Writers on Writers-Amara Amaryah

Hey all, Happy Black History Month. For those who know me they know that Black History Month serves as a time that is similar to the “New Year” for me because I recommit myself to self-love and inspiration as I submerge myself in the words and art of my ancestors. I have been surrounding myself in beauty this month.

In this post I wanted to continue my series on “Writers on Writers.” I hope that you all have enjoyed these, but at the very least…I have. Here, is my last one with

Noha Beshir

In coming up with this series, I found inspiration in the popular YouTube series “actors on actors.” All in all, I have endeavored to explore how people create whole worlds with their writing. It’s important to say that I’m a reader just as much as I am a writer. Please check out the whole series under the tag “Writers on Writers."

Now, ya’ll, I have been excited for this collaboration with

Amara Amaryah

for a long while. I don’t remember how her work on Substack came to me originally, but when I started reading her work I was so struck by the thoughtfulness and accessibility. Please enjoy :)

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What made you first take up the pen? Is there a certain memory you can go back to?

I remember being in year 5 (about 10 years old) and being assigned the task of writing a story for our end of year English exam. Art and creativity were encouraged at home, but this was an instance outside of my home where I could indulge in world-making and telling stories like the authors I enjoyed reading. I remember needing more pages and not wanting the exam to end lol. This happened a few years later in high school too where I was asked to write poems, a script for drama class and other creative things and would feel an effortlessness that I immediately valued.

What is different about writing now, today, in these years?

Not much, I’m still writing about my dream worlds to peers and strangers. I followed my excitement and read English Literature at university. I even found myself taking a class on Caribbean poetry while taking a module from the West African department which really shaped me. Beyond education, I knew that I wanted a ‘career’ — read a life — of writing and creating the things that matter most to me. So far, poetry is absolutely the voice I’ve expressed most in my writing career. As Audre Lorde teaches, poetry is not a luxury but “the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought.”

A few years ago I quit my 9-5 marketing job, and allowed myself time to write and create in peace. It was a temporary decision for my wellness which eventually turned into a career shift and a life lived travelling slowly through my favourite places on Earth. I believe this is an extension of my understanding that what comes naturally will feel like home, and I’ve made adjustments in my life so that I can access that often. It gets hard, and I’m often reminded that systemically and societally, following your dreams/own authority is framed as a risk, but there is greater risk in living a life that is not mine. It’s not the risk that I focus on, but the intuition, the alignment, the trust that Love wants to live through me and that The Most High created me with a sensitivity to do so. So, I’m still between disbelief and home ground, all these years later, that I live life writing.

Who inspires you? Could be writing wise or in general?

Writers who I am deeply inspired by include Ntozake Shange, Maya Angelou, Grace Nichols, Sonia Sanchez, and Toni Morrison. I consider them literary godmothers who helped me deepen my love for my Black womanhood as much as they inspired my craft. Jesmyn Ward, Wayétu Moore, and my dear friend Maria Motúnráyo Adébísí have written books that left me tearful and deep in my imagination. I love a sharp and vulnerable Didion essay and reread Goodbye To All That whenever I inevitably feel like moving locations. I live for a long, overly and perfectly punctuated sentence by James Baldwin. Going To Meet The Man is a short story collection that I will bring up if we start talking about Jimmy’s work.

Thinkers and revolutionaries who have shaped the way I choose to take up space include Audre Lorde, Tricia Hersey, and Dr. Joe Dispenza. Lorde and Hersey remind me that I am inherently worthy of rest and radical imagination, despite the powers that devalue my body if it is not busied by capitalism. Dispenza’s teachings gave me the resources and science to see my biology in it’s truly divine design so I can live mindfully in all aspects of my being.

There are so many people and moments that have inspired me that I won’t be able to cite here, but the list is long.

What is one image that sums up your writing?

Love offering.

Take us into a bit of your writing process? It’s ok if its scattered…how do you begin?

My process begins with rest. These days I learn to listen to my body and I have a gut-led process of creation (I’m a Sacral Generator for Human Design lovers). As a woman, a cyclical being, I allow all things to work around the season that I’m in. This is what I aim for but I of course extend grace to myself when I feel like working well into the night. I have no kids or office to commute to, so this informs my process too. I also adore early morning energy, so I often write then.

I try to provide myself with mini writing retreats for bigger projects or deadlines (ugly word). I schedule them in advance and take time away from work to focus, write and, edit and I am getting good at honouring the time previous me reserved.

What keeps you writing?

Observing. My Jamaican heritage means that I was raised knowing the power of a story and of the influence of a good and appointed storyteller. Listening was my first way of knowing how powerful a story can be. When I write, I like

to be conscious of the power of my word, my tongue, and be intentional about what I am bringing life to. I try to be mindful of whose story I am telling, in whose language, how I can soften it, when I must discard it, and what my writing has the power to incite. I write to archive or provide balm or joy or release, just as my ancestors did, and do.

Community also keeps me. I have found that writing and being in aligned community has helped me creatively in huge ways throughout my life, especially this year. I created The Easeful Place community for writers, creators, and deep breathers because I know that the work of creating (be it art, a newsletter, safe space, a loving environment for your family and community etc) requires deep ease. There is much work to be done for us to realign with the value of ease while we have been so deeply encouraged by hustle culture to ‘keep it moving’ or ‘rise and grind’. What a joy it would be to normalise the original pace of living and to offer our most urgent energy where it is needed, not where it is directed. I write to remind us that we’re deeply worthy of creating ease, always.

Give us a piece that you wrote that you are proud of.

These musings on Black nomadism pt1 and pt 2.

—Amara Amaryah.