A Conversation With Author Michelle Tea
Michelle Tea is a queer author, poet, and literary organizer who has been sober for close to two decades. I am also queer and sober, and a big fan of Tea’s work, so talking to her was an honor. We spoke about addiction, recovery, and how being sober impacts her writing and creative life. What […]
This is Your Brain on “Flow States”
Since I’ve been sober, one way I combat cravings and curb anxiety is to engage in flow state activities. This is the scientific term (though I know it doesn’t sound that scientific) for being “in the zone,” when you’re so immersed in something that everything else fades to the background. The Neuroscience of Flow States […]
Star-Studded: Ringo Starr
After the Beatles broke up in 1970, their drummer Ringo Starr spent almost two decades “lost in a haze of alcohol and drugs.”[1] “It got progressively worse, and the blackouts got worse, and I didn’t know where I’d been, what I’d done,” he said. “I knew I had the problem for years. But it plays […]
Creativity as Therapy
Expressive therapy—the use of the creative arts in a therapeutic setting—exists for a reason. The arts are an often underexplored way to heal. In one review of six studies, half found a significant decrease in symptoms of trauma after art therapy.[1] One found a significant decrease in symptoms of depression. Being creative can bring you […]
Addiction Hampers, Not Causes, Creativity
In author Leslie Jamison’s book The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath, she talks about visiting the bars where some of her favorite writers drank. Like many others, she’d internalized the myth that great writers, artists, and musicians’ art is fueled by their addictions. She later found out that many of her favorite authors wrote their […]
Creativity in the Time of COVID-19
Because I hang out with a lot of poets, I’ve learned that constraints can invite creativity. Poets may choose to write in a form, say a Sestina or Villanelle, that has very specific rules about repetition, amount of stanzas, etc. Often this opens up new ideas. The limitations push people to new forms of creativity.
