There are writers I think the world of — writers whose words I tend to get lost in, who somehow seem to speak my language and challenge me and warm my heart at the very same time.
Patrice Gopo is one of those humans.
Patrice and I met years ago at the Festival of Faith and Writing, then walked alongside one another in the Open Door Sisterhood a couple years later. Throughout my writing journey, Patrice has been a stalwart to me. She’s been both a listener and a cheerleader, a sage giver-of-wisdom and an inspiration alike.
You can only imagine how enthralled I was to hear that she was publishing another collection of essays called Autumn Song.
Friends, I am delighted to share this space with Patrice today. Her words, but really, the entirety of her personhood, is beyond the real deal, so please, enjoy.
Cara Meredith: How are you coloring outside of the lines, all over again, when it comes to your writing and this book in particular?
Patrice Gopo: Words can be gifts, and the timing of words can be gifts too. After the publication of my first essay collection, All the Colors We Will See (2018), I found myself in a creative wilderness. The words seemed to disappear. In time, however, a new project—a collaborative project—called to me. For several months, I poured my energy into developing that work, only to realize by the autumn of 2019 that this collaborative project would not happen as I expected. I can look back on that season and recognize how sadness existed even as I tried to bounce back from the disappointment.
But that project that did not materialize was not the end of the writing story. Instead, just days later, the infancy of an idea emerged during a day trip with my family to the mountains, the idea that perhaps within me existed another essay collection. Perhaps. Perhaps. Perhaps. And then, in the early days of the pandemic, words began to fall from my fingers, returning to me after a time of absence. (In retrospect, I think how strange that time of lockdown existed side by side with my emergence from a creative wilderness.) I wrote and wrote and wrote. Observations became ideas. Ideas transformed into fledgling essays. Fledgling essays found completion.
Sometimes, when I think back to the project that did not become a reality, I see how the absence of that project made room for the presence of something new. Ultimately, that absence inspired me to bring Autumn Song to life. This story reminds me how our disappointments can give way to unexpected gifts.
Cara Meredith: Putting ourselves out there when it comes to storytelling always feels a little scary. How was publishing scary and perhaps even vulnerable for you?
Patrice Gopo: Agreed!! Storytelling can feel a little scary—or a lot scary!!! I think I’ve come to believe that those scary feelings can sometimes be indications that I’m headed in a good direction. But to answer your question, as I mentioned above, Autumn Song resulted from my emergence from a creative wilderness. In the aftermath of seasons like that, it can be easy to doubt yourself and your writing. In addition, I know I carried a lot of questions about whether this new work could “live up” to my first essay collection. On top of all of those internal emotions, the publication path for this essay collection was more circuitous and took longer than with my first collection. That reality created even more space for me to question myself and my work. All that said, this book’s journey has involved its own unique forms of vulnerability (because I think with every book we write, we enter into vulnerable spaces in some form). Some things that I’ve found have helped me navigate these scary, vulnerable seasons are 1) connecting with other creatives who can speak truth about me and my work, 2) remembering how this book began on that drive to the mountains when the idea arrived with a sacred weight, and 3) acknowledging and naming what feels scary or particularly vulnerable (not just glossing over it; this is a huge growth move for me)
Cara Meredith: What is your heart, your intention, the real push behind writing this book?
Patrice Gopo: I know we all live lives littered with what we leave behind. In addition, whether or not we fully realize it, we are asking ourselves what do we do with the different types of heartache we encounter across our lives. I wrote this book as an exploration of the reality of these absences in my life. The essays in this book invite readers into my stories and ruminations about varied forms of absence: change, loss, disappointment, inequity, injustice, and the passage of time. These essays delve into the loss of home, the destruction of a Black neighborhood because of urban renewal, the void because of a conflict in an interracial friendship, the changes that arise as we age, and the most ordinary heartaches that are part of living. I should be clear that there aren’t answers in this book about what we can do with heartache. Instead, there is just me acknowledging my lived experiences, grappling with those realities, and making meaning out of my observations.
Cara Meredith: Okay. We talk so much about audience when it comes to book-writing, but what did you learn about yourself along the way?
Patrice Gopo: I know writers have a range of views about who a book is for, but I have found that a book is for me first and then it is for the readers. I say this because the writing changes me, and I always learn and grow as I seek to make sense of my lived experience. As I wrote Autumn Song, I came to understand that the presence of absence may tell another tale—one of invitation to experience life and see life from another perspective. Despite the challenges and struggles, flashes of glory glimmer like starlight, leading us toward the possibility of grieving losses, finding healing, and allowing ourselves to be changed.
I came to the page with the accumulation of absences I’d experienced weighing heavy upon me. I finished writing this collection with a greater eye for looking at the details as if I examined a prism and could see the splinters of color each angle revealed. Slivers of beauty can exist amid absence.
Cara Meredith: Anything else from your ordinary, everyday life you want to share with us?
Patrice Gopo: I love celebration!!! Sometimes, I think about the topic of this book and how it can feel super heavy. The writing is authentic to me and my story, but I would love readers of this interview to know that I also love celebration. I delight in celebration in big and small ways, and I’m a huge proponent of creating and finding joy in the midst of ordinary life. Celebration of this book involves moments like a party my friend asked to host and me framing a poster of the book cover for the wall in my office. And ice cream, of course. Definitely ice cream!!