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And I know that when I worked daily journalism it really affected my patience with literature, which I think requires reflection, and a different kind of engagement.

Achy Obejas

I think one of the unintended results of the embargo is that Cuba is quite consumerist – and I’m talking about the people, not the government or the official propaganda.
ACHY OBEJAS

Cuba Embargo Government People Quite Result Taking Unintended
Each genre has its own process. I’m very intuitive about poetry. I usually write first and second drafts out by hand. The other end of the spectrum is journalism, which is much more cerebral, more thought-out and planned.
ACHY OBEJAS

Genre Intuitive Journalism Lying Poetry Process Truth Writing
Our real world has evolved. It’s become something much different, and inadvertently about healthcare, and about what it means to have good health, and to be able to have good health.
ACHY OBEJAS

Different Evolved Inadvertently Mean Real Something
Journalism is very much public writing, writing with an audience in mind, writing for publication, and frequently writing quickly.
ACHY OBEJAS

Audience Mind Publication Reflection Thinking Writing
I’m never afraid of research. I relish it!
ACHY OBEJAS

Afraid Experience never Relish Research
I’ve gotten to try on voices very different than my own, and I’ve become much more aware of structure than ever before. Also, you really weigh every word. There’s no closer reading then when you read to translate.
ACHY OBEJAS

Different More Much Own Reading Trying
I tell people to have a relationship with their work every day, even if it means you just move a comma.
ACHY OBEJAS

Everyday Mean Moving People Relationship Work
Fiction lies somewhere in between. I usually start intuitively but eventually I need to stop and consider structure, or research, or both.
ACHY OBEJAS

Depend Granted Health Take Tend
It’s a neat skill to have but it’s deadly for literature. In literature, you need to stare at that hole, not ignore it. You need to figure it out.
ACHY OBEJAS

Deadly Hole Ignore Literature Neat State
This is going to sound nuts but it took me forever to figure out why I’d stopped writing poetry – I mean, I went about a decade where I wrote very little poetry and I thought it was because I was doing a weekly blog.
ACHY OBEJAS

Forever Mean Poetry Sound Stop Stopped Took Writing
And I know that when I worked daily journalism it really affected my patience with literature, which I think requires reflection, and a different kind of engagement.
ACHY OBEJAS

Affected Journalism Kind Know Literature Patience Require Work
And then when we moved, I reconfigured my writing desk. The previous one had had very little space to write by hand. And suddenly, the poetry was gushing!
ACHY OBEJAS

Desk Hand Moved Precious Reconfigured Space Suddenly Writing
We’re a long way from the embargo ending. Look at what just happened with the rollback of Obama’s Cuba policies. Two idiot congressmen convinced our idiot president to make it harder on Cubans on the island.
ACHY OBEJAS

Embargo Ending Happened Idiot Long Look President
So much depends on our health, and we tend to take it so for granted.
ACHY OBEJAS

Depend Granted Health Take Tend
Offspring were a joy or a shame, but still the crown of their elders, nature’s unpredictable creatures.
ACHY OBEJAS

Crown Elder Joy Offspring Pride Unpredictable
I feel possessive about stories I write in Spanish and so I usually end up translating those into English myself.
ACHY OBEJAS

Country Feel Possessive Story Translate Write Writing

And I know that when I worked daily journalism it really affected my patience with literature, which I think requires reflection, and a different kind of engagement.

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And I know that when I worked daily journalism it really affected my patience with literature, which I think requires reflection, and a different kind of engagement.

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