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Alison Weaver is the founding editor of H.O.W. an art and literary journal that
publishes an eclectic mix of today's prominent writers and artists alongside upcoming
talents with an effort to raise money and awareness for the fifteen million+ children
throughout the world that have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. H.O.W. features fiction, nonfiction,
poetry, and visual art.
A Starry Night Productions urges you to send a donation even if you are not
submitting. Visit the H.O.W. website to learn more about their important
work with innocent children.
December 2008 Interview
Q: Alison, welcome! Please tell us about H.O.W. and how did you become its editor?
AW: I actually founded the journal. My idea was to combine art and literature with a
charitable endeavor. I wanted to appeal to a young modern readership with an avid
interest in the arts and a general compulsion toward social consciousness. I
wanted to create a visually hip journal filled with talented writers and artists
while supporting children in need. There has been a shift in the world over the
last ten years, and I believe the new generation of young writers and artists
feels an urge to actively make a difference in the world.
Q: Are you a creative artist? Have you always been interested in creative arts?
AW: I am a writer. My memoir,
Gone to the Crazies, came out last summer with
Harper Collins.
Q: What advice can you give to creative artists that will help keep their
creative juices flowing?
AW: Stay aware, have fun, live, and love.
Q: Do you have any projects you’d like to tell us about?
AW: We are currently working with an HIV+ orphanage in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
We are trying to raise money to build them a house with electricity
and a well with clean water. We are also working with the
SOS Children’s Village in Zanzibar and plan to sponsor a few of
their children.
Q: What are some of the challenges and obstacles you faced during your
career?
AW: As a writer, I’ve often been asked to compromise my artistic integrity
for the sake of sales. Deciding what to name my memoir, for example,
was an enormous challenge. The publishing house wanted something
sensational, and I was adamantly opposed to all their ideas. In
the end we found a middle ground, but it was a real fight.
The biggest challenge in running the H.O.W. journal is raising enough
money to keep it alive.
Q: What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
AW: Seeing HIV+ children thriving, and knowing we have contributed
to their well-being, it is really amazing. Nothing beats it, except
maybe my little girl’s smile.
Q: What inspires you?
AW: Obama,
Virginia Woolf,
Sylvia Plath,
Nabokov,
William Styron,
Fanny Howe,
Barbara Kruger,
Cindy Sherman,
Basquiat,
graffiti,
snow, fire, the ocean, the mountains, the night sky, my little girl.
Q: How do you manage your time when you are working on more than one
project?
AW: I don’t. I wait until both are very close to deadline, drink a ton
of coffee, and work until the projects are finished.
Q: What do you do to relax and to just have fun?
AW: I love the ocean. I try and escape to the islands whenever I can.
Q: What is the number one thing you would like to tell new
writers?
AW: Don’t give up.
Q: Do you have a support system?
AW: I have a wonderful partner who co-founded H.O.W. with me, and an
unbelievable art director, who also happens to be one of my best
friends. Additionally, our board and contributing editors are each very
talented writers and artists that have been amazingly supportive.
Q: If, at the age you are today, you could spend a day with you at age
seven, what would you take back in time, what would you say, what
would you do?
AW: Spend the day with my father in our Connecticut woods.
Q: When you feel creatively blocked what do you do to get yourself
back into the creative flow? When your muse is napping what do you do
to wake him/her up?
AW: I take a break from the project for a few days, a few weeks,
sometimes even a few months.
Q: How do you recharge your creativity?
AW: I don’t think creativity is something that is ever lost, if you’re a
creative person it just flows. It comes in waves, great moments of
inspiration, followed by a period of dryness.
Q: What is your greatest inspiration?
AW: Life.
Q: What makes you smile?
AW: The soundtrack to A Mighty Wind.
Q: What advice can you offer to a creative artist who is struggling
with their inner critic?
AW: Trust your gut instincts.
Q: Many artistic people struggle to develop a routine that allows
them time for their creative work. What advice can you give that
will help them create a balance between work and social
life?
AW: I am still trying to figure that out myself.
Q: What creative individuals do you admire?
AW: Virginia Woolf,
Sylvia Plath,
William Styron,
Egon Scheile,
Mary Gaitskill,
Phillip Gourevitch,
Susan Sontag,
Nicholas Kristof,
Frank Rich,
Steve Jobs,
Dave Eggers,
Miles Davis,
Sinead O’Connor,
Aimee Mann,
Bono,
Angelina Jolie,
Barbara Kruger,
Cindy Sherman, and
many, many more.
Q: What is your favorite first sentence in a book?
AW: That’s a tough one. Maybe The Catcher in the Rye.
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll
probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy
childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all
before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap,
but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." ---
Catcher in the Rye by
J.D. Salinger.
(David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens.)
Q: Are you listening to music as you answer these questions? If yes,
what are you listening to?
AW: Yes. It’s a mix, and so far I’ve listened to
Dylan,
Lucinda Williams,
Aimee Mann,
The Smiths, and
Al Green.
Q: What traits, if any, do you think that creative people have as
compared to people who are not creative?
AW: I think that anyone can be creative, if they are in touch with that
part of themselves. It is just a question of how it manifests itself.
Q: When do you feel most energized?
AW: After three cups of coffee.
Q: Who is the most creative person that you have ever known?
AW: I don’t think you can measure creativity like that. It comes in
all different shapes and colors.
Q: Can you see your finished project before you start it?
AW: What I see as my finished project before I start is never
what it actually looks like in the end.
Q: Do you feel that you chose your passion, or did it choose you?
AW: A little of both.
Q: What book are you reading right now?
AW: American Woman
by Susan Choi.
Q: What is the last movie you watched?
AW: Hideous Kinky.
Q: What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?
AW: Blaze your own path, Kiddo.
Q: Your famous last words, will you share with us a piece of advice,
a favorite quote, a tip, whatever you wish?
AW: “One ought to sink to the bottom of the sea, probably, and live
alone with ones words." ---
Virginia Woolf.
Creative Artists Commnity
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