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We’re excited to announce the launch of “Voices from the Hill” a podcast dedicated to showcasing the incredible talent right here in our literary backyard. As a proud member of this vibrant community, Telegraph Hill Arts & Literature believes our local authors deserve a platform to share not just their published works, but the stories behind them.
If you’re a Bay Area author interested in being on the show, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us at submissions@telhilit.org.
Today on Voices from the Hill, I'm joined by Bay Area Author Britta Stromeyer and award winning children's author, essayist, and educator who explores identity, voice, and what it means to truly be seen. Her books invite young readers all of us into conversations about authenticity, courage, and self expression. Britta's work spans fiction, criticism, and appears in the Common, Tupelo Quarterly, and World Literature today. As a member of the San Francisco Writers Grotto and teaching artist at Marin School of the Arts, She teaches across genres and generations. So let's dive in.
Jennifer Barone:Britta Stromeyer, welcome to Voices from The Hill.
Britta Stromeyer:Thank you so much for having me in. That sounds really amazing.
Britta Stromeyer:It does, doesn't it?
Britta Stromeyer:Well, think I'm gonna have you introduce me next time wherever I go. So thank you. Really a pleasure to be here.
Jennifer Barone:Yeah. And so I wanted to get in a little bit before you start.
Jennifer Barone:I'd love to have you read a passage from some work that's been inspiring you today because obviously you're working on lots of different genres of But I wanted to talk specifically or start with your children's literature because first of all, the books that you are writing for children really touch on identity and self recognition. And I wanted to ask a little bit about how your personal life shaped that, where the inspiration for those stories came from, because they seem really impactful.
Britta Stromeyer:Yeah, so thank you for asking that. So like most writers, inspiration comes from real life, right? And my children's books, in particular Rainer's Unhappy Birthday and Look at Me, Who Do You See? Were inspired by my older daughter,
Britta Stromeyer:who is on the spectrum and genderqueer. And in the beginning when I wrote, when I was exploring these books, I didn't, you know, I said earlier I didn't mean to write children's books, it just happened, but I think we sometimes write to find an answer to something, we're writing through something, and both of those books, that's true for both of those books, when I wrote Raynaud's Unhappy Birthday, I didn't know my kiddo was on the spectrum at the time. I was just trying to express something that I had observed, but also wanted to write a book for kids that don't like to be touched. And not just because they're on the spectrum or have other challenges, also just to give them a voice and something to talk about when something isn't going right, when the touch isn't appropriate. That was kind of what set out that story.
Britta Stromeyer:Look at Me, Who Do You See was a few years later when I didn't know at the time that my kiddo was questioning, although I think subconsciously I felt it probably. The original inspiration for that book came from a trip to Kenya and where we saw the last male white rhino, Sudan, and I remember writing down in my journal at the time, like many of us writers, know, what if question, and I wrote down what if rhinos were the original unicorns. And it kind of evolved from there. So it's a story about a rhino who thinks she's is a unicorn. Or I shouldn't say thinks she knows she's a unicorn.
Britta Stromeyer:So it's story about discovering yourself and staying true to yourself as well.
Jennifer Barone:Is it, I feel like writing a children's book would be really a challenge because not only do you have to tell a story in terms of the art of the story, you have to tell it through images and art. Like tell me a little bit about that process, like where did you begin? I wouldn't even know where to begin. Yeah, where did you connect to artists, or how did you envision that book coming to life?
Britta Stromeyer:Yeah, so that was the funnest part of writing a children's book for me. I know, and I'm not an illustrator, so I had to work with someone who saw the story in pictures essentially. But I had some ideas on some images and it helped actually working with an illustrator because they see something in the story that then will help you cut it down, the And you're right, writing for children is much harder and I always tell my students it was my way of getting into flash fiction, so to And there's a little bit of poetry too because every word kind of has to mean something. Have a very small space to tell a story and have an impact with those words and then you have to choose the words not to make it too simple, but also to challenge and kind of have, give the kids some words that they can explore and what does that mean. But on the picture side, this, if I could just hold it up, but this one was the first picture that both of these books are illustrated by the same illustrator.
Britta Stromeyer:J. And M. Cook is in, she was at the time in South Africa, and I knew she was very good with animals, and I asked her, I was like, I have a story which you, you know, because the publisher at the time had already sent me some ideas, and I wanted her to kind of give me her suggestion, and that was the first image she sent me, and I'm like, Oh my god, this has to be the cover of the book. And so it just kind of evolved from there, but she really got it. That's a really important part when you write a short lived story, to have an illustrator that kind of gets what you're trying to do, and it just worked really well with her.
Britta Stromeyer:And you can see the styles of them are very, the first book was very much in original watercolors, and this was digital, so.
Jennifer Barone:Did you show this to your children as you're making it? Yes, was oh it a my particular process?
Britta Stromeyer:Oh my god, they, especially the later one. I think it was more of a fun adventure on the first one because they were much younger. On this one, I was always very excited when I, and you as a poet will appreciate this, you change a line or a few words and like, that's it! And then I would run there and say, Can I read it to you again? And they're like, Okay.
Britta Stromeyer:And I would read it again, it's like, It's the same. I'm like, No, it's not the same, remember? They went through pretty much all, I don't know how many edits we had in the end. I count every new version if I even just change a word, so it was double digits in It's the end, for kind of like you had this test audience that
Jennifer Barone:was Yes, yes. Is this working for you?
Britta Stromeyer:Yeah, and in fact, for the second book, I went to my daughter, my kid's elementary school, and I asked one of the first grade teachers, Can I test this? Can I test this in your audience? And it was helpful. It was really helpful to get the kids' feedback, and I would suggest that for anybody writing children's books too. First of all, sit down at the library on the floor, pick out those picture books that, you know, themes that you want to explore and read those.
Britta Stromeyer:And read them at the level that those kiddos are actually experiencing the world as well, because that's really important. The world looks very different
Jennifer Barone:you're shorter and smaller, you know? It's true. Well, in Look at Me, who do you see? This is, I'm saying that you started this story but you didn't realize like what it was gonna mean until like, maybe through the process. But can you tell me a little bit about like, finding out what the real core of that story was, both in your personal life and at the culmination of finishing this book?
Britta Stromeyer:So I had given it at the time, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say that, but my agent at the time, and she read the story and she liked it and she said it's gonna do, I think this is a story that will do well, but I'm not the one to sell it because I don't want to tell kids, you know, they are not what they are at birth. And that wasn't actually at all in my, the thought of having a reach across LGBTQ lines was not on my conscious mind at the time, I just wanted to write a book. Be who you are, you know, be free, you can be whatever you want to be. But then I thought about it and then I realized around the same time, my older one also started questioning, it's like, okay, I was making connections, which is similar to my first book, that I could feel in my own personal life but I have a name for at the time. And so it opened up actually a whole new perspective for my own writing and I started going through the drafts again, kind of rewriting a little bit with that in mind.
Britta Stromeyer:And it made it a better book. One of the editors that I worked with at the publishing house was also genderqueer, wanted to work with this book and their input was really helpful as well. It kind of just evolved. Sometimes you don't know the reach of your words until they're down there and on paper. I'm very proud of that book.
Britta Stromeyer:I loved every moment of the process of that.
Jennifer Barone:What has the reception of this book been, like post launching? Like, have you had people come to you and tell you, I've always wanted this, or I've always like wish this story was out there and thank you for writing this or like, do you notice that there's more writers tackling this subject especially for different age groups at this moment? Yeah, I think there is now more out there than when I, late when I wrote that.
Britta Stromeyer:Ian and Sarah Hoffman, who are local, Bay Area, they do a lot of work in that space as well. And yes, I did have some parents come up to me and said, You know, I think we need more of this. And I try to be really broad as well. So it's also a little bit focused on kind of saving the rhinos a little bit too. So there's a lot of little things.
Britta Stromeyer:There's some rhino and unicorn facts in the back of the book. And just to remember that we are all connected on some level, right? And so yeah, it's been, you know, I've gotten nice comments about it. But you know, people can go out and read more.
Jennifer Barone:Yeah, it's wonderful. Will, and sometimes too when they see these things, it like sparks, like waves of other people attempting to bring these stories forward too, so it's like you're a trailblazer, and that sounds such a And delightful I mean,
Britta Stromeyer:my goal with both of these books are for kids to just have language, because they oftentimes don't have the words yet, or they can't express themselves. And if, especially also with my first book, the Reyna book, if there's a kid that is in a situation that they shouldn't be in and can then maybe a few years later say, or at the moment, Remember when you read me that book? Well, then you know, can kind of figure it out from there. And that kind of was the goal, for kids to just have something. Remember you read me this book once, and by the way, I'm Reina Aloha.
Britta Stromeyer:I'm Eunice. I think that if I, if just one kid can say that at some point, then my work is done.
Jennifer Barone:That's a really good accomplishment. I think a really profound one, really deep one. Well, there's an aspect to the creation of the story that I'm hearing, which is a little bit of a magical process, like following your instinct, and there's an aspect to me of, like, deeply listening. Does that pull through, and have you had that experience also with other types of projects you're working on? You're working on podcasting, which are courses without listening, but then other different types of writing as well as book reviews.
Jennifer Barone:So does that pull through in terms of a way of moving in the literary world for you?
Britta Stromeyer:You mean for my own writing or?
Jennifer Barone:Or just your approach in general.
Britta Stromeyer:Yeah, I think for me, I know there's writers out there, and I do that too, like I will hear something or a thought comes, I just recently looked through my notes app on my phone because a lot of things come to me while I'm walking, I will write something down. But for me I think a lot of this is happening on a subconscious level. And the same is true for a flash piece that is connected to, again, to this where things happen for me on a level that I'm not quite aware of, and I'm writing something down and I don't really know what it means until something else comes from the outside. I'm given a container to write within or somebody says something else and then I'm like, Oh wait a minute. And then I start connecting the dots.
Britta Stromeyer:And as far as seeing things, I don't know how to answer that, but yeah, I do try to pay attention to people. I try to, I'm a feeler, I'm very much a personal contact kind of person, because people, you know, I want to be able to look you in the eye, and I want to feel your energy, and because sometimes your energy field might not, that's nothing to do with you, but it just like maybe doesn't work. Then I wonder, I wonder why that is, what is it about this? So yeah, I very much move through the world that way.
Jennifer Barone:You're like, are we vibing together? And also and
Britta Stromeyer:I have, you know, I have a little bit of a, you know, like most people we have our big and small teas, but I think if there's a silver lining for people that have had some more profound trauma in their life, they're very good at feeling and paying attention and have more fine tuned antenna. And I think I have that. People tell me to do so. Do
Jennifer Barone:you have rituals that you do when you go to write in terms of tapping in and being present and maybe accessing this instinctive channel, essentially, for inspiration?
Britta Stromeyer:I have to laugh at this question because, not because it's funny, but it's funny in my context. Do have, actually I thought about this the other day, I do have a weird ritual and it's usually I try to clean something first or put something away, I need to have some kind of order around me so the clutter isn't kind of in my, it creates noise in my head. So if I say okay, every Monday between eleven and twelve or eleven and one, I'm dedicating my time to this particular project, I ramp myself up for that. I will look around like, okay, is there anything out of place? So that's one.
Britta Stromeyer:I do need quiet. I'm not a writer that writes to music or song lists and playlists, can't do that, can't have any noise, visual or auditory noise in my head. And other than that, I do what I teach my students now, and I used to not do that, but just go go for it. I I write like nobody's gonna see it, doesn't matter what it sounds like, because I'm trying to focus to just get make sense of it, like what is inside of me, like what is or if I'm writing about a character, like what are they thinking, what's going on, and I just write really bad first drafts. And the same goes for my criticism work.
Britta Stromeyer:I just write down what I'm thinking, because oftentimes when I read a book that I want to write about for a review, there's thoughts that come in my head, and I literally just write them down. While I'm reading it, usually you'll see if you go in a bookshop and say, Yeah, reviewed this book. And you open it up, it has in pencil, not in pen, but it's written all over. On the front, like if I have a question, as I go to page this, on page 31, go back to page 48, there's this connection. So that's kind of my faucet that's fragmented, guess?
Britta Stromeyer:Is that what comes together there?
Jennifer Barone:Actually what was coming in my mind was the immense freedom of permission that you give yourself to, and a lot of writers really find this hard to give themselves permission and freedom to just open up and not have that inner critic. So I was hearing in what you were saying, like a lack of an inner critic, at least in the beginning, and then you can pull that in when you're in the editing process But to have that, be able to do that mentally and have that freedom in the beginning is like a dream state for most writers, and they really struggle with that, Yeah, I
Britta Stromeyer:I wasn't like this in the beginning. I was really, I have to have this perfect sentence syndrome before I can move on to the next one. And I still have a writer friend in Texas, if you're listening, you know who you are, who still does that, and he's a fantastic writer. But he is sometimes paralyzed, but it's like I can't move on until I have this perfectly right. Do you
Jennifer Barone:think that's part of writer's block, you know, when they're working on something?
Britta Stromeyer:I don't believe in writer's block. Think it's, and I'll tell you why. Two reasons. Number one is writer's block is just like I don't want to go there. Trying to make it perfect is just a matter of, well again, I don't want to go there, I don't want to go deeper, and it's just distracting yourself from moving to that next page.
Britta Stromeyer:Because you can write even if it's just for ten minutes a day, you can time yourself and just go for it. I was never a believer in prompts because I was like, I know what I'm going to write about, I don't need a prompt. Now I teach prompt writing classes, I'm what not caused that shift? So because everything I've ever published ended up coming out of a prompt. So there's one in particular I did for a festival.
Britta Stromeyer:I'd written this piece already, and then there came a prompt about apples. Because I was thinking about reading that piece and then the organizer of the group that I was reading with, our theme is apple. I'm like, what? What am I gonna do with apples? But then I looked at that piece and said, okay, can I, where's the apple here?
Britta Stromeyer:And
Jennifer Barone:so it
Britta Stromeyer:became an apple tree essentially and it made the piece better. And I think it made it into a piece that could be published because of that. But yeah, it's much easier not to judge yourself and if you want to get authentic emotion on the page and really kind of just feel your way through it, which again, everybody's different, I'm a feeler, Then you have to get out of your head. I teach a retreat with my colleague Matthew Felix, also a local writer. We call it The Body and the Pen, and that's what we do.
Britta Stromeyer:We try to approach writing from a more somatic point of view. So he's the body, he does a lot of those kind of experience getting into, out of your head, into your body kind of exercise, and then I come in with prompts and then we explore what that means and how that translates onto the page. People tell us it was transformative. But you have to give yourself permission not to edit or judge your writing. Again, it's just for you.
Britta Stromeyer:You can burn it, right? Although I wouldn't recommend it, just lock it, do what I do, I lock it in my safe. I have a few journals that are locked away. Oh, interesting. So if I die prematurely, you know, it's
Jennifer Barone:all there. I keep debating if I should burn them or what I should do with them. Because sometimes writers feel like they want to go back
Britta Stromeyer:to memory.
Jennifer Barone:Do find yourself doing that?
Britta Stromeyer:Very much, especially right now. I was just telling Joseph from the bookshop that at least for a project, recently went back and I read about a time when I was 17. I'd written a lot between 15 and 18, and there was like a whole memory that I'd written down and experienced an event, and I had no recollection of it. I called my mother and said, Mom, who's this person? I was like, Oh, that was so and so.
Britta Stromeyer:Why are you asking me this question? Well we had this, we went to this event and she just shook her But so I, and I just recently had a conversation with another writer who said, I burned everything. I threw everything away, and now they wish they hadn't. I don't want regrets. Sometimes you just find a way to lock it up, make it safe.
Britta Stromeyer:And I have some things on my old computer that are password saved in it. And I know I saved them for a reason, but I cannot remember the password either, so now they are there for not knowing what's in there. Well Yeah, don't throw it away. Don't just lock it away. Burn it, don't You throw never know.
Britta Stromeyer:I've never heard that advice,
Jennifer Barone:and that's fantastic It's very, again, liberating.
Britta Stromeyer:Because you might write a poem and something will come up and our subconscious makes so many connections sometimes that we don't, are not consciously aware until we write something and something comes up and it's like, I've written about this before. Especially, I'm sure, for poetry, we write about those things that stir within us, right? And we write about them over and over again. So, yeah, you can look it up and go through those journals and find it again. Yeah, I
Jennifer Barone:think that's good advice. Well, wanted to shift into a little bit that you also do literary criticism and book reviews, as I mentioned earlier. Was something, that's a completely different perspective on writing. So you're a writer, and you're on this side of the fence and then being on the other side where you're reviewing other people's books, like how did you make that shift? How did you get into that?
Jennifer Barone:And what has it brought or taught you about your own writing?
Britta Stromeyer:That was actually a really fun journey. When I was in my MFA program, one of my mentors in one of the courses, because you have to constantly write papers about certain topics or a craft or a book you read, And he pointed out several times that you're really good at this. I had also done my Stanford program, the novel writing program. Stanford is a two year program, fantastic if you're really into novel writing. And we had to consult a peer critique online, it was an online course, and people always said they really appreciate my feedback, it was really valuable, they would privately message me.
Britta Stromeyer:Again it was kind of like, yeah, enjoy this, I can do this. And then I would always wait for the teacher's feedback because the teacher would always wait until everybody commented and I'm like, Ah yeah, I pointed that out to us. Okay, yeah, I got that. So, know, my teacher's pet, like, I got it. But it was a few years ago when I met Jane Javatari from the National Book Critic Circle.
Britta Stromeyer:She talked about book criticism at a retreat we were at, and I told her was like, I really like this. And she said, Well, and my book was coming out and I said, Yeah, but you know, I can't promote. I don't like any promotion. Nobody likes tooting their own horn, right? And she said, Well, you can lift other writers' work up.
Britta Stromeyer:You can praise or you can make a comment or you can read and let people know what you think. And then I dug a little deeper and I looked into this and then I tested it out and kind of from there it just kind of took off. And it's the one writing when I'm creatively blocked because of, you know, when things are hard in my personal life I usually can't write creatively, but criticism and reviews, writing papers about other people's books, that I can do any day. And that's what kind of kept me, or keeps me through my own creative roles a little bit. And what it teaches me about my own writing is that I have a lot to learn, number one.
Britta Stromeyer:But number two is that it gives you permission to try something because you see the way people are authors now composing and crafty books and you're like, oh wow, you can do that as long as you know why you're doing the thing. It's just giving you exposure to a lot of different options of what is possible in literature now.
Jennifer Barone:What does something like getting a book review do for an author that you find? And how do you decide who's going to review?
Britta Stromeyer:So I think you should, so I started with just going out to publishers that I liked and stories. I like working with works in translation in particular, making up a beautiful book with a lot of books in original language and translation. That's my number one love. And then I am very and you can go out to those publishers, I like this, I'd like to read the email. If you have anything, can I look at your catalog?
Britta Stromeyer:And then I look through the catalog, sometimes I get books just sent to me because they think I might like it or I might be interested in reviewing it. And then I pick and, you know, I have learned that I have a pretty decent eye for what I think will do well or what should be out there. There's just a lot of fun for me in that. So my second choice would be something that deals with identity and feminist books. I'm big on feminist books.
Britta Stromeyer:And just, am drawn more to the literary world. That's not to say that I have not reviewed or I'm not open to something commercial, but there has to be a really strong character that has some really, you know, is trying to make a deep connection. Does that answer your question? It does. But yeah, you'll reach out to, I started reaching out just to publishers, saying, Hey, I'm interested, can I look at your catalog?
Britta Stromeyer:And I promise, like, if I do review, I'll be timely. And then you look at the literary magazines and see who might be looking for like, for example, The Common likes to work with literature that is kind of situated in place, sets of plates. So I, you know, I will look at something and say, Okay, this might be a good fit for this magazine, and then we write to them and say, Hey, have this book. Or sometimes the magazine comes to me and says, Hey, I have this book, would you be interested in reviewing this? And that happens too sometimes.
Jennifer Barone:What do think is happening for women, women writers right now? Because there's so much happening politically, there's major shifts and major arguments happening, but do you feel right now that women's places are coming forward in the way that you would like to see them or you feel like there's still a lot of work to do? What seeing are happening for women writers right now?
Britta Stromeyer:I do think there is a bit of a shift going on. Not just for women but also for very unique stories that are not talked about as much. I just put in my review that's coming out for, soon, for work in translation called My Dreadful Body by Adana Jawabarra. It's in translation by Lisa Hayden, and it's very much a feminist book, but it is told, she basically, each chapter is a body part. And she deals, the narrator deals with dystonia, it's a neurological disorder, and through that she's examining the history of the women and their plight.
Britta Stromeyer:It plays in Russia, it's in Azerbaijani diaspora. But it's fascinating, I see more and more of that coming internationally, translation. There's Dahlia de la Quebla, a Mexican writer, does a lot of that work in that space as well. So I like to see it more and more in The US. Think the American literature, while it's starting to address it, seems a little bit more still.
Britta Stromeyer:Can I go that far? I think there's a little bit more boldness coming from the international. I agree. That's not to say there's great books of it, don't put me wrong. But I feel like the publishers that are daring to bring something in translation in that space are really daring and I love that.
Jennifer Barone:Do you think that the American readers are more open also to stories coming from other cultures, other countries, than maybe we are our own, like we don't want to see ourselves that closely? Do you think is happening for the readers here? Interesting question, I'm
Britta Stromeyer:sorry about that. I'd like to hope so. I am, you know, I grew up in Germany, I'm German native, so my, what I do think American literature is still having a hard, or American readers are having a hard time is not having the book tied up in the key in the end. Like, gives you, okay, here's your open The ended open ending, I think, still makes a lot of American readers uneasy.
Jennifer Barone:You hear that with movies, people getting angry if it didn't wrap up nicely.
Britta Stromeyer:Yeah, yeah, exactly. It just, But I love that kind of stuff, because it challenges your emotions and your intellect all at the same time, because you have to now create, we read books because we want to bake in them. We both can read the same book but have a completely different take on it based on the lenses we read through.
Jennifer Barone:Maybe also our own life experience. Exactly. Where we're seeing it through our own lens. Exactly. So
Britta Stromeyer:in that regard, I think the American readers, well I just read a statistic that people are not reading anymore. They're not reading enough. That's terrible. There came readers, some people haven't even read a single book last year. That number is, so my goal is to get as many books out there as possible.
Britta Stromeyer:That's what I love about the reviewing process and finding books that are not necessarily on the New York Times bestseller list. Although the first few, there was a lot of reviews I did, they ended up because you get them six months ahead of time. You don't know what's And you can't talk to anybody about them. This is the hard part about criticism sometimes, you read a book and it's not out there yet, so you can't talk to anybody about it because they haven't read it yet. That's the most
Jennifer Barone:fun part of reading a book. Yeah, exactly.
Britta Stromeyer:So and then sometimes by the time it comes out and then someone is like, Oh yeah,
Jennifer Barone:let me remember like all
Britta Stromeyer:the details about this book. Or I love
Jennifer Barone:it when somebody reads a book and they like give it to you and you're like, You have to read this and then when you're done we have to talk Yes, about yes. That's great. And then our friend
Britta Stromeyer:circle, definitely do that a lot. But, yeah, I'd like to see more international, especially now in the times we live in, I think hearing those different voices is really, really important. Female voices. Do feel like, and not to get political, but there's definitely been a campaign to take that step back of what traditional goals should be. And we need a little bit more of an uprising on that because it's not acceptable and I feel maybe the international community is at least trying to call it out for what it is more.
Britta Stromeyer:So, I'm just, you know, kind of.
Jennifer Barone:Well, let's shift into what you're working on next and some of your personal work. I'd love for you to meet us maybe as it was something that you brought with you. Okay, yeah. And also, maybe share a little bit about, like, when are currently listening?
Britta Stromeyer:In writing or my literary projects? Because I have
Jennifer Barone:Let's do your writing first.
Britta Stromeyer:Okay, so I have been working on a longer form project that was a little dormant last year because I had a lot of personal challenges and I was creating a blog that I don't want to talk too much about it because, you know, we started talking about it. So I'm holding it close, but it it's it all has to do with a lot of the things that authenticity and feminism and connection. So that's what I'm working on. And then I'm always working on reviews, a few books that I get to read and talk about in paper. And, yeah, always always something.
Britta Stromeyer:I write a a lot of flash fiction pieces too, and so those are always under submission somewhere. There's always a little piece. I love love flash fiction, because I'm, you know, with the picture book that was kind of my entry in that and it's fun and but My mind sometimes works in fragmented ways. You have
Jennifer Barone:something you'd like to share a
Britta Stromeyer:little bit with me? Sure, yeah. I can see. Why don't I since you're a poet, this is a little bit more
Jennifer Barone:lyrical and a
Britta Stromeyer:little bit more poetic. And in fact, actually, this is the this is a piece I've written about. It's kind of connected to my picture books and a struggle my older one went through and this is the apple theme. Perfect. Yeah, you can find this in flash fiction in the bin.
Britta Stromeyer:It's titled Growing Pains. You remember the potpourri of apple seeds resting in your tiny hand when your granny smith told you, Proceeds to grow. They crave the sun's warm embrace, the clouds' duly blessings, and the wind's breath of life. In a crisper tone, she warned, be careful not to trample on them or crush them into dust. You watched the seeds dance with the winds as they gently spilled from your palm, then you waited, waited, waited until sprouts rose from the soil.
Britta Stromeyer:You remember Sunday mornings when rotten gray burns slammed the front door. Your mother bruised and tarred, curled into a ball and cried. Offering you a sweet, flushed honeycrisp to silence her weeping. You whispered, but I love you. She ignored you through the mist of sobs, and you retreated in a world of make believe family, conjured imaginary meals, and played hide and seek with fantastical friends until Blade Run's crushing footsteps echoed on the cherry flooring.
Britta Stromeyer:Hiding in the sheltering shadow of the wooden door, you waited, waited, waited for your mother to emerge from the refuge of her room. Your growling stomach, a silent witness each time she welcomed him back, smiling away lingering tears. You remember when you stole Braeburn's dead blow hammer and slammed its face down on your wrist in an anguished kiss. You screamed from the pain waiting for your mother to tune into your voice, its vibration. Brushing your sweet plush Tory against your cheek, your mother said, I don't think anything is broken.
Britta Stromeyer:You remember the day you became a mother, the days your daughter danced in vibrant hues with her golden corkscrew curls bouncing off her shoulders, delicious, unblemished, rapturous. One by one, like wilted apple blossoms, the the coiled locks tumbled to the floor. Shorter, she pleaded with the hairstylist. Each floating pedal a cut into the bark of your heart. Braeburn's dusty memories scattered on the floor baiting you.
Britta Stromeyer:Growing pains for your daughter come in small carvings across her weakest limbs, life's fears over ripening within her, torment tricking her to hide today. Gripping your uncry tears, you blink away the pain. You wish she could see how she shimmers in the shade of your apple tree. Don't hide, you tell her. Then you wait, wait, wait.
Britta Stromeyer:Beautiful.
Jennifer Barone:Thank you for sharing that. That was very beautiful.
Britta Stromeyer:So yeah, and this is, you know, it's a piece that is kind of inspired by some real life. So the emotion in that is real life experiences through and it's kind of meshed my experience with my daughter's struggles. And initially I had written about my younger daughter getting her hair cut and it was a cut in my heart. Was like, every mother when you see those locks going away, it kind of grew out from there.
Jennifer Barone:Feel like for women the hair is very connected to our emotions. What do you think it means for you when Yeah,
Britta Stromeyer:you say so I think it might also just be a generational thing, I wonder. In that book I earlier mentioned, My Dressful Body, the hair becomes also a symbolism of feminism and identity. So I think there is something for a certain generation, again I don't want to speak for the younger generations but I think there is something attached to that how we were brought up and how those traditional roles were assigned to us. And yeah, I think it has something to do with that and just being more feminine. Yeah, it's part of our identity in feminine.
Britta Stromeyer:Yeah, so especially the traditional kind of feminine ideal, or ideal sometimes as well, so I think that comes from that a little bit. Mhmm.
Jennifer Barone:That's why, like, when you're playing with your hair, cutting your hair, yourself is also, like, very much, like, connected to how you're feeling inside and your thoughts and the way you're perceiving yourself. Yeah.
Britta Stromeyer:And but also shaping your own identity. So my 17 year old likes to cut their own hair. And in the beginning I was like, Oh, okay. But it somehow has now come to a point where it works. It works for them, they've gotten better at it, and it is part of their representation of who they are, and so who am I to argue with that?
Britta Stromeyer:Who am to impose on that, that is not mine, this is your identity, so I need to step back and kind of look inward and find out, like you said, like, what is that meaning?
Jennifer Barone:Yeah, we're always those writers asking that. Yes, much so. Very
Britta Stromeyer:much so.
Jennifer Barone:Well, lastly, I'd love to shift back to, because you're involved in so much, I'd love to kind of come into the community space because you're doing so much work for the community. You're with LitClake on the organization front, and you are a teacher, and you're connected to the Writers Grotto. So here at Telegraph Hill Books, we do a quarterly meeting with Writers Grotto's in The Half Innings, so definitely check that out. But you're deeply involved with them and then also teaching, but tell us a little bit more about the work that you're doing with the literary community here.
Britta Stromeyer:That is kind of my love project. That is the funnest part about because writing can be a solitary and very lonely exercise sometimes and getting involved in the literary community is not just fun, it's an absolute must for me to make sure that I don't wither away in my office. But what I love about it is I get to connect with people such as yourself and other writers and I get to hear other voices because we sometimes get so stuck in our own head that it's nice to talk other to people that they're working on and just broaden horizons. Litquake is a wonderful place to It's very exciting. Litquake.
Britta Stromeyer:And there's so many ways to get involved with Litquake as a volunteer, so go to the litquake.org website and sign up as a volunteer. You can meet the favorite authors and do something good for the community. And the Writers Grotto, I love teaching with the Writers Grotto. We have grotto nights that we do with, also with the library, and again, for same reasons, it's just community and seeing and being seen, not like visually but like in your work and your connection on that level, it's really important to me and I enjoy that and it's fun. It's exhausting sometimes, I know people don't believe me that I'm more an introvert than I'm an extrovert.
Britta Stromeyer:Whenever I do these events, I need like a week after just to
Jennifer Barone:Recruitment energy. And then
Britta Stromeyer:I, but I do fun things like, I just started something with a colleague of mine, a writer friend, Books and Beds, where we feature, we're on TikTok, am I allowed to say that? Sure. It's Books and Beds, and we try to feature new books, kind of more commercial things that come out and backlist it. I do quite a bit of works in translation again. It's just another avenue for me to Sometimes I cannot review every book.
Britta Stromeyer:I can read a lot of them, but I can talk about them, but I can always write about them, and it gives us an opportunity to pair some. We try to pair the books by theme, like the commercial with the literary, and then we also of matched them and paired them with a cocktail and mocktail, which And
Jennifer Barone:is really
Britta Stromeyer:we hope to actually put this into more of an event series, with a kind of a bookish, there will be an event, you know, space available somewhere here.
Jennifer Barone:Yeah, Kino and Telegraph Books is always involved with Litquake.
Britta Stromeyer:Think you had some events here last year, so we'll probably have some Yeah, here and Litquake we did last year a lot of events here at Telegraph Books, I'm and that was a lot of fun. And again, meeting authors from all over the place is really fun. You learn a lot, like how these things are done. It is truly a labor of love, for sure. It just makes you literally connect with people and look them in the eye and just chitchat.
Britta Stromeyer:Do like social time. Do like the social time. That's beautiful. Well thank you
Jennifer Barone:for all the work that you're doing to support and uplift people's work, uplift their work, and connect people and community, it's pretty amazing. So I think on my last question here, I just wanna sum it up, because there's so many themes to what you're writing. But I want to ask, like, out of all the work that you're doing right now, like, would you hope that readers will carry with them after encountering your work? We've talked a lot about identity, I feel like about freedom, about freedom of expression and for writers, but what do you feel like is like a core theme in your heart as you're doing all of these projects?
Britta Stromeyer:Oh my god, I love that question. And you had barely finished it and it was coming right up, it's like that your voice matters. That is probably at the heart of it. And I think that stems just from my own experience being silenced for a long time based on my background. And don't be silent, do share your voice, name it, talk about it, because that's how we connect with each other and that's how we learn from each other and that's how we create meaning and then can work through it, whatever you're going through.
Britta Stromeyer:So yeah, I would say your voice matters. It's at the core of it, because that's how you connect.
Jennifer Barone:What a beautiful message that we all really need, especially as writers. And readers too. Well, just want to thank you so much Britta Stromeyer for sharing your work, sharing your process, for uplifting everybody else's work too, and bringing us all together. It's just been a pleasure to get to know you and for having me. Yeah.
Jennifer Barone:To tell your story here. So for listeners who'd like to learn more about Britta Stromeyer and all of her projects, please go visit brittastromeyer.com and find her books at your local independent bookstores, especially Telegraph Hill Books. And she's going to be interviewing Claire, I hope I say the name right, Oshetsky Oh, right. Of Evil Genius. What's the date?
Britta Stromeyer:May 9. On May 9 we'll be here at Telegraph Her Books. I can't wait. I just started reading it. I'm so excited and I can't wait to chat with her about it.
Jennifer Barone:There's been a lot of buzz about Evil Genius It's been buzzy, buzzy, buzzy, that book, so you should definitely come here and make sure that you get a seat. Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for
Britta Stromeyer:having me. I really appreciate it. And thank you, Joseph, as well. Yes. Yay.