my memoir and I’m sure most writers of memoir and personal essay grapple with this. I was compelled to write about it after receiving a judgy Facebook comment, so this is also an example of writing about what is currently happening in my life.
“In the Soft Air” came from one of those 15-minute free writes, and I’m proud of it because I really hacked it down, cutting lots of lines and words that maybe I liked but that didn’t add to the poem. I feel like I got to “the essence of the thing” here.
CYW: What makes a good Substack publication? What are some others you’d recommend to us? What else, who else, are you reading right now?
KR: I feel like I can’t really comment on what makes a good Substack publication; I’m just floundering around out here trying to figure it out like everyone else. I can tell you what I like, and that is realness, interesting use of language, and humor. And I like consistency, too, knowing that I’ll see a post from the author on a regular basis.
A few Substacks I love are:
“Note from a Damp Island” by Marci Cornett
“Poetry, Art and Unseen Things” by Rebecca Cook
“Queen of Oversharing” by Kay Stratton
What I’m reading: I actually just finished a memoir by a fellow Substacker, Eleanor Anstruther, which I absolutely loved. It’s called A Memoir in 65 Postcards & The Recovery Diaries and is a memoir in short pieces she posted on her Substack, one each day, with little editing.
I am also, slowly and painfully, reading Ulysses by James Joyce in some misguided mission I set out on after buying the book in Ireland. I am over halfway done, though, and am determined to finish! (About the photo above of the author in a bookshop, Kristi says: [This picture was taken] at a bookstore in Dublin called Sweny’s. It used to be a pharmacy, and James Joyce actually went there! He writes about Sweny’s in “Ulysses.” That’s where Leopold Bloom buys the lemon soap. It was a super cool little shop!)
And, partly for research purposes for a short story I’m working on, I’m reading The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout. It is really well written, eye opening, and fascinating.
CYW: What’s next for you? What are some of your future goals for your publication and your writing?
KR: Well, I’m on the second draft of my memoir, I have a novel I’m working on sporadically, and the short story I mentioned with a sociopath as the main character. Plus, I am always working on writing and editing poems.
For my Substack, I am really inspired by Anstruther’s memoir in short, lightly edited essays, so I’m contemplating some kind of theme or structure to focus on next.
Thanks, Kristi, and happy writing!
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