Home means something different to everyone. With a word with such depth, how does one actually write about “home?” Previous Hippocampus Magazine contributor Sue Repko, along with Parker Blaney, will address this in a breakout sessions called “Writing Home.”
HM: Tell us a little about your involvement in HippoCamp this year. What are you most excited to share during this session?
SR: When we talk about our own writing or the stories we’re reading, we often zero in on the sense of a place – oftentimes it’s the writer’s home – and how well that’s being conveyed. What is the feeling we get about that home, whether it’s a building, city, town or landscape? When we drill down to the sentence-level, we see that the writer has chosen very specific words, sentence structures, or diction to create that feeling. We’re excited to share what we’ve noticed and tried to do too!
Why do you love true stories?
I love hearing about people’s lives and the situations that produce moments of personal discovery that resonate with all of us. I love being let in on someone else’s thoughts and traveling with them for awhile as they figure something out on the page.
What made you decide to participate in HippoCamp this year as a speaker?
I have admired Hippocampus for years and have had HippoCamp on my radar. Last year the dates didn’t work out, but this year they did, and I’m excited to be a first-time attendee as well as a speaker!
Attendees can learn more about you on our speaker’s page, of course, but there’s more to you than that bio! Share a fun fact with us, something we may be surprised to know.
I helped build my hometown’s first community garden – in Pottstown, PA – back in 2012, and now I am an avid gardener.
Aside from preparing for HippoCamp 2018 (of course!), what are you working on? Any recent or upcoming projects/publications you can share?
I’ve been working on a memoir for about 10 years about an unintentional shooting from my childhood. I’ve struggled with structure, but have finally realized that it’s going to be a collection of linked essays, several of which have been published.
The two most recent ones are “What A Bullet Can Do” at Hazlitt (https://hazlitt.net/longreads/what-bullet-can-do) and “Standoff” at Aquifer/The Florida Review Online (https://floridareview.cah.ucf.edu/article/standoff/).
I’m deeply grateful to Donna Talarico and Hippocampus for publishing “Gun-Sitting,” the first-ever part of this collection, in 2016.
Since you’ll also be attending the conference, what are you most looking forward to learning or doing when you’re not wearing your “speaker hat?”
I love learning, talking about writing and literature, and networking, so I’ll be sitting in the audience, taking in what others are sharing, and enjoying being part of a pop-up literary community for a few days.
We love introducing Lancaster to attendees. What are you looking forward to about your visit or, since you’ve been here before, what would you recommend?
I was last in Lancaster a couple years ago, and I just recommend checking out some of the fabulous restaurants!
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Sue, we LOVE meeting our contributors in person, so for that, we’re thrilled you’ll be at HippoCamp. Also, we love that since you grew up about an hour from here that it’s also a “home”coming of sorts for you!
And, reader, register to reserve your place today.
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