Patrice Gopo is the author of the essay collection All the Colors We Will See. Her essays have appeared in a variety of publications. This is her first time attending at HippoCamp, where she will speak about how to organize our personal essays into a book in a session called “Greater Than the Sum of the Parts: Transforming Personal Essays into a Book.” We talked to Patrice about what she is excited to experience at this year’s creative nonfiction writing conference.
HM: Tell us a little about your involvement this year at HippoCamp. What can attendees expect from your break-out session or workshop?
PG: I’m running a break-out session about organizing an essay collection. I’m passionate about the power and importance of personal essays, and I want to help other people find ways to take their essays and form a collection. Along the journey of organizing my own book, I created a variety of methods to help me unearth the underlying through line of my entire collection. I love taking what I’ve learned through my experience of organizing a collection and helping demystify this process for others.
HM: Our motto is “memorable creative nonfiction.” Tell us about one of the more recent memoirs, essay collections, or individual essays you’ve read and why it was memorable.
PG: Oh, so many!! I loved Mira Jacob’s graphic memoir Good Talk. I found it a huge encouragement to think how that project was so different from her novel. Grace Talusan’s The Body Papers is beautiful and also gave me wonderful things to consider with regards to structuring a memoir. And LaTanya McQueen’s essay collection And It Begins Like This is stunning and does some important exploration about the nature of racial injustice and how this impacts racial identity.
HM: What made you decide to participate in HippoCamp this year as a speaker?
PG: I’ve long admired HippoCamp from a distance, but I’ve never had the opportunity to attend. I’m eager to learn from the amazing break-out sessions and panels, and I also felt that I had something to give in terms of sharing my workshop. This just seems to be such a great environment for mutual encouragement, learning, sharing, and connecting with the creative nonfiction community.
HM: What’s going to keep you busy between now and HippoCamp?
PG: I’ve had an intense, wonderful, busy last ten months since the release of my essay collection. My intention this summer has been to rest and spend more time with my family. I’m thrilled to report that this has been happening and NOTHING has been keeping me busy except for those things.
HM: Since you’ll also be attending the conference, when you’re not wearing your “speaker hat,” what are you most looking forward to learning or doing?
PG: I’m so excited about the “Drawing for Writers” pre-conference workshop with Rebecca Fish Ewan!! I remember being in 4th grade and attending a day-long elementary school writing conference. I took a session about drawing comics, and I still have this memory of feeling excited about the project that came from that session (who knows where the actual project is). Fast forward to the present, and I’ve really enjoyed some graphic memoirs and novels. I’m eager to learn more about incorporating drawing into my writing practice.
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Thank you, Patrice! We’re excited to see you soon in Lancaster.
And reader, it’s not too late to register for HippoCamp 2019. Click here to register or to learn more.
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