Every year we have a talented collection of participants whose work is featured at our Gala. Over the next few weeks, we will interview and get to know some of our writers from the 2024 Gala: Twist of Fate
First up is Brett Sobaski! Check out his interview below.
1. How did it feel to have your work performed at the Gala?
It was incredible to see words that I had shared on the page given new life by actors and shared with an audience. It was absolutely incredible to see an audience interact with the performer and what I thought my piece and my writing was becoming something new, going out into the world, entering the hearts and minds of other people.
I teared up when I wrote the piece that was shared at the gala and it was neat to hear from other people that they they teared up hearing the piece performed. It was an incredible experience to share in those emotions with other people especially a room filled with incredible people including other writers.
2. What is something you’d like to achieve with writing?
I think writing itself is an achievement. My first primary goal is to keep writing. Keep listening, keep experiencing and keep thinking and feeling, to keep living. To try things out and keep working with words and thoughts and ideas and human experiences. I want to keep growing and keep learning and connecting with other people in meaningful ways and supporting other people and what they have to offer that helps other people. Hopefully they’ll be some writing somewhere in all of that.
3. How has your writing grown over the years?
One thing that has improved for me is I am a lot more comfortable writing and sharing my writing with other people, especially in light of the WGI Galas.
4. What are some of your favorite books, TV shows, movies?
The movie I have probably watched more than any other iis the film “Good Will Hunting”. I have seen that movie quite a few times to the point that I have had much of it memorized. I mean to say I can recite quite a few quotes and moments from that film.
Another film that is in conversation that has been influential on me growing up as a young adult has been “Finding Forrester”, which I think is very much in conversation with “Good Will Hunting”.
Both movies have some of the same key people involved. I remember watching both of these films in high school and they were kind of like a northern star for me in ways.
5. What do you like to do for fun (other than writing)?
I have enjoyed some incredible conversations and experiences around food. Travelling has opened my eyes to a lot more different experiences in a short amount of time while on the
road. I enjoy trying different coffee shops or finding local gems while in a palce that’s new to me.
I listen to A LOT of music and also enjoy watching films a lot. If you were to look at my listening stats with me I have listened to a lot of Taylor Swift for a very long time, amongst other folk, alternative and country musicians. I also like rap and hip hop a lot.
Its been fun to attend live shows when there is an opportunity or an opportunity I can’t resist experiencing.
6. How did participating in a WGI (Writers Guild Initiative) workshop help your writing, (if so)?
A big thing for me was just being told more or less “what you have to say is okay.” That its okay to write and say what is on my mind or exploring thoughts and ideas and playing with words and my own experiences. It is also interesting to examine the intersections of my mind, what I have experienced, learned and what else is going on in the world. I feel good about the collision that occurs with all that especially in writing on the page. I feel like writing has been a very healthy outlet and practice for me personally.
7. What/Who inspires your writing?
One inspiration was on the 1989 album and subsequent albums by Taylor Swift. I remember her unpacking the mystery of what writing has been to her and her sharing some examples of what that has been like for her, what her process is and how she approaches that. I think it helped bring writing down to earth for me quite a bit. I listen to a lot of Taylor Swift’s music. I listen to a variety of music but a lot of Taylor Swift. She’s amazing to me.
I remember attending the WGI workshop and it was like a spark that helped make me a lot more comfortable with my own words and experiences. The workshop was about three hours long on zoom from what I remember but it went by really quick.
I think a lot of writing advice I have received has been about how to notice things and how to be inspired to write more and write your best and developing that sense. It can really become quite the compulsion.
8. What is your favorite piece of writing (by you or otherwise)?
I’m grateful for this question because I think a lot of my writing, a lot of my favorite writing of my own has been from writing what is not being said, what I have not heard but what I might want to hear said. I have read enough and listened to enough books and music to have a sense that certain things might not be being said and might not exist in the world, at least not in the exact way that I am saying them. Or that certain things might need to be said more. I love the idea that there is enough room for all of us in our own unique characteristics and individual merits.
One of my favorite pieces of writing is “If” by Rudyard Kipling. That is one of those pieces that has left an indelible impression on my life. It has given me a lot of guidance. I remember I was at work in high school and caught Jerry Rice reading this poem at the start of the Super Bowl. I was a big fan of Jerry Rice and football and still am. It was a brilliant poem I thought that was very aspiration and encouraging and I was really impressed by it stylistically but also a guiding light. I kind of like how the poem says “not too much of this or that but maybe both or either at the right time, mayabe somewhere in the middle. There’s. a lot of wisdom in Kipling’s words in this piece.
One of my favorite pieces that I wrote is a piece that I arbitrarily called “The Nile Celebration”. (I’ll have to attach it to this email). It is a piece about Nile Kinnick, which is based on the Heisman trophy winner who died as a Naval pilot while on a training flight in South America in World War II. I juxtaposed that narrative with one that was almost entirely fictional and I think this is one of my favorite pieces because it was one of my first attempts at fiction in a long time and I really like the story juxtaposed with Kinnicks about a character named Charles Clyde. Honestly, my writing in this piece could use a lot of improvement but I was really entertained in forming the narrative of Charles Clyde.
Another favorite is a poem I wrote called “I Would Love You Just the Same”. I’m really proud of that piece and it reminds me of an old Conway Twitty or George Jones song. Its a poem right now but someone with vocals like them could maybe sing it someday if it was turned into a song.
9. Any advice, tips, resources or guidance you’d like to share for someone who wants to write?
I have heard this a lot from people that have been writing their whole lives. And that is to share your writing with people and get their feedback. I have heard people say they have 3-5 friends who they might share their writing with, usually other writers, and be open to feedback from these peers.
One of my favorite pieces of advice I have received was from Gabriella Tully-Claymore when I was in one of her classes. She was talking about not being afraid to be playful in writing. I think that has been important for me to remember and adds a lot of joy to writing and in general I think is an important thing for me to remember in life.
I took a class (taught by Inara Verzemnieks) and the instructor she said something that took a while to marinate and sink in. She said “You are a writer! That’s who you are!” Like it was part of my being. My personality. My inherit compulsion. A fundamental part of who I am. That seemed heavy at the time that she said it. Like a sentence or something. Now I find it encouraging looking back on it and I am grateful for her words.
I was challenged by another instructor (Dr. Sarah Minor) to about a year ago to write a piece eulogizing my Grandma for an assignment. I honestly was not ready to write it. It took me about a year to write that piece, a year later I wrote it. That I think is what I was doing when I wrote my piece “Maternal” about my Grandma that was shared and read by actors at the WGI Gala this year.
“Be genuine and authentic.”
“Dignity and respect.”
