Questionnaire

Your Name: Olivia Mertz

What you like to be called: Olivia

Your email: omertz@mills.edu
Your birthday: 1/18/1992
Your genre(s): poetry

Your thesis idea:

I am hoping to write a poetry manuscript about my relationship with my father and sister. The work will  have a focus on mental illness as well as my father's fantasies around race/ethnicity/gender in relation to his pursuit of a Chinese wife. I am particularly interested in exploring the fetishization of Asian women--the following article poses some of the questions and ideas that I am interested in researching to accompany my project.

 http://jezebel.com/5901327/why-asian-women-date-white-men

Why you are a writer: I am enthralled by language--putting together words to create new meanings. I am fascinated by the sounds of words and how they can fit together to evoke emotion. I am also interested in the limitations of language--how language can not quite capture our experience, how there are so many moments and emotions that there just aren't words to describe. Every poem is challenge in this way and I can't get enough!

First thing you ever wrote:
I began keeping a journal when I was in the first grade, so some of the first things I wrote for myself are  generally documentation about my family's abundant cat situation and my bratty little sister.

What your writing practices are? How often? How long? Where? With? Etc.

My writing practice(s) aren't as regular as I would like them to be... I have consistently journaled though for many years--aiming to write at least once a week--sometimes more. When I am in a workshop class I try to write almost everyday... but I have yet to establish a truly consistent practice. Throughout my day I will write down little things that inspire or strike me, and I tend to expand on these ideas later.