What, Why, How: Kim Peters Fairley

What: 

My second book, Shooting Out the Lights is my first memoir which will be out on July 27 through She Writes Press.

I began as a visual artist. As a child I enjoyed drawing and photography and was encouraged to continue in art by teachers when I won various art awards in elementary school and high school. Most of my art focused on my family. For instance, I won first prize and free lessons at the Cincinnati Art Museum when I created a poster that said “Drugs and alcohol will only hurt you and get you in trouble.” I drew several bottles of my father’s liquor and when I won, I remember he was furious. “Why would you pick alcohol?” he grumbled. “You could’ve picked any subject to create this damn poster and you picked alcohol.” I didn’t expect a reaction like that and I still smile as I think about how it hit a nerve. But it reminds me that I’ve always considered my family as a wellspring of material for my art and writing.

I stay motivated when I think of how much I wish I could speak to my ancestors today. I wish I could ask them questions about their lives and their struggles. When I write, I imagine people in the future reading my stories and wondering about us. I’m always cognizant of the ability I have to change the narrative. We have stories in our heads that sometimes don’t serve us. I start by writing a story and then I think long and hard about whether that story is totally honest. Often, I discover what I’ve written has changed over time. When I zero in on that narrow space between the story then and the story now, that to me is the delicious part of writing. It’s that area of growth that connects all of us.

Why: 

I write not only to connect with the past, but also, I’ve discovered that writers are a wonderful group of people, and very supportive. Meeting with other writers regularly to give and receive feedback is one of the things that keeps me going. Sharing personal stories is an intimate act. Without my writing groups, I feel sure I would never have the courage to present my work to the public. Writing groups can help a writer focus on what their work is really about. They also can help a writer develop a thicker skin which is important when you eventually get your work published.

How: 

I write the same way I make art. I begin with some ideas like scraps of paper that I want in the collage. I build up those areas of the story, attempting to create vivid scenes. I cover up some that don’t advance the story. At some point, I stand back and take a look. I let the story tell me what it’s about. Sometimes that’s the hardest part for me. We all have stories. This happened, and then this happened, and then this happened. But once a compelling story is drawn, the hardest part can be figuring why the story is so important to tell. I spend a lot of time thinking about the why of a story. Sometimes it involves tears, but I’ve been told that if the writer doesn’t feel the emotion, the reader won’t either. So that keeps me motivated to dig deeply into my stories.

Shooting Out the Lights, published by  She Writes Press, will be available July 27.

Kim tells her story of falling in love with and marrying fifty-seven-year-old Vern when she was twenty-four. Something about Vern―his quirkiness, his humor, his devilish smile―made her feel an immediate connection with him. She quickly became pregnant, but instead of the idyllic interlude she’d imagined as she settled into married life and planned for their family, their love was soon tested by the ghosts of Vern’s past―a town, a house, a family, a memory.

In Shooting Out the Lights, Fairley explores the challenges faced in a loving marriage, the ongoing, wrenching aftermath of gun violence, and the healing that comes with confronting the past.

Bio: 

Kim is passionate about writing and reading memoirs. She has written about her age gap marriage, her wacky family, and competitive swimming in the early years of Title IX. She is the author of Boreal Ties: Photographs and Two Diaries of the 1901 Peary Relief Expedition about her great grandfather’s trip to the Arctic and is about to complete her second memoir titled Swimming for My Life, which will be out October 11, 2022. Kim grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, attended the University of Southern California, and holds an MFA in Mixed Media from the University of Michigan. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Links:

Website
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter

Preorder Shooting Out the Lights:

Nicolasbooks
Literatibookstore
Bookshop.org
Amazon