Poet, Artist and Detroitisit Writer Maria Kornacki

This week’s Writer Wednesday is poet, artist and It List writer for detroitisit.com Maria Kornacki!

Maria is a Farmington Hills resident who holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Eastern Michigan University. Maria’s latest poetry has recently been published or is forthcoming in Anti-Heroin Chic, SIAMB!, Strange Horizons, Breadfruit Mag, Feral: A Journal of Poetry And Art, and elsewhere. Maria’s first chapbook will be published by Ethel Zine’s Micro Press in December 2023.

Maria will be leading our virtual workshop, “Getting Creative with Color and Language,” April 20, 2023 at 7 p.m. EST in celebration of National Poetry Month. Register to learn how to incorporate more color in your writing!

What writing projects are you currently working on?

It seems like a lot have branched out over the past few years! I’m going back and re-working and downsizing my poetry chapbook that’s getting published in December 2023 with Ethel Zine and Micro Press. Some of the content in there could also be a future longer collection of some sort.

Most recently, I have a good chunk of colorful, handmade erasures in the works from a book I won’t mention now, but I’m planning on getting the collection out into the world eventually, now that it’s coming together more clearly, along with a typed out version to read. I wasn’t even planning on doing a collection when I started one erasure!

It may be a large collection, but it also might end up being a nice, fun-sized zine/chap, either self-published or with a cool little press if I find one that can help solidify this vision! 

I also have an unpublished full-length epistolary collection, which I started about two years ago. I workshopped some pieces from it over the past year with peers, but I may end up coming back to it, since getting another idea to physically write out the letters! I haven’t done too much hardcore typing on a screen lately, mostly handmade art/drawings, which in turn feeds the flame for my poetic expression and desire to return to structured thought forms. 

I also started forming a collection around the theme of water, to be broad…it’s still in the beginning stages, but I have a doc. A couple of other poetry collection ideas are on the backburner.

What is your favorite part of the writing process?

My favorite part is when words seem to literally arrive to me in a channeled sense. For instance, I’ll read what I’m in the middle of writing, and I just immediately know what sounds best because I feel a surge of energy as I say the words back to myself, all put together. On a similar note, I also enjoy days where I haven’t been writing for awhile, and then all these solid ideas just start flowing together, both in pieces already in progress and pieces that I’m just beginning, and I lose track of time.

I also like absorbing a bunch of poetry (online and physical books) right before I’m going to write (mostly online) or even listening to particular lyrically-moving music to get the creative juices flowing, so I feel inspired to create the same emotional pull. 

It’s also interesting when conversations start to stand out because my mind is in writer mode, so I’m being a conscious observer of potential creative material.

I would also say I’ve come to appreciate the revision process because it feels like doing a puzzle or literally chiseling away at something as it is often described. My writing has its own mystery because of its unsolved nature. Not to mention, I tend to write pretty abstractly and I just like the playful possibilities of writing. Basically, you can go back and add fun words that you normally wouldn’t use in everyday speech! Creative writing creates a cool visual experience.

What does your writing workspace look like?

It may sound weird, but I don’t mind typing on the floor...even for more technical work writing. It just makes it easier to stay focused when I’m physically comfortable. My physical writing workspace environment is pretty colorful and reflects my personal creative expression. I usually have at least one book on my nightstand. I do tend to like my writing workspace to be somewhat neat and organized, but that may change if I take on a bigger writing project in the future.

What is your favorite non-writing hobby?

I love going for walks with my dog! I think that physical movement and meditative, focused presence on the senses all helps my writing mindset as well. I would also say art/drawing as I mentioned earlier.   

What is your favorite piece of writing advice?

Similar to the last question and response is a quote someone said recently about “living outside of writing.”

It’s helpful to remind ourselves that writing occurs initially when we’re not hunched over at the screen or scribbling on a notebook or whatever we write on. It can help to come back to these means of physical documentation when we’re truly living as writers in the moment. Living outside of writing can be brief (like a walk) or it can be a lengthy journey that leads us back to a golden story or idea.

Follow Maria on Instagram at @mar_kor12.