Amelia Wright

Oyster River Pages: Who are the writers who have made you who you are?

Amelia Wright: Lidia Yuknavitch showed me the spirit language. Kiese Laymon gave me power. Italo Calvino allowed me the courage to explore structure. Alden Jones read my work, shaping my paragraphs and sentences, and found a voice and a story in me that I never knew I had.

ORP: What do you want to read or see more of in the world?

AW: I want more young voices. I want teenagers and college students and kids in their early twenties sharing their art and their lives. Maybe this is selfish. Maybe I just want to be shown that I’m not alone. But I think the world has silenced the voices of those who haven’t “paid their dues” for far too long. We lose so much as we age, and the young voices are the ones who have the most power to push forth magic and awe.

ORP: What role does the artist play in society?

AW: Artists are the womb, or artists are the challenge. Some of the really good ones are both. Artists tell you those things that you already knew and could never put words to; those things you’ve held close to your chest find at home in another, too—community. But they also challenge you. They ask why, and they make you think that what you know is nothing compared to the breadth of the universe, the power of change, and the vision of better. Artists dare, they inspire, they hold, they nurture.

ORP: Who do you hope reads your work and why?

AW: Everyone. People who will cradle it, people who will loathe it. People who will find solace and comfort in my words, and those who will find passion and drive, and those who will throw it away. I have found my voice in reading work that makes me cringe and I have procured the passion to write from books that race my heart. My work is for everyone, and that doesn’t mean that everyone will like it. But hopefully everyone will become themselves a little bit more because of it.

ORP: What’s next for you artistically?

AW: I’m in the process of writing a memoir about my body—and maybe yours too. Ways to destroy and exploit it, ways to love and protect and nurture it, ways that others touch me and ways my body sways my mind. Keep an eye out.

Amelia is a recent graduate of Emerson College with a degree in Communications Studies and the intention to pursue an MFA in nonfiction creative writing. She has had work accepted for publication by the Journal of Compressed Creative Arts. She grew up in Baltimore and now lives in Boston where she is currently working on a memoir about her body. Read her short story “An Act” here.