Writers on Literary Magazines | An Interview with Katie Whisler
This interview is with Katie Whisler, whose short story Impressionism, In Effect was published in the fourth issue of Windmill in 2019.
Mikaela: What was the inspiration for or where did you get your idea for your story, Impressionism, In Effect?
Katie: The inspiration behind Impressionism, In Effect came from quite a few different places. At the time when I wrote it, which was back in 2018, I was twenty years old and sort of transitioning in my identity as a writer. To me, writing Impressionism was sort of my “coming-of-age” after years spent writing the sorts of things one writes while in high school and it is the piece that I wrote before a longer novel of mine that I truly consider to be my first adult work. Impressionism is very much a product of my early years at college. At the time, I was fascinated by the idea of toying with my writing style so Impressionism is the first piece that I wrote in third person, present-tense which I absolutely fell in love with and still prefer to use to this day, and I also knew that I wanted to jump back and forth in time. The setting of Valeria, the town where Percy’s fictional gallery is located, is meant to be a reimagining of Conneaut, Ohio, a small town on the shores of Lake Erie which is host to many happy memories from my childhood. The other major setting in the short story, New York City, which is where Nick and Percy had lived and been together before their breakup, was also fresh in my mind during this writing period as I had just visited the city for the first time in 2018 and fallen absolutely in love with Greenwich Village. For me, I do always like to use my writing as a way to immortalize places or people that have mattered to me in my life and I think Impressionism is the first piece where I started actively trying to do that. Also, obviously, I was very obsessed with the Impressionism art movement and Monet in particular. All of that sort of swirled together in my brain, and it helped to create Impressionism, In Effect.
M: How did you discover Windmill?
K: Luckily, when I was in college, I had a friend who was basically my writing guardian angel. She was a couple years ahead of me in school and she would occasionally send me information about sites or magazines that she thought I should submit to. Luckily for me, one of the journals she sent me information about was Windmill, and Windmill happened to like my story! I’m really grateful that she looked out for me like that, because as a younger student the world of literary journals and application deadlines and rejection letters can seem really overwhelming. Without someone to sort of guide me through things, I don’t know if I would have ever discovered Windmill on my own, but I am really happy that I did, and I hope more college students do open themselves up to trying to have their works published because you never know when someone might say, “Yes!”
M: What were your feelings about the realization of being a published writer?
K: I think having my piece chosen by Windmill really made me aware of how much work goes on behind the scenes and how many people truly come together to create a finished publication. For the first time in my life, I was emailing back and forth with an editor as we worked to fine tune my piece. I felt like a real writer. Windmill also gave me the first opportunity to go to friends and family and tell them that I was being published, that soon they would be able to read one of my stories and see my name in the title page of an actual literary publication. I just remember being filled with so much pride at having been chosen, that someone, somewhere, liked my writing so much they wanted to put it in their magazine. Also, can I just say, I don’t know if the full sensation of being a published author has ever really hit me until you reached back out to me, five years after the piece was published, to tell me that you loved my story. I had no idea when I submitted Impressionism that people would still be reading it five years later. That was an incredibly cool moment for me, so thank you for that!
M: What do you think the role of literary magazines is in the book publishing world?
K: Since graduation, I have definitely been a little removed from the publishing world, so most of my context for the importance of literary magazines comes from being an aspirational young writer in college. I think literary magazines are so important for fostering the next generation of writers. For so many people writing is such a solitary and sometimes lonely activity where you don’t know if what you are writing is going to resonate with anyone, whether or not it will matter to anyone outside of yourself. I think that for a lot of young writers, especially students, literary magazines are the first time in our lives where we hear someone outside of our families or our schools say “Hey, this is pretty good and we think people will want to read it.” So there’s this very positive reinforcement there, and on top of that you are communicating with other writers, maybe making connections in the field, getting your name out into the world for people to recognize… and all of that can help open doors to the greater world of book publishing.
M: Are you working on any writing right now? If so, tell me about it!
K: Wow, I am so glad that you asked me this now instead of a couple of months ago! Yes! I am. I had a second novel that I wrote in 2020, which I feel is the sort of grown-up sibling to Impressionism, In Effect’s younger vibe, but for a long time after that I struggled with writer’s block and not knowing if I had anything worth talking about. Quarantine definitely didn’t help! I have a friend, though, who has really been encouraging me to dive back into my writing, and through helping her with her editing and worldbuilding, I found myself really motivated to start a new project of my own. Both of my previous projects share very similar themes, especially a fascination with art and music, and I definitely intend for my new WIP to reflect that as well. The setting is quite similar too—I think I will continue to write novels that take place on the shores of Lake Erie until I die. The major difference, however, is that I really want to explore magical realism and maybe what the world looks like when the boundary between music and magic blurs. I’m imagining the new work to be a little like the Disney movie Encanto (so far as there is a magical family with all kinds of different abilities) only set in a modern, college setting. I’m really just getting started working on it, so right now I don’t have much more than that. I am really excited about it, though, so we’ll see!