Interview with Kate Zarski

Kate Zarski won 1st place in the 112/112H: College Writing Best Text Contest for "Accepting My Older Brother; The Roller Coaster Journey."

Audio

Interview with Kate Zarski audio.

Transcript

DA: Hi.

KZ: Hi.

DA: Can you share your name with us?

KZ: My name is Kate Zarski.

DA: And, can you tell us the title of your essay and tell us a little bit about what it’s about?

KZ: Yes, the title is “Accepting My Older Brother: The Roller Coaster Journey,” and it’s a little about my childhood and growing up with an older brother who is on the spectrum and who also had behavioral disorders. It was for my honors college writing class, and the prompt was to write a personal story, but also include research that we’ve done. So I included research on autism and families growing up and raising a child with autism; and then I connected it to some other texts that we read in the class as well. I believe it was Gloria Anzaldúa’s piece I connected it to. 

DA: How did you connect it to that piece?

KZ: I was actually just looking back at it, but I didn't fully get to that part. I did connect it, though, to she was talking about how she had, like, hidden a part of her language, like trying to just speak English in America because her language was frowned upon. And I sort of related that to how I wanted to hide things about my brother from friends and family, or friends and school classmates because I always got reactions that weren’t great. 

DA: Can you share the inspiration behind your essay, or, what motivated you? And I know you somewhat touched on that, but can you elaborate a bit?

KZ: I've always had a pretty complicated relationship with my brother, I would say. Being away from him after going to school gave me the space and time to reflect on our relationship growing up. So I think I just have been thinking about it a lot, and when the prompt came along to tell a difficult or personal story, that’s what came to mind immediately. It was honestly a therapeutic kind of endeavor, writing about it.

DA: Can you say a bit more about that?

KZ: I think it was something I did not talk a lot about with anyone. So like when I got to share the essay with my peers and with my professor and they weren't judgmental; and I was allowed to explain things and be heard about my brother, then that was sort of the therapeutic part. I think.

DA: Did you have any expectations or hopes about how your readers would respond or connect to your essay?

KZ: I guess I wasn't thinking that much about the readers. I guess more people have read it now, which is cool. I was hoping that it would give people a look into that experience of growing up with someone on the spectrum––definitely not have them pity me or anything; but have sort of an understanding of what that might look like. I guess with the research, for readers that were coming across someone with a disability or who's on the spectrum, maybe they’ll be a little more understanding just by having that insight.

DA: Did you learn anything about yourself as a writer while working on that piece or as a person?

KZ: I think as a writer, it was definitely a bit of a challenge to tie in the personal story with the research and the text, because it was a lot of things coming together. But I guess I learned that I was able to do that more fluently than I thought. I remember it seemed like a daunting task at the time. 

DA: What was the most difficult thing about writing this essay? What are some of the obstacles that you faced?

KZ: I think I wrote the whole personal part really first, because that's easier. It's closer to your heart, and easier to just write creatively. It was definitely more of a challenge to find the parts that I could tie into Anzaldúa's writing and integrate research in a way that wasn’t choppy but would strengthen my argument. 

DA: Can you describe the techniques, or how you approached the task of synthesizing the texts.

KZ: I gathered quotes that I really liked from Anzaldúa that I thought I could see how this can relate. And then I would just sort of go through what I had already written and see where it connected, like if there were similarities in the sentences. For the research, I got a lot of facts I thought like reflected my experience with my brother, and then used those.

DA: Was there a moment during class, or when you were writing, when the piece really started coming together for you? 

KZ: I don't know if there was a moment. I think during the peer review, or after the peer review, because that was a big thing that my professor had us do, we did multiple rounds of peer review. Some of the questions and comments that my peers left on my paper definitely helped things click for me, from thinking about it from the audience's perspective. I can't remember a specific comment.

DA: Tell me more about the influence of your peers, you said that it gave you perspective from the audience. Can you say more about that?

KZ: I think that it definitely helped me write clearer. To not just get lost in the story, but really remember the “why,” why I was writing it for other people.

DA: Did the feedback or revision shape the final version of your work?

KZ: My professor also read over it and left a lot of comments too. I think I expanded on some parts, especially the conclusion. I remember at the end, I wanted to add a lot more about what people should think now or do now after reading the essay and the information.

DA: So thinking about what you want your audience to take from it. What was the part of the essay that you are most proud of and why? 

KZ: I mean, I'm pretty proud of the prose, like in the personal part. I just think it was a pretty emotional and it reflected that well, staying kind of raw and not getting too professional sounding. So I'm pretty proud of that. And connecting kind of hiding my brother and Anzaldúa's hiding her language. I thought that was a good connection too.

DA: When you were saying you were proud of the emotional aspect of how you were sincere and raw, was there anything new you tried? Maybe a different structure, voice or approach? Was the emotional approach something new for you?

KZ: I think most of my best writing does come from the emotional side, so I wouldn't say that part was new, but definitely incorporating the research definitely was. I usually struggle with research and weaving it in a compelling way that doesn't just sound like you're spitting facts at people. So that was probably something more new––integrating the personal with the research.

DA: Upon reflecting on what you wrote, do you have a different perspective on what research looks like, or what effective research and writing looks like?

KZ: For that project, I used a lot of the academic databases. I was always daunted by them but there’s a lot of good information I’d never seen on the internet about that. I could relate to more, pieces of writing in there that I didn’t even know existed. So using the databases was probably a big takeaway for me.

DA: I’m glad that you found stuff that connected with you. So what does winning the Best Text Contest mean to you?

KZ: Um, I was honestly super shocked. My professor just told us about it, and I just did that one kind of, like, on a whim. Yeah, no, it means a lot like, especially knowing that people are reading it, and I kind of feel like you are published in a way.

DA: You are. 

KZ: Yeah, that's pretty cool. So I think it's very cool.

DA: How do you see writing fitting into your studies or plans beyond the class. And does winning this contest inspire you to pursue it further?

KZ: Yeah, definitely. Writing is a very big part of my life. I became a writing tutor, actually, at the end of last year. So I’m doing that this year, which is really fun, to read a bunch of different forms of writing through it. It was kind of like a nice validation, like knowing that other people saw potential in my writing too. I definitely want it to be part of my career.

DA: I know you said you want your career to involve writing. Do you have any ideas about how that would fit into your plans, or where you what your trajectory might be?

KZ: I have a lot of broad hopes and different avenues. Actually, I was just looking at internships at The Boston Globe. Journalistic writing is an option I am considering a lot. But, I really like the creative side of writing. So I would love to work on a film set, or be a screenwriter, that would be super cool; or even a publisher, reading a lot.

DA: Investigative journalism would be an avenue that involves both research and creative writing as well.

KZ: Yeah, no, it's true. Nothing's closed off.

DA: And then, what advice would you give to future students thinking about writing or college writing?

KZ: Definitely, I would say, draw from the experiences that are close to your heart, because you're always going to produce better writing when you have a lot to say about something. It sounds obvious but I feel like that’s when I write the best. Also, take risks with formatting. Professors like it when you’re producing something different than follows exactly what the rubric says.  

DA: Do you have any final comments or things you'd like to share?

KZ: Nothing other than the fact that this is really cool, and I'm just surprised that I won. 

DA: It was a great essay. 

KZ: Thank you. 

DA: I'm not surprised that you did. 

KZ: Thanks. 

DA: All right. Thank you, Kate.