In the Spotlight: Megan Falley on Fostering Community in Workshops, New Prose Journey, and Working On a Memoir
Author, spoken word poet, educator. That’s just three of the titles Megan Falley has taken on over the years. It’s been nearly a decade since her first full-length poetry collection After the Witch Hunt (Write Bloody Publishing, 2012) was released and now Falley is undertaking a whole new kind of literary calling: memoirist.
This new prose writing journey, in addition to the (virtual) spaces she’s created for writers to learn and grow together, has been Falley’s creative focus over the last few years. She recently won the Tom Howard / John H. Reid Essay Contest and was a runner-up for Phoebe Journal’s 50th Anniversary Contest for an excerpt of her memoir (another excerpt of which just appeared in Midway Journal).
I spoke with Falley via Google Docs about her writing workshop Poems That Don’t Suck, her poetry collections and prose writing routines, and even current projects she’s working on—including her memoir.
You’ve been working on a memoir for a couple years now—what has your process been like writing it? Anything that surprised you about it?
When I was eleven, I went to a weight loss summer camp and ended up attending for five consecutive years. I turned twelve at ‘fat camp’, and sixteen, and every year I spent my birthday making a wish on a candle shoved into the center of an apple. Every year I wished to be skinny or to be loved. Every year I thought those were the same wish.
The story of “fat camp” is sprawling, cinematic, nuanced and elastic, and while I’ve tangoed with it in poetry before, I always thought it needed to live somewhere larger. Maybe a television series.
After I read Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X, I was inspired to write a YA novel in verse about those years. Shortly into the process, I realized that I needed the full wisdom of my adult-voice to tell the story the way I craved to tell it. And so I started writing a memoir of my body.
What surprised me most is that I have never been more thrilled to be a writer than I have been in these last years, to kick free of the confines of the stanza and run wild in the meadows of prose. I thought I was having a fling with this new artform, but I’m putting a ring on it.
Recently, an excerpt from the memoir was selected as the runner-up for Phoebe Journal’s 50th Anniversary Contest. What was the experience like writing “Memories of Ace, in Reverse Chronological Order” and what does the memoir focus on overall?
I wrote “Memories of Ace, in Reverse Chronological Order” after learning that a great way to begin a chapter is to drop your reader into the middle of an intense scene. Getting a restraining order against an ex-boyfriend when I was twenty-two seemed ripe for the task. While I’d written about that particular relationship before at length, I had two new goals and frameworks as a writer:
1. I want to paint each person I write about with as much complexity as possible. To portray each ‘character’ of my life prismatically. To make the characters of my life true to the multifaceted experiences that they of course are, rather than paint one-dimensional scarecrow villains or heroes. People are heartbreaking because they’ve had our hearts first, and holding that in my head as I wrote, I believe, was crucial to the pulse of this piece.
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2. Every piece of my life has intersected with the unhealed wound of my body image and eating disorders. My memoir uses my body and my relationship to it to understand how much of my world has been informed by my physical form and my thoughts about it.
I’d never considered this particular ex through my body trauma before, so when the last line arrived to me, so much made sense about my psyche, about my choosing him over a kinder lover. That’s one of my favorite reasons to write. To arrive at a truth about ourselves that I wouldn’t have anywhere but on the page [or in therapy...but writing is free.]
You’ve written three full-length poetry collections over the years. What was your favorite part about writing each collection? Were there ever moments when you felt like things weren’t coming together the way you wanted them to?
Each of my full-length collections were actually open-book contest winners. There is something about the competitive nature, deadlines, and probably a sprinkling of a twisted desire to prove myself that fueled some of the best writing in those books. Most likely because of ADD/ADHD, I do well with something detonating, and I would say my favorite part of writing those books was the sheer focus I put into them once I knew I was a finalist and had to entirely devote myself to the process of finishing them. I am NOT a balanced human [I wish I was, and I’m working on it] so I become almost monk-like with my writing when I have a deadline or a task, and besides loving, there’s not much I prefer being so devoted to.
While I can read my older work and look back and know that there are things I would certainly change now, either from growing as a writer or from growing as a person, I was pretty happy with each of them upon their completion and I can still take pride in them now. However, had my first [rejected] manuscript made its way into the world, I would be humiliated by it today. So know that there’s no need to rush. Take your time writing until your work matches your tastes [or as close as possible] before publishing. I could never put out something I wasn’t proud of in the moment.
Do you ever see yourself releasing another poetry collection and if so, what do you think its central theme would be?
I’ve written poetry collections in two ways: one while driving away at it with the intent to complete a book, and the other way has been to wake up one morning and realize, “oh, I’ve written enough poems in the last X amount of years that I actually should print them all out and see if a book takes shape.” I imagine that my future poetry collections will be more of the latter variety, as my ambitions now are in longer work and fields that will challenge me more [because they are less familiar]. That said, I have no idea what the theme will be, besides the little scribblings that help me understand whatever is going on in my life in the years to come.
I often write by “mining the past” rather than writing what is coming up for me RIGHT NOW, but I do think poetry lends itself well to the present moment, so this question serves as a reminder to me to process things via writing in real time. So, thank you.
What is your writing routine like? Have you found anything specific that works best for you? How does it differ between poetry and nonfiction writing?
Early on into the pandemic, I was diagnosed with ADD/ADHD and learned pretty quickly that routine is my god. My best writing days look like this: wake up EARLY [which is wild, because I love sleeping more than anyone I know, but I am trying to love writing more], do some kind of exercise to get the blood pumping into my slow-to-wake-up brain, put on cozy clothes [I like to forget I have a body when I write], make a cup of coffee, read for thirty-two minutes [yep, 32], make another cup of coffee and a quick something to eat, put my distractions in a drawer [no phones in the sanctuary] and start writing. I try to write as fast as possible without fretting over each word, come to what feels like a surprising yet natural end/stopping point, and then re-read my work at least ten times while making small changes and edits as I go to improve it. Then I read it out loud and edit again. The key is speed here. I swear by this routine, though when I was writing poetry, I was writing it at night. Maybe prose is my dawn chorus, and poetry is crepuscular.
How has mentoring poets in one-on-one sessions and writing courses like Poems That Don’t Suck impacted your own writing journey?
A student of mine, writer Charles Edward Payne, said that Poems That Don’t Suck made him a better listener. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it really is the axis of the course. When I work with students, I am basically interviewing them. I ask a lot of questions and I try to dig to the purest nugget of what the writer is really trying to say, with each line and image and also overall. Prying for the deeper truth in others helps me get there in myself, faster. I often ask students, “where are you in this poem?” or “what are you hiding behind?” Holding the standard for authenticity, vulnerability, and honesty in others pushes me to do the same in my own dalliances with the page.
What is your favorite part about doing these workshops/courses, whether online or in person? Since they so often focus on the importance of editing and revision, what would you say is your best piece of editing advice?
Over almost anything else, Poems That Don’t Suck has been about creating a space for writers. I want it to feel like the last days of summer camp or a retreat where you’re surrounded by folks you met a month ago and they feel more like your family than anyone you’ve known.
While I have a lot of tips and tricks and guidelines and ‘rules’ for writing that I like to teach, the main pillars of my group classes are connection and kindness-based community.
Writing is heralded as such a solitary act but truly there is so much collaboration involved –– whether it’s from your editors, your mom’s voice in your head, or just responding to the applauses and silences by adjusting your next project to what works and what doesn’t. I try to build a home where people can genuinely root for and support each other, rather than compete or create hierarchies.
“Poems That Don’t Suck” feels like a big room, or a campfire, where writers share wins and disappointments, struggles and tips. Where bravery begets bravery. When I feel disconnected from myself and from others, I am less inclined to create, and so fostering these connections feels like a way I can plant a seed and watch and wait and something miraculous grows even when I’m not there to tend to it.
My best piece of editing advice...OOF. I’d say it’s to write as fast as possible to try to outrun that inner-critic. I also love to print out my own work, pretend it’s someone else’s, and mark it up with lots of fun-colored pens. I like to leave equally disparaging and complimentary notes for myself. You will see my own papers say things like, “this is weak and derivative and I know you can do better” alongside marginalia like “Meg, you beautiful genius. MORE OF THIS. NEVER STOP.”
You’ve also done many spoken word events and tours over the years—any plans to resume as things start opening back up? Do you have a favorite memory from your times on the road?
I am more comfortable and have more fun on stage and on the road than I do in most places, so as soon as it feels safe to and I have a new project to tour, you can absolutely expect to see me in other cities.
There are so many fun road stories. My first tour was 100 days across the country by myself in my beat-up Altima. I was twenty-three and drove 13,000 miles and did about 40 shows, and when I reached the California coast [from New York] I decided to quit my day-job and try to do this writing thing full-time. Some of my best road memories have been touring with Olivia Gatwood as part of SPEAK LIKE A GIRL, seeing my name on a marquee for a show I did with Sharon Olds, and getting to travel with the love of my life and our dogs. There is nothing like a live Andrea Gibson show, or the hours-long signing-line after.
Do you have any other projects on the horizon? Anything else you’d like to add that I didn’t ask?
I’ll be chipping away on this memoir until it’s ‘done’. I have an idea for a VERY COOL novel which will require me to rewatch every episode of The Oprah Winfrey show ever aired first, so that might take a while. I have an idea for an investigative journalism novel [inspired by Lisa Taddeo’s incredible, Three Women] too. Now that I say all that, I realize I better get going! See you later! Stay tender.
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Megan Falley (she/her) is the queer femme author of three full-length collections of poetry on Write Bloody Publishing, most recently, Drive Here and Devastate Me (2018). Her chapbook, Bad Girls Honey (Poems About Lana Del Rey), was the winner of the 2015 Tired Hearts Competition. Her first non-fiction book, How Poetry Can Change Your Heart (Chronicle Books 2019) is co-authored with poet Andrea Gibson. A Woman of the World and National Poetry Slam Finalist as well as a Pushcart Prize Nominee, Falley's work is vibrant in both books and theaters. She has been featured twice on TV One's Verses and Flow, and is the creator of the popular online writing course "Poems That Don’t Suck." Her YouTube videos have garnered over one million views and she has toured over one-hundred colleges nationwide. Her work focuses on LGBTQ issues, sex and the body, combating sexism and homophobia, and love. She lives in Colorado with her partner and their three rescue dogs.
About the Interviewer
Erica Abbott (she/her) is a Philadelphia-based poet and writer whose work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Serotonin, FERAL, Gnashing Teeth, Selcouth Station, Anti-Heroin Chic, and other journals. She is the author of Self-Portrait as a Sinking Ship (Toho, 2020), her debut poetry chapbook. She volunteers for Button Poetry and Mad Poets Society. Follow her on Instagram @poetry_erica and on Twitter @erica_abbott and visit her website here.
