Just Written Volume 28: Nick Ripatrazone
Hey y’all,
Our featured guest today is writer and editor Nick Ripatrazone. I’ve been following Nick’s work for several years now, and he’s one of the most consistently thoughtful and interesting people writing on the Internet and beyond. He writes about a wide variety of topics, but especially faith, poetry, and literature. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Esquire, Rolling Stone, GQ, The Paris Review, and many other publications.
Nick is a Contributing Editor at The Millions, where he writes a poetry column, and he is the Culture Editor at Image Journal, which is, in my opinion, the best journal for faith and art around.
Nick’s latest book, Wild Belief: Poets and Prophets in the Wilderness was published last week. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but I plan to soon and encourage you to pick up a copy.
What are the tools of the trade you can’t live without?
Google Docs. I swear by them since a year ago; it enables me to pick up a narrative, add notes, or revise a sentence that’s been bugging me, without having to be at my office computer.
A lot of your writing is about poetry. How does being immersed in poetry shape how you write prose?
Poets see language as opportunity. In prose, it helps to have a through-line and center, but poets drift to the margins and embrace ambiguity. I definitely recognize that writing for (magazine) publication means writing with clarity and concision in mind, but it also helps to realize that those are dangers unto themselves. How can we be clear about this haggard world? I tend to subscribe to the view of Fr. Raymond Nogar: “You can acknowledge what harmony and order that you find in the cosmos, but you cannot believe in it...What is far more obvious to me is the disorder, the waste, the hectic disorganization of the fragments of the universe or reality.” Poets tend to be comfortable with that idea of the Absurd.
Where did the idea for Wild Belief come from, and what was the writing and publishing process like?
Wild Belief initially came from my fascination with Gustave Flaubert’s The Temptation of Saint Anthony; this brilliant French novelist’s obsession with a Desert Father, and how it unfolded into an ecstatic masterpiece. Flaubert writes about almost being overcome while writing the book; it was, in a way, his life’s work. I love how the desert wilderness overtook Flaubert, and it reminds me of the mystical feeling that I have when out in the woods, when you allow yourself to be overtaken by the wild world. I proposed the book to my editor, Emily King, at Fortress Press, and she really liked the idea. We ran it through the Broadleaf Books imprint, which is the perfect place for it. I’ve been writing essays for years that engage the wilderness as a source of creativity and conflict, so I’ve been thinking my way through the book for a while, but I earnestly wrote it in about a year. I sent chapters along the way to my editor, and she’s a PhD in Joyce + Beckett, so I’m lucky to have her eyes and support.
You have two other books in the works as well. How do you manage working on multiple large projects at once?
Yes: I’m finishing the draft of a book on Marshall McLuhan’s Catholic influences and sensibility, and after that is a book about the mid century renaissance of nuns (and sisters) as poets (both for Fortress Press). I only work on one book at a time; I want to work on both, but I have to force myself not to. I’ve been a full-time public school English teacher for the past 17 years. I write at night, and on the weekends. I love to write; I almost feel like I’m leaping toward the desk. I’ve been waiting to do it all day, so I try to take advantage when I am lucky to get the opportunity. My wife has always been incredibly supportive, which is huge. I do a lot of research before I start the actual drafting of a book, but I do more research chapter by chapter. I love research. I spent hours in front of microfilms as a kid, just scanning newspapers and documents, trying to discover strange things. I’m really thankful to be able to write; I’m not the type of person who takes anything for granted.
You’ve written for many different publications. What advice do you have for crafting pitches that editors want to say yes to?
I have a range of interests, so I tend to write about a lot of different subjects while still having a few “core” ones that I return to (Catholicism, poetry). Pitches are for editors, not publications. Yes, editors work for publications (and have to answer to them, carry their vision, etc.), but editors are people with particular tastes and trends. When you pitch, craft your pitch to the editor as best as you can. Be concise and precise, assured and yet humble. Always send clips. Say thank you constantly. And meet your deadlines: editors tend to remember people who do this (Lord knows it is not easy, but it is also a measure of gratitude to those assigning work to you, who have to meet deadlines themselves). Also, and I know this is not easy: you have to stop writing for publications (and editors) who don’t respect you.
What is something you now know about writing that you wish you had known when you were starting out?
Well, working as an editor (for Image Journal and The Millions) has taught me that many submissions are rejected for simple reasons: we already published something about this niche topic recently, or we have two essays coming out about plays soon and can’t publish a third, etc. Also: you have to learn when to say “no.” Not everything that seems to be in your best interest (to write, or to participate in) actually is; I learned from older writers that your peace of mind must be protected in order to create good work. Finally—and maybe this is something that I’ve thankfully always thought—I love to be edited. Copyeditors are saints. Unfortunately, not all writers feel this way.
What we’re reading:
Cort: The Long Night of the Soul by Jonathan Tjarks (The Ringer). I spend a lot of time thinking about death, both as a general concept and as an inevitable reality. Jonathan, a staff writer at The Ringer, was recently diagnosed with cancer and wrote a profound reflection on coming face to face with mortality.
Joseph: A friend recently introduced me to the music of Judee Sill (highly recommend), then sent me this 1972 profile of her in Rolling Stone - profile isn’t quite the right word as the piece is primarily Judee rambling on about her life, which is published word for word. It’s one of the saddest stories I’ve heard, but she tells it beautifully.