ASEI Arts is pleased to feature a series of inspiring Q&A interviews with the authors and producers featured in our Anthology House book. All profits from the sale of the book will benefit Habitat for Humanity’s "Habitat Hammers Back" initiative.
This week, we feature Maia Kumari Gilman who contributed the short story entitled "Bioreme" to Anthology House.
ASEI: What inspires you each day?
MKG: Nature, the sky, the rhythms of the sun; coffee shop sounds, children’s play, art in every form, music, theater, dance, film. I find inspiration everywhere. I dream inspiration and I live inspiration.
ASEI: How has your creativity helped you to navigate a change in your circumstances for the better? This can be a feeling or an intangible effect, or it can be a physical change.
MKG: Letting creativity flow can clear pretty much any log jam in my life. I remember at one point dealing with an extreme situation and I thought, the only way to deal with how I am feeling is to paint the emotion right out of my bone marrow. To me, painting precedes writing, and writing precedes physically building. There is a definite relationship between the three creative forces in my life: art, books, architecture.
ASEI: What advice would you give to another person seeking to improve their circumstances through finding satisfaction in their creative journey?
MKG: Get outside, move around, breathe deeply, start noticing what’s around you and how it feels. Keep a pen and a few index cards with you when you walk, and write down phrases as they pop into your head. Listen more to receive more; attune your hearing to create more. Judge less. Don’t judge at all, especially at the beginning of the arc of a project’s life. Let it flow!
ASEI: Thank you Maia! To read Maia's short story "Bioreme" you can purchase Anthology House by requesting it from your local bookseller or by purchasing here:
All profits from this anthology will be donated to Habitat for Humanity's Habitat Hammers Back initiative to rebuild hurricane-hit areas in the Southern United States and Caribbean.
You can read more about Maia's work on this profile by eco-fiction.com, by watching this TEDx talk, and by listening to this CBC Radio interview. Her eco-fiction novel The Erenwine Agenda, a love story about hydraulic fracturing, is available worldwide in print or ebook format.
To read more interviews in our "Inspiration" series, please click through the ASEI Arts blog.