We Didn’t Always Live in the Mojave
On Memoir: Published in New World Writing Quarterly + a note about inspiration and the creative process
I’m excited to share that my essay “We Didn’t Always Live in the Mojave” has been published in New World Writing Quarterly.
I wrote this piece after reading The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. I stumbled upon the book in a used bookstore fashioned from an old bus on a farm in the mountains and devoured it. I found the young voice, the rhythm, and the lyrical essence of the story so moving.
Inspired by the innocence and perception of the young narrator, I sat down to write a piece of my own story. I revisited a chapter from my memoir—the memory of cops raiding our home to arrest my mother when I was three. It’s the first chapter of my memoir, and I hadn’t written about it in this capacity since I wrote the original scene three years ago.
Seated outside in the white winter son while my son napped, I wrote the whole story in one sitting. I wrote it in a notebook and I couldn’t get the words out fast enough. I rarely write with pen and paper when I’m working on a story or scene writing because of this very reason, but this is how the story wanted to come out. I let it flow and stayed in my child-mind and tried to keep it short as Sandra has so skillfully done with her stunning chapters in The House on Mango Street. I embraced the art of omission, letting the unsaid elements speak through their absence while allowing the rhythm to guide my storytelling. Resisting the urge for a tidy resolution, I let the story breathe.
Initially, I viewed it as a personal exercise, a cathartic detour from the novel I was supposed to be writing. But when I transcribed it the story felt so alive that I submitted it to literary journals. It was picked up in New World Writing Quarterly in less than 24 hours. It's a testament to the transformative power of inspiration. This is what I love about reading—it continually reveals unseen facets and takes me to places I didn't realize I needed to go.
In terms of process, five things were different about the creation of this piece:
I wrote it with pen and paper instead of on a laptop, which is where I usually do all of my story/scene writing.
I wrote it in one sitting. I am not a fast writer so it often takes me days, weeks, or even months to finish a story.
I challenged myself to keep it short, which was probably the most difficult of the five things because I am naturally longwinded and want to add more resolve or over-explanation.
I’d never written from this young of a narrator, which opened up a whole new way of experiencing and writing the scene.
I wrote as soon as inspiration struck and followed the thread until the very end. I’m often unable to write when inspiration shows up because I’m usually either working or caring for my son, but this aligned perfectly with his nap, and I took advantage of it.
All of this is to say, that sometimes changing up the process of how, where, or when you write can bring about creation.
We Didn’t Always Live in the Mojave
Before the Mojave, when the uniform people came to take Mom and Dad away, we lived in a different kind of desert—still in the California no one thinks about when they think of California. Everyone called this desert SB, and it was just as dry and even hotter than the Mojave, because in this desert, there were too many cars and too many buildings, and the air felt thick like fog—only most people called it smog. Dad called it pollution and said this desert was a shit-hole. Those were his words, not mine. He said I wasn’t old enough to say shit. But I think he was right about this kind of desert.
The thing I remember most about this desert is that no matter where you went, you couldn’t see the mountains because the smog was like a heavy curtain. And on top of not being able to see the mountains, your lungs would burn. We moved around a lot in the smog-filled desert with the mountains we couldn’t see, because Dad said Mom could never stay still, and he was right, because she was always tapping her feet or bouncing her leg up and down as if she was trying not to step on lava. Mom said it was because of the bugs.
WE DIDN’T ALWAYS LIVE IN THE MOJAVE, published in New World Writing Quarterly, read the full story here.
Oh Jessy. My heart ❤️. And congratulations on this being published!
Heading to read the whole thing now! Cheering you on for getting published my love!