Julia Pawelec

I don’t often carry my notebook, so if I feel the itch creeping up my sweater, I would write on a napkin, a receipt, a newspaper. Even a book. Sometimes deciphering a poem is journaling. Sometimes writing two lines is enough. Sometimes you need half a book to speak.

Well, you need dirt to grow plants. A farmer I admire once wrote that 90% of his job was dirt management. Manage the dirt well and the plants grow themselves. Writing grows, too: Create a fertile field of exploration, fun, and inanity, and the rest will follow. Wuthering Heights , one of the greatest novels ever written in English, grew out of the... See more

You know that feeling you get when an idea just resonates, but you’re not quite sure why? Intuition is one term for it. My friend Peter Pelberg calls these pings , and he has built a practice around collecting pings and recognizing patterns over time. Whatever it’s called—collect it and let it go

When I write, I push myself to make definite positive claims. Ambiguity allows thought to remain fluid on the page, floating into a different meaning when put under pressure. This makes it harder to push your thinking deeper. By making clear and sharp claims, I reveal my understanding so that I—or the person I’m writing to—can see the state of my... See more

Realizacja opery partycypacyjnej wiąże się z szeregiem wyzwań, od ustalenia trybu współpracy profesjonalistów i „amatorów” po określenie etycznych ram projektu. Jak zapewnić godne wynagrodzenie wszystkim osobom zaangażowanym w pracę twórczą? Jak zadbać o bezpieczeństwo i dobrostan uczestników, często należących do grup narażonych na dyskryminację?... See more

The people who need what only you can create will find it whether they can comment or not. They’ll carry your work with them in their hearts and share it with friends who need it, too. Let your vulnerability give them permission to face their own demons.

You date someone and notice how they treat strangers with curiosity, or how they read poetry out loud, or how they respond to uncertainty with steadiness instead of fear. Through witnessing someone up close, you realise: I value that. I want to be like that.

David Foster Wallace had a similar piece of advice for writers: “ the reader cannot read your mind .” You don’t get to live in the margins and clarify confusion or expand on your implicit intentions.