My Artist Statement for Tin House (Now the McCormack Writing Center)
Voice Is My Super Power
(Note: The Tin House Summer Workshop is now the McCormack Writing Center. You can read more about the change on the website but know that it adheres to Tin House’s original vision and its current directors are the same as when I applied to Tin House.)
I am less than two weeks away from going to the Tin House Summer Workshop and, truth be told, I STILL cannot believe I got in. I’ll be working with the super talented Jaquira Díaz and, from what I’ve seen in the Slack and in the two NYC meet-ups I’ve had with attendees, an incredible group of accomplished writers. NERD ADULT WRITING CAMP FOR LIFE.
Part of the application included an Artist Statement, a genre that continues to haunt the deepest crevices of my creative mind and which I do not fully understand. Nevertheless, I have written two that were at least good enough? Not bad enough? to get my foot in the door, so maybe I’m better at it than I think. And the only conclusion I have—given my paltry anecdotal numbers—is that the Artist Statement is not the time to be boring. It is yet another medium in which you can showcase your voice, even though every single cell in your body is screaming to use your most LinkedIn language possible. But look at this one! In parts, unhinged! I TRY TO MAKE JOKES. I use the word “toxic.” And yet the good people over at Tin House took this to mean potential and for that I am forever grateful.
I am sharing my artist statement under the same conditions I always do:
Don’t ever tell me if you find a typo, EVER. It clearly wasn’t bad enough for the jury/committee/reader/editor, etc. to reject me and it will only serve to haunt me until my dying days.
Do not plagiarize my silly little sentences. It’s not cool and I’ll know you’ll have done it. Especially if you copy+paste it with the typos I do NOT want brought to my attention.