Jenny Gillespie Mason
(1995)
How would you characterize the influence of your YWW experience in your life?
It gave me the opportunity to be around other creative and quirky teenagers. I didn’t know many of those in rural Illinois—I’m sure they existed, but there was never a sphere where we could gather. So being around likeminded kids gave me confidence in my own weirdness, that it was actually cool.
What’s the best advice you can give a Young Writer?
Work without attachment. Find joy in the process. Live a full life, which includes being in healthy and kind friendships and relationships. Drama does not always equal good work!
What do you find yourself most often reading or listening to lately and why?
I am listening to Morning/Evening by Four Tet; Maison Rose by Emmanuelle Perrenin; and my husband playing Ravel on the piano. It’s just what soothes and speaks to me, and my husband is just in the house playing this gorgeous music! I’m reading Selected Poems: Robert Creeley because it’s been on my shelf forever, and I love the four portraits of him on the cover—they call out to me to know his spirit, and also the Bhagavad Gita or Essential Haiku translated by Robert Hass right before bed—it calms me down for the night!