'Stay Brave' with January Gill O'Neil
‘Stay Brave’ is an interview series by woman-identifying creatives for woman-identifying creatives to inspire bravery in the creative life. [Created and curated by Leah Umansky]
How do you interpret the phrase, "Stay Brave?"
Staying open. Staying open to possibilities and wonder.
As a woman-identifying writer, what are the ways that you “stay brave” in your life?
As a woman (READ: as a Black woman), I have always found it difficult to claim space. My instinct is to defer to the needs of others. That’s what mothers do naturally. But I think it goes deeper for Black women, at least of my generation. The women in my family never wanted to offend or unnerve (as Prince once sang). But my daughter’s generation is much braver. They claim it. They own that space. It’s taken me 50 years to get to the point where I don’t have to explain myself to anyone.
Who is someone in your life who models “staying brave” for you?
Even after my last answer, I will say my mother is pretty damn brave. We lost my dad in November 2023, and as we enter the New Year, I think my mom is figuring out who she is without him. She is, without a doubt, the bravest person I know.
What writers, artists, and/or musicians do you look to to foster a sense of “bravery?”
Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady created Cave Canem almost 25 years ago, which gave Black poets a place to be brave and tell our beautiful stories. And because of that, we have Kundiman, Canto Mundo, Zoeglossia, and others—spaces that give underserved communities a place to not just grow but thrive.
What’s a piece of advice you would pass on to your younger self about “staying brave?” What’s something you know now, that you didn’t know in the past?
Find your center. Whatever that means for you, find your creative home. And from there, make all of your life decisions. My center is poetry, and because I work in service to poetry all of my life decisions come from that space. (BONUS) Also, find joy in your days. There’s too much sadness in the world, so we have to take joy wherever we find it.
Can you remember a time in your life where you realized your own bravery? How did you use it to propel you forward?
When I got divorced, I became unsinkable. The kids and I were not going down with this ship of a marriage. So I moved forward--with *a lot* of help.
What do you do when you aren’t feeling brave? What inspires you or motivates you?
I read poems. Reach out to friends. Talk to the kids. Play with the dog. Take a walk. I allow those feeling to enter but I don't let them take up space in my head for too long.
In what ways would you like to be more brave in your creative life?
Not sure I can be any braver, honestly. When you hit a certain point, much of the fears melts away. Creatively, I am always looking for new challenges. But I don't have a plan. I'm drawn in by the things I don't know.
What is your proudest moment of bravery?
See #6
What are you currently working on?
With my new book, GLITTER ROAD (CavanKerry Press 2024), I'm putting myself out there in new ways. But this is my best book to date (for the record, I feel this way about all my books). I'm looking forward to supporting it and seeing where that effort leads.
January Gill O'Neil is an associate professor at Salem State University and the author of Glitter Road (2024), Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009), all published by CavanKerry Press. From 2012-2018, she served as the executive director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival. The recipient of fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Cave Canem, and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, O'Neil was the 2019-2020 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi, Oxford. She currently serves as the 2022-2024 board chair of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). She lives in Beverly, MA.
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Leah Umansky is a poet, writer, curator, writing coach, artist and teacher. Her latest collection is OF TYRANT out with Word Works Books in April 2024. She is currently at work on a hybrid-memoir, DELICATE MACHINE, about womanhood, hope, resistance and fertility in the face of grief and a global pandemic and a fourth collection of poems of joy, love and wonder. She earned her MFA in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and has curated and hosted The COUPLET Reading Series in NYC since 2011. Her creative work can be found in such places as The New York Times, POETRY, Bennington Review, American Poetry Review, Minyan Magazine, The Academy of American Poets' Poem-A-Day and others. She can be found at www.leahumansky.com or @leah.umansky on IG.
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