Sophie Mo Winner Spotlight
On July 1, 2022, The Aurora Journal announced its biggest endeavor yet– a summer-long poetry contest that entailed free workshops, resources, community and $375 worth of awards. After a long summer, our winners were chosen here. Intrigued by their stories. our EIC, Sophie Chiang, had a wonderful conversation with our first place winner, Sophie Mo, about her journey as a writer and person.
Now it’s time to grab a snack and start reading this inspiration-packed spotlight.
Q: What was your inspiration for energy consumption, weekday mirage, and the summer i died halfway? And going off from that, what generally inspires you?
A: Humorous as it is, my inspiration for those three pieces came from two words. I asked my friends to assign me two words for each poem, and those two words were aureate crumbs, strawberry scissors, and swimming pool respectively. For energy consumption and weekday mirage, I pulled elements out of what I found enticing in my life and curated those aspects to fit the two words given. But for the summer i died halfway, it was a little more than that. The poem title seems to portray dark connotations in the overall piece, but it actually isn't about dying. Rather, it is more about eliminating the part in your mind that constantly compels you to doubt yourself and taking the leap out of your comfort zone, away from those uncertainties. And that thought drove the direction of the writing!
In general, I'm easily inspired by anything, really! I think there's beauty in everything everywhere you look, especially if you step outside into nature and let it imprint its essence onto you. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "The creation of beauty is Art," and this art manifests itself as writing ethereal, surreal poetry.
Q: I know you're still in school! What advice do you have to other young writers?
A: I feel as if one of the major things that may discourage young writers is their dissatisfaction with their own works. They may believe that what they write isn't enough—that they themselves aren't enough—due to the high standards or lack of contentment they hold toward their own prose or poetry. They may feel disappointment at their own style when they read other authors' works, hence furthering their fall into that abyss of never truly being pleased with what they have. There's always something more that they believe they can do for their writing, always something that they can't quite seem to reach.
But let me tell you this: An individual's taste develops faster than their skill. This means that what someone desires, they cannot necessarily obtain as fast. Your standards will most likely be leagues higher than your skill since you are consuming multiple types of media that are at varying degrees of complexity above the one you possess at the moment. Young writers should keep this in mind. They should also keep in mind that what they write and what they craft is all theirs. Their works are inhabited by a part of their soul or a piece of their devotion toward what they crave to create. Their writing may not be perfect, but it is born from everything they put into it. Allow yourself to be more proud of your pieces.
That is my advice.
Q: Which workshops/resources did you use, and how did they help you?
I used both! For resources, I took a look back into the older issues on the Journal's website! Reading other writers' pieces gives me a huge surge of motivation to begin writing my own poems. I also went through a majority of the workshops to aid me; I particularly resonated with Megan Lee Gong and Shreeya Goyal's presentations. Personification and crafting metaphors are a definite struggle for me, and being able to learn how to acquire these techniques from Gong's workshop more than helped me develop those skills. Furthermore, Goyal's explanation of how experiences create emotions that other people can relate inspired me to write as I did normally without curating my works to a solid format.
Q: How did you first get into the literary scene?
A: I started reading excessively when I was in sixth grade, and that greatly fueled my interest in writing. Ever since then, I branched out to different forms of literature in an attempt to improve my own skills, winding up in miscellaneous zines and a few newspapers. I knew about the existence of literary journals, but I was more of an admirer than a participant, so I didn't have the courage to submit my poems until a friend encouraged me to do so. So, this is actually my first time submitting and getting accepted into a literary journal!
Q: What is your typical writing process like, if you have one?
A: I wouldn't say I have a solid process, per se. I think many writers can relate to this, but my definition of a process is to sit down in front of a word doc and hope greatly for the writing deities to possess me. On some days, the writing grind definitely feels like that, but on other days, I let my thoughts run wild on the google document with no consideration to word count and allow myself to write self-indulgently. Sometimes, I have an outline consisting of around fifty words; sometimes, I don't even have a plan. Yep!
Q: Why do you write?
A: While I write to both express myself and alleviate my stress, it is also an attempt to convey what I revere. I find myself trying to capture the things I admire and portray all the lovely parts of it through words, hoping that maybe someone else out there can connect to those same emotions.
Q: What are your goals in the future?
A: This is... a tough question. I don't have much planned for the future, but I do want to try writing 50k in a month! I've been wanting to do that for the past couple years, but hadn't the opportunity because of the workload at school. So, maybe one day! One day, I'll be able to do it.