Essayist Jodie Noel Vinson on the intersection of chronic illness and creativity
How can you you write when you don't have the energy to wash a dish?
Jodie Noel Vinson is an essayist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Review, Literary Hub, and Ploughshares. Her essays have received honorable mention in the annual Best American Essay anthologies, and she's won multiple awards and residencies, including the Susan Adefat Prize for Creative Nonfiction from Arts and Letters and the Maureen Egan Writers Exchange Award from Poets and Writers. Jodi lives in Providence, where she's also the program director at Lit Arts RI, a co-working space and so much more for the Rhode Island creative community.
The things we cover include:
Jodi’s experience with being one of the first folks to experience long Covid, and how that shaped her work–both what she writes about and how she does that writing
The importance of not always succumbing to your drive to get things done
Protecting your most focused work time
“I was always quite healthy, and I was raised in a very go getter, productive, Midwest childhood. So when I fell ill, I really had to reset my values and realize that my identity and my value do not rest on checking boxes off a to-do list.”
The daily habits that Jodi uses to feel good
The writing software she’s recently adopted as a tool
How having a kitten helps with the creative process (even though it also can take time away from work)
Playing basketball to “give the language side of my brain a break”
How no one wants to claim the term “writer”, and what Jodi has to say about that.
How turning 30 was a bigger deal for Jodi than turning 40 (which she recently did)
How Jodi reads Proust over and and over, and it’s not snobby
A heartfelt rant on how we talk and think about health as a society
Gleaning insights from difficult experiences, and keeping the insights long after the experience is through
Jodi also admits the musical megastar who rose to fame in the 80s that she didn’t really experience until 2020–and how his music is a touchstone for her today
Lightbulb moments:
Your critic could tell you that writing about your challenges is self-involved but Jodi’s experience has shown that it’s a win-win-win—it helps you process your experience, makes those experiencing something similar feel validated, and raises overall awareness.
Jodi’s been researching inspiring historical figures who were also, come to find out, chronically ill—such as Florence Nightengale and Charles Darwin.
Specific things we discuss:
The Quickening by Elizabeth Rush
“Even though writing is hard, and it takes a lot of time, and it can be very isolating, I’m surprised that even if you don't feel in the moment that a lot is happening, over time, you really do make progress and grow.”
Connect with Jodie:
LitArtsRI (where Jodi works, a collaborative workspace for writers and creatives in Providence)
Listen to Jodie’s episodes:
Part 1: Saving time to stare at the sky + writing about the “shadow side of life”
Listen to parts 2 and 3 of my interview with Jodie here
Listen to previous episodes:
Terri Trespicio, part 2: Getting better at “trembling in the face of resistance”
Leigh Medeiros, part 1: The power of merging your siloes + awesome attention hacks
Leigh Medeiros, part 2: A hilarious—and relateable—story about second-guessing your work
Tracey Lewis-Giggets, part 1: The writing rules she once taught and now ignores
Tracey Lewis-Giggets, part 2: Dealing with inner meanines + acknowledging the gifts of rejection
Tracey Lewis-Giggets, part 3: The bittersweet healing of parenting + learning from Toni Morrison