iScribe Interview Series - Notes From the Laundry Room

Name: Katie Walsh
Major(s): English/Secondary Education
Year of Graduation: 2012
Position: Featured Writer (Fall 2009)

Your nonfiction piece "To Be Catholic" is featured in the Fall 2009 edition of The Independent Scribe. Is this your first time being published? It seems extremely personal and is therefore an intense pleasure to read. Are you willing to share a bit about the situation that inspired this text?
Thank you and yes, of course I am willing to share the inspiration. It came from my Uncle who died of alcoholism. However, it is more than that. The quote I weaved into the text is something that is said at the start of all AA meetings; my uncle religiously attended AA meetings. I tried to convey many feelings in this short piece. I wanted the reader to get an idea of my uncle’s death and its impact on my family. Also, the religious way people attend AA meetings in order to beat the disease because I truly believe that alcoholism is a disease, and my uncle tried very hard to fight it. This piece was written for him, my family and all people that battle alcoholism.

If you were to throw a party inspired by your favorite piece of writing from any genre, what would the party be like and why? What would it look like, sound like, what would we eat or drink, or be required to wear?
If I threw a party it would be inspired by The Great Gatsby. The entire party would reek of the 1920s. All the girls would wear hats and flapper dresses. All the men would wear fashionable, gray and black suits. We would listen to jazz music such as Duke Ellington and Bessie Smith. I don’t actually know what foods were popular in the 1920s. However, I assume that champagne and cheese and crackers would be fitting.

Tell us a bit about your writing process. Any unique places or spaces you need to be in? Any particular time of day cater to your creativity?
My writing process varies depending on the assignment. However, I do have a unique space where I go to write. Many will find this repulsive but I love to write in a notepad on the floor of my bathroom. My roommates are insane and always distracting me. I get away from them by going into the bathroom (we have a washer and a dryer in there) and doing laundry, sitting on the floor scribbling into my notebook. My best writing always comes to me on cold bathroom floors, usually around 12 at night. How many people can honestly say that?