Welcome to the second installment in my Pencil series on The Writing Life. This came about after I’d completed an article for the Limestone Post on the Writers Guild at Bloomington’s Local Authors Book Fair, scheduled for Saturday, November 2, 2024, at the Monroe County History Center. I had interviewed some terrific writers for the article and turned a few of those interviews into Big Talk episodes but still had great material that didn’t fit into either format. So, I’ve decided to turn that stuff into Pencil posts. The other day, author and Book Fair organizer Molly Gleeson was the subject. Today, it’s editor, author, and writing Facilitator Rebekah Spivey. She works as an editor for Holon Publishing, founded by Jeremy Gotwals of Bloomington. His Big Talk chat, in two parts, with alternate host Alex Ashkin can be heard here and here. Rebekah has published a novel, Marigolds and Boxes through Holon.)
MG; How long have you been writing?
REBEKAH: Since I can remember.
MG: As a little kid?
REBEKAH: Yeah. I made up stories about animals and people. It was a way to distract myself from what was going on at home which wasn’t always a whole lot of fun.
MG: Why did you choose words? You could have drawn pictures or sung songs.
REBEKAH: That’s just part of who I am and partly because I can’t draw [Laughs.] I like ideas. I have more ideas than I have time to implement them.
MG: You worked for the Indiana Daily Student newspaper, better known as the IDS, for 17 years before you retired in 2012. (She handled payroll and distribution, among many other tasks.)
Mostly I was the “mom.” Talking to the students, talking them off the ledge. A lot of crying went on in our offices.
(After leaving the IDS, Spivey became a Facilitator for Women Writing for (a) Change, a national organization with local chapters. Rebekah took the Facilitator training program offered by the Bloomington chapter. Members participate in “Circles,” formal writing groups led by Facilitators where they can read their work aloud and get feedback.)
MG: Is a Facilitator like the chair of a meeting?
REBEKAH: That’s a good way to say it. We prepare an agenda. There’s a poem, some epigraphs, some prompts. We have small groups where you’re paired with three or four other people; that’s where the real work gets done. You share your work with the group and then we have proscribed ways to ask for feedback so you’re getting the feedback you want and people aren’t crossing boundaries with your work.
“Fast writes” prompt a lot of deep writing. You get a prompt and you write about it for ten or fifteen minutes. You shut off that inner editor and you just write. It’s amazing what comes out.
I’ve seen women come in broken. Our mission is to help people find their voices.
MG: Broken in their personal, private lives?
REBEKAH: Absolutely. It’s where their life is at that moment. They’re kind of closed up into this tight little ball. Then, as they write and they find their voices and they see they’re supported unconditionally — we always presume goodwill in our Circles — they blossom! You can just see them standing up straighter and unfolding and becoming themselves. As a Facilitator, it’s a beautiful thing to watch.
MG: In 2017 you wrote an essay titled “Names I Have Been Called to My Face and the Message That Resulted from Them.” It’s like a résumé or a CV.
REBEKAH: I just keep reinventing myself. I’d been called Becky by my family for years and that sounded kind of childlike. I did a numerology thing and I changed the spelling of Rebecca to Rebekah and I took my paternal grandmother’s maiden name, Spivey. She was someone I really looked up to.
MG: The last line of the essay is, “I wonder who I’ll become next.” Do you still wonder?
REBEKAH: Well, I’m a published author. That’s who I am right now.
MG: Will you be another person later?
REBEKAH: Oh yeah! I’m already working on a flight plan. Stayed tuned for that!
MG: You co-founded Poetry Detectives. What is that?
REBEKAH: My friend Jackie Tirey — she was a student at the IDS; that’s how we met — we wanted to take the intimidation out of poetry and just have a discussion in a non-academic setting. That’s not easy to do in Bloomington
MG: Intimidation? It’s poetry!
REBEKAH: People are intimidated by it. They think they’re not smart enough to understand it. It doesn’t make sense to them. Once I was introduced to poetry through Women Writing for (a) Change, where you really get into the poem, you read it, you get writing prompts from these poems, I just fell in love with poetry. I wanted other people to enjoy it, too, in a way that they could get out of it whatever they needed. We did that for several years.
MG: Good writing is best when it flows like music.
REBEKAH: That’s a very apt description. We would discuss lyrics sometimes. Lyrics can be poetry. One of my favorite ones that we discussed was Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” You can find poetry anywhere. Sometimes I will take a Fast Write, write it as an essay, and then turn it into a poem.
MG: When do you write?
REBEKAH: I don’t write every day, but most days. I like to go to coffeeshops and write.
MG: Just like “Writing Down the Bones“!
REBEKAH: Exactly. Natalie Goldberg. Get out there! I have gotten more ideas…. I’m a really good eavesdropper. I learned to be hyper-vigilant as a child so I can listen and still do other stuff at the same time. I sometimes take notes so be careful what you say in coffeeshops if I’m around — it might end up in a book! [Laughs.]
If I’m at home, I’m distracted — “Oh, I need to alphabetize my spice rack.” So I get good energy from people.
I used to do a thing called Writing Wednesdays where I would put on Facebook, “I’m going to be at this coffeeshop from one to four, come join me if you want.” People would come and write. I’m starting to do it again. You’re wlecome to join us.”
MG: Thank you.
REBEKAH: Thank you.
Listen to the Big Talk edition featuring Rebekah here.