Feature Friday: @JessAndTheSea

Well, that week whizzed by quickly, but that’s a good thing, right? Of course it is, as it means we have a gander at another smashing Proser. This week we have a great one for you; an active and very interesting Proser by the name of Jessica Lakritz. You may know her by her Proser username: @jessandthesea

Jessica is lucky enough to live in Barcelona, Spain and is a Poet. However she explains that “for money I am a freelance writer and online writing tutor for university students.”

P: What is your relationship with writing and how has it evolved?

J: Before I went to grad school, I thought I had to be in the mood in order to write. When I had so many assignments due for workshops, being in the mood wasn’t as option. It has been six years since I graduated, and since then it’s become easier and easier to push myself when I’m not exactly feeling the muse enter my psyche, and I think that is so important. Taking the time to sit down and write exercises my brain, so even if I don’t get anything brilliant out of it in that session, it is all cumulative. The brilliant stuff comes from all the work put in, not just the moment when it can be articulated for the first time.

P: What value does reading add to both your personal and professional life?

J: Reading makes me happier and smarter and more well-adjusted. It’s like getting to know a person or a feeling or a situation from the inside as if I am experiencing it. That’s why I think people who read a lot tend to have insight regarding psychology and interpersonal relationships that doesn’t come from any kind of formal study. The more time I actively spend analyzing the thoughts and feelings and behavior of others, no matter real or fictional, found in a live experience or a book, the better an understanding I will have about how the world works. I mostly write about how the world works in some way or another, so having that extra insight gained from reading fuels not only how I write, but what I write.

P: Can you describe your current literary ventures and what can we look forward to in future posts?

J: I am pleasantly swallowed by my poetry project called Sex on Sundaze, where I write my poems on people’s skin; I post a new episode every Sunday. When I started it about 7 months ago, it was fairly simple. I would write a new poem every week, transcribe it onto someone’s body in a sort of provocative way, and then post it on my website. Since then, it has evolved little by little. I started including brief model bios to add and extra layer of personality to the project. Also, I started writing the poems for the specific model or scene of the poem so there would be a deeper connection between the visual and written elements. The project has also developed in terms of complexity in a more philosophical sense. The act of both writing on the body and being written on can be deeply personal, especially if the person I am writing on has (or has had) issues with body image. It is sad the way society at large perpetuates, still, this notion that women are only beautiful if they are not only thin, but a specific shape within the confines of thin. The airbrushing and editing of photos in magazines is not going to stop, so I think it’s a worthwhile endeavor to use Sex on Sundaze as a tool to fight it, to write on people of all shapes and sizes and take beautiful pictures of them and show that beauty to the world to provide another perspective. Plenty of what I will be posting on Prose will be Sex on Sundaze poems.

P: What do you love about TheProse.com?

J: My favorite are the weekly writing challenges because of their deadlines and specific guidelines. Write a haiku. Write about greed. Limit your word count to 50 words. Write it by Saturday. Practicing writing within these parameters forces me out of myself a bit. For instance, I doubt I would write about greed naturally, so it is an interesting exercise to see what happens when I impose that subject matter on myself. And the fact that they are weekly gets me thinking outside of my normal range more often than I would otherwise. It’s a great addition to my writing life.

P: Is there one book that you would recommend everybody should read before they die?

J: Dreamless and Possible by Christopher Howell. It’s his new and selected poems published in 2010. I recommend it because it is the type of poetry that reaches inside and comes out with something useful and profound for living everyday life. The poems are straightforward and honest. They don’t take a degree in literature to understand. They talk about things like taking psychedelics in a setting of superiors at their request, and what it’s like to know your dead daughter would be about the age where maybe she would be getting married and imagining her wedding. The poems arrive at their endings with wisdom that I think can help everyone figure out their lives and how they want to live them.

P: Do you have an unsung hero who got you into reading and/or writing?

J: My parents have always been so supportive of me as a writer. As a kid, I used to write stories on an old box computer about the neighborhood raccoons, about imaginary dogs, about the relationships I made up between my Barbie dolls. They always wanted to read everything I wrote. They talked to all their friends about my writing talent, and also about how fast I learned to read as a toddler. My dad often read or even told stories to my siblings and me when we were kids. My mom was always bringing books home from the school library where she worked. They kept lots of books around the house anyway, and limited my time in front of the television. To be honest, I picked up a few books that I knew had content that was mature for my twelve-year-old brain, like Flowers in the Attic, and I think those mature books were part of the reason why I still love literature as much as I do—they introduced me to new concepts that I thought were fascinating, that made me evaluate everything as I knew it. All of that stuff got me into and kept me reading and writing from an early age. I have my parents to thank for that. They are amazing people.

P: Describe yourself in three words!

J: Curious, open, existential.

P: Is there one quote, from a writer or otherwise, that sums you up?

J: “Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet. That would mean that security is out of the question. The words "make" and "stay" become inappropriate. My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free.”

-Tom Robbins from Still Life with Woodpecker

P: Favourite music to write and/or read to?

J: Yes, and actually, I have some music on right now! It’s a genre that is aptly called folktronica, which is a blend of organic and electronic elements, where folk meets electronic. Folktronica is generally chill and unoppressive, which is exactly my style when I need to think and concentrate (or anytime…). Right now, I play a lot of Oh Wonder, Mazzy Star, Kyson, Doble Cero, and Vallis Alps. Check them out if you haven’t already!

P: You climb out of a time machine into a dystopian future with no books. What do you tell them?

P: I would tell people that books are a way to both escape reality and become more aware of reality at once, and that their existence was integral to shaping my intellect and personality. And then I would ask them what sort of media has taken over this role and try to understand it without judging (despite my deep love for literature).

P: Is there anything else you’d like us to know about you/your work/social media accounts?

J: I am currently working on publishing my first book of poetry. It is a story in poems that is styled like the book Hopscotch by Julio Cortizar, meaning there are two ways to read it. One is the order in which they appear. The other is by following the directions at the bottom of each page. The idea is that each reading will create a different emotional current and slightly change the story. You can read some of the poems that have been published in various journals on my website’s portfolio. I am also working on a book that is a guide to moving (across city, state, and national borders), because I am an expert after living in 9 cities in 13 years, and after so many people have asked me about how to do it, I decided to write a book. I’m including both logistical and psychological elements, as understanding both will make the whole process of moving much easier. And of course, there’s my baby, Sex on Sundaze, which you can also find on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and Twitter.

Thank you so much to the lovely Jessica for this fascinating insight into her and SexOnSundaze. Do please follow her, interact with her and be excellent to her and each other. If you are an active Proser that wants to get involved, or you know someone that you think should, do please get in touch at info@theprose.com