Well that book reading coming up next week that I was going to avoid is now going on my calendar. Literary citizenship is a great topic, one I had not thought of until your writing. Thank you for sharing!
I read this a while ago and came back to comment because the concept of "literary citizenship" really stuck with me. It's so easy to make reading and writing a one-person activity, and looking for nooks to participate in take a lot of courage and effort. But I've seen what having a vibrant community does for my other passion, hip hop dance, so it only makes sense to invest that same amount of effort into the writing community. Thanks for the thoughtful response and reminder!
Amazing post, Sonal! As you know, I am a big fan of literary citizenship and do a LOT around attending readings (virtual & in-person), connecting with the writing community via IG, reaching out to DM someone whose piece impressed me, shouting out to the world about a book I just read and loved. It feels really good to do it and I can only imagine how good it feels to be on the receiving end. I am still waiting for my pants to become "sufficiently fancy" and so will continue with my citizenship...and hope one day to be on the receiving end myself. :)
PS: Even the hyper-extroverts in the crowd have some challenges at these in-person events...one of them is being too loud and taking up large amount of "space" in the room. I've seen the slightly panicked look in people's eyes when I bluster out a comment / big laugh! :)
Fantastic advice once again. I love this idea of literary citizenship, that's going to be super helpful to me moving forward as an introverted writer myself. Thank you!
Well that book reading coming up next week that I was going to avoid is now going on my calendar. Literary citizenship is a great topic, one I had not thought of until your writing. Thank you for sharing!
I read this a while ago and came back to comment because the concept of "literary citizenship" really stuck with me. It's so easy to make reading and writing a one-person activity, and looking for nooks to participate in take a lot of courage and effort. But I've seen what having a vibrant community does for my other passion, hip hop dance, so it only makes sense to invest that same amount of effort into the writing community. Thanks for the thoughtful response and reminder!
Great issue that I somehow missed until now!
Amazing post, Sonal! As you know, I am a big fan of literary citizenship and do a LOT around attending readings (virtual & in-person), connecting with the writing community via IG, reaching out to DM someone whose piece impressed me, shouting out to the world about a book I just read and loved. It feels really good to do it and I can only imagine how good it feels to be on the receiving end. I am still waiting for my pants to become "sufficiently fancy" and so will continue with my citizenship...and hope one day to be on the receiving end myself. :)
PS: Even the hyper-extroverts in the crowd have some challenges at these in-person events...one of them is being too loud and taking up large amount of "space" in the room. I've seen the slightly panicked look in people's eyes when I bluster out a comment / big laugh! :)
Fantastic advice once again. I love this idea of literary citizenship, that's going to be super helpful to me moving forward as an introverted writer myself. Thank you!