In 2018, I started recording interviews with creatives (writers, filmmakers, podcasters, photographers, editors) in the adventure world. I鈥檓 publishing the highlights of those interviews monthly in 2019.
When she鈥檚 filling out a form with only one line for occupation,听Anna Brones puts writer.听But if you want the long version of her r茅sum茅, you鈥檇 need to include things like film producer, artist, publisher,听补苍诲 even culinary creator听(which is probably accurate听but may not actually听be a job title). She鈥檚 based in Washington State, is a cyclist, runner, and backpacker, and speaks three languages.
Brones has written six books, including , , and .听She curated, edited, and published , a quarterly food journal, for three years starting in 2016. And she听worked as a producer on several films that screened at听festivals around the world: , Ian McCluskey鈥檚 journey to retrace the 1,000-mile first kayak descent of the Green and Colorado Rivers in 1938;听,听the story of 90-year-old veteran and angler Frank Moore鈥檚 return to Normandy to fish the terrain he saw as a soldier in World War II;听补苍诲 most recently, ,听a documentary feature about young women in Afghanistan who use bikes as revolutionary tools.
In 2018, Brones began her , a collection of 100 different paper-cut portraits of inspiring women, created by hand using quotes from figures both contemporary and historical. Already in 2019, she鈥檚听started听a monthly newsletter, , to provide a kick in the backside听to subscribers.听 听
I first met Brones in 2011听补苍诲 have always been impressed with her creative output鈥攖he quality, quantity, and authenticity. A few years ago听she told me, 鈥淚 feel like most of what I do is hustle.鈥 So I wanted to record one of our conversations and ask a little bit about how she makes it all work.
On Being a Writer:听鈥淲hen someone says, 鈥業 want to be a writer,鈥櫶齮here are so many ways that you can be a writer. Do you want to write poetry? It鈥檚 a little bit different than writing cookbooks, right? Those are two different ball games. And there are听so many types of writing. I do nonfiction stuff, and some of it鈥檚 a little bit journalistic, some of it鈥檚 a little bit lifestyle, so I have a pretty specific thing that I do.鈥
鈥淣o matter what you鈥檙e doing, you just have to do it. There鈥檚 no easy way into anything, and people take very different paths. Talk to anyone in any industry. I love hearing what people do for a living, mostly because it鈥檚听a reminder that there are听so many weird jobs out there that you didn鈥檛 even know existed. And if you want to write, the best thing that you can do is write.鈥
On the Power of DIY Books:听鈥淚 do a lot of self-published stuff, and I鈥檓 a big fan of the zine revival鈥攕mall, super low-budget publications that were big in the eighties听punk scene. It鈥檚 a platform where you can write something, print it on a piece of paper, and then photocopy it听补苍诲 pass it out to your friends. It鈥檚 why I like writing books. It鈥檚 why I like making work that鈥檚 tangible, because there鈥檚 a value and an emotion that comes with it that is really amazing.鈥
On Self-Publishing, Editing, and Entitlement:听鈥淚f you want to be a writer, you start by doing it. Now, that鈥檚 not to say you鈥檙e going be an overnight success. There鈥檚 a lot of hard work that goes into it, and it requires input from other people to help you get it to shine. So it鈥檚 not as if you just get to vomit your work all over the place and it鈥檚 automatically going be successful. The platforms that are available nowadays make it easier, but that also means the market has more people in it. It can be oversaturated sometimes. But there鈥檚 really no trick besides doing the work.鈥
On the Myth of Books and Money:听鈥淚 think nonwriters, or people who haven鈥檛 published before, are like,听鈥極h, you got a book contract?鈥櫶共曰 immediately they see dollar signs. But I don鈥檛 want anybody to be under the illusion that having a book contract necessarily means that you鈥檙e rolling in tons of money.鈥
On Choosing Interview Subjects:听鈥淓very story is important. Everybody has something to tell. That doesn鈥檛 mean you need to have lived through the most horrendous accident鈥擨 like听projects that focus on听shared human experience. The second you talk to people, you鈥檙e reminded of your similarities, not your differences.鈥
鈥淚鈥檝e thought a lot about the wisdom we have to offer one another. Often we turn to famous people for wisdom, or famous writers. But I think there鈥檚 so much wisdom to be drawn from our counterparts if we just sit down and have a conversation. So now I鈥檓 shifting to doing short interviews with friends and acquaintances in various industries to get their perspectives on things.鈥
On Calling Yourself an Artist:听鈥淚t鈥檚 interesting, what we allow ourselves to call ourselves, the license that we give ourselves to say,听鈥業鈥檓 a writer鈥櫶齩r 鈥業鈥檓 an artist.鈥櫶齇r听鈥業鈥檓 a producer,鈥櫶業鈥檓 a filmmaker.鈥櫶齏hat is the point we have to get to where we听feel comfortable doing that? So many people say,听鈥業 would never call myself an artist.鈥櫶齀 ask them why. 鈥榃ell, I鈥檝e never sold anything.鈥櫶齏ell, does money justify you calling yourself a thing? Do you do the thing?鈥
鈥淭here鈥檚 a great Virginia Woolf quote鈥斺楳oney dignifies what is frivolous if unpaid for.鈥櫶齀t鈥檚 so interesting, in our culture, that if you sell something, people will be like, 鈥榊eah, good job.鈥櫶齀 think the important part about creative work is the fact that you did the work.鈥
On Having a Creative Childhood:听鈥淚 grew up in a fairly 鈥榓lternative鈥櫶齢ome. We weren鈥檛 living in a commune or off the grid or anything like that, but my parents built our house. It鈥檚 still not 100 percent finished, because that鈥檚 what happens when you build your own house. I played听in the forest and ran around barefoot most of the time. I听didn鈥檛 have any siblings, and we ate a lot of healthy food. I definitely wasn鈥檛 able to trade my sandwiches at school during lunch. I wasn鈥檛 allowed to watch Sesame Street,听because my mom thought the characters yelled too much. So I only watched Mr. Rogers听补苍诲 Captain Kangaroo. I was only allowed to watch public television.鈥
鈥淢y mom is an artist, and she鈥檚 a weaver and does a lot of other stuff. So our household was pretty modest鈥攚e were a single-income family. But the one thing I did have was all kinds of art supplies. Until I was 13 or 14, I thought it was normal to have those things at home. Then I would go to a friend鈥檚 house听补苍诲 be like, 鈥榃hy do you have only five crayons?鈥 I was always doing creative activities鈥攊t was a normal experience for me. And I guess I always wrote.鈥
On Getting Started in the Business:听鈥淎fter college, I taught English in the Caribbean, in Guadeloupe, and that was when I started writing. It was a hard experience, and I wrote to sort of work through some of my emotions, feeling like I was in a different culture. That was at the beginning of the internet becoming a hot spot for travel writing, and I started submitting articles. I did some stuff for Matador Network; I found them on Craigslist or something. I actually think the first couple of pieces weren鈥檛 paid, but then there were a few that were like $10 or $15. About a year after that, I started writing for a travel blog called Gadling. I wrote for them for a long time. It was like ten bucks a post or something.鈥
鈥淚 also did an essay that was published in a book called听A Women鈥檚 World Again.听It was a compilation of travel essays. This was in 2008 or 2007. I wrote an article called 鈥楶ineapple Tuesday,鈥櫶共曰 it was all about living in a small town in Guadeloupe. Guadeloupe is a French overseas department, so it鈥檚 like France except that it鈥檚 in the Caribbean. It was hard, because the living situation was bad, the work situation was bad, and the friend situation was bad. I often feel those are the three things that, if one of them is bad but the other two are pretty decent, you鈥檙e good to go. But if the three of them suck, then it鈥檚 a hard time.鈥澨
鈥淪o every Tuesday听after I taught, there was a market I would go to. There was this lady who sold pineapples. She came from a totally different background than I did. She was born and raised on the听island and was a farmer. It just became this social exchange听where every Tuesday I鈥檇 go and buy pineapples from her. So I wrote an essay about it. It was a way to feel grounded in the midst of what didn鈥檛 feel like a great experience. That was the听first essay I had published in a book.鈥
On the Line Between Career and Life:听鈥淚 read this Cheryl Strayed quote the other day, as I was preparing to interview her, and it was something along the lines of听鈥楧on鈥檛 spend so much time focusing on your career. You don鈥檛 have a career. You have a life.鈥櫶鼳nd I thought that was such a good point. Culturally, we put a lot of value on career, and I think it鈥檚 a little bit different for people who do creative things. Obviously, there鈥檚 a lot of crossover between personal interests and professional interests, but those lines become kind of blurry sometimes. Often听the things you do for fun turn into work.鈥澨
On the Ups and Downs of Creative Work:听鈥淚 sometimes feel like I鈥檝e been very bad about creating a sustainable path for myself. I look at my bank account and think, Well, this is all well and good, as long as you鈥檙e healthy and able to keep doing stuff.听And that can often feel like a failure. One day you鈥檙e like, Fuck yeah, I got this. I鈥檓 so stoked on what I鈥檓 doing.听And then the next day, you鈥檙e practically curled up in the fetal position on the couch, just bawling. Like, just talking about how terrible you are and鈥 you know, that鈥檚 a reality.鈥
鈥淚 struggle a lot with imposter syndrome. And I鈥檝e been trying hard not to. Or to acknowledge it and then kick it in the pants and tell it I don鈥檛 have time for that today. Because it ends up holding us back sometimes.鈥澨
On Growth Through Creativity:听鈥淪omething important to keep in mind is that the dollar amount you make off of something is not the be-all and end-all. Of course we need to pay rent and eat, and if you鈥檙e working in a creative field, and that鈥檚 how you pay rent and eat, you do need to think about making money. However, if there鈥檚 work that you feel needs to be in the world, you just do that work.鈥
鈥淎nd it鈥檚 important, particularly with personal work, to try to separate ourselves from the end result. Often we give so much value to the end product, and usually it鈥檚 the process that is the important part. You鈥檙e doing the work because the work itself makes you feel a certain way, and you get energized by it, even when it鈥檚 hard. There鈥檚 so much in that process that鈥檚 important, and we often forget that because we鈥檙e so focused on the end result.鈥
On the Value of Work:听鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of pressure to have all this value in the work that you do. Often听I鈥檓 like, 鈥業 want to do something that鈥檚 meaningful and impactful.鈥櫶鼴ut what does that even mean? What are the areas you can have an impact on in your everyday life? Impact happens in very small ways听usually.鈥
鈥淎 few times in the past year, people I don鈥檛 know have reached out to me and said, 鈥業 love your work,鈥櫶齩r听鈥榊ou听brought so much lightness to me this week,鈥櫶齩r听鈥榊eah, I had totally not thought about that thing that you talked about. Thank you for bringing it up.鈥櫶齀 mean, I realize听that doesn鈥檛 pay my rent, but they鈥檙e the kind of comments that make me continue to do what I do. And I鈥檓 under no illusion that I鈥檓 going to change the world. But I think having a positive impact on the people around me is really important.鈥澨