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 2023 Gala: What Now!? Next up is Lenka Varekova! Check out her interview below.
1. How did it feel to have your work performed at the Gala?
At first, I panicked that my piece was so alive, so real, and that everybody could not only listen to it but see it. Having my piece performed gave it an unexpected new dimension and brought me directly to the story. Suddenly, I saw my characters appear on the stage in live action, performing my piece. It was a very powerful and moving experience. It surprised me to see my childhood friend stepping off my written page and standing right there in front of me on the stage. It transported me to that moment and felt like I re-lived my memory, which evoked new emotions and inspired me to come back to the story and write more about it.
2. What is something you’d like to achieve with writing?
Writing gives me the freedom to go anywhere, visit the past or future, explore my fears, and write about things that I don’t find easy to talk about. I would like to transport readers somewhere they might have never been, but at the same time, evoke familiar emotions they can associate with.
3. How has your writing grown over the years?
As I write more, I am more confident now. I worry less about my grammar and let my story flow. I learned to relax and let the story lead me.
4. What are some of your favorite books, TV shows, movies?
Some of my favorite books are by Franz Kafka, Bohumil Hrabal, and Haruki Murakami.
My favorite TV show: Seinfeld, it helped me understand life in New York City
My favorite movies are by Czech director Jiri Menzel.
5. What do you like to do for fun (other than writing)?
I love yoga, traveling, hiking, mushroom picking, and long walks with friends.
6. How did participating in a WGI (Writers Guild Initiative) workshop help your writing, (if so)?
Taking the Writers Guild Initiative workshop started it all. It encouraged me to write and gave me the confidence to start transporting the stories from my head onto paper.
7. What/Who inspires your writing?
Susanna Styron, my mentor from the Writer’s Guild Initiative workshop I took two years ago during the pandemic. Susanna was the first to make me believe in my writing and continues to support and guide me in my writing.
My friend and writer Brian Breger patiently reads my pieces, gives me feedback, and tells me that all the great stories in my head don’t exist until I put them on the page.
I get inspired every day by the incredible life stories of the people I talk to. Being a nurse, I talk to people the whole day, and New York is the best place on Earth for that. I just listen and observe. The stories are right there.
8. What is your favorite piece of writing (by you or otherwise)?
I am reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which continues to amaze me and surprise me despite reading it many times before.
9. Any advice, tips, resources or guidance you’d like to share for someone who wants to write?
Start writing.
Start today.
It took me a long time to write on paper even though I had written many incredible stories in my head, and they must have been great, but unfortunately, I don’t remember them anymore.
Now I keep a notebook wherever I go. Write your thoughts and later come back to it. And you can always delete or cross out what you wrote and start over again. Many times. And the most important thing is to have fun with it.
