Katherine Vaz is a true inspiration. She’s been surrounded by death and war from a very young age and instead of turning away from her pain, she has utilized her experiences to write some magnificent pieces. Vaz’s works brim with dark emotion, intriguing plots and most importantly, authenticity. She is the embodiment of the idea that through tragedy, one can create art. In fact, Vaz believes that most of her stories show the different ways in which people find happiness despite the pain they may endure.
In her writing, Katherine Vaz does not merely report on her experiences but uses them as a base or as I thought of it, “a springboard” for fiction that goes beyond her reality. This is a skill I would like to improve on myself, as I often find it challenging to detach myself from the truth when drawing upon my own experiences to write fiction. Vaz explains that it is not about what she shares about herself, or what happened to her specifically, but more about the idea that she wants to share with the world, the emotion that has built up inside of her that she wants to release for others to connect with. In her story “Taking a Stitch in a Dead Man’s Arm,” it is clear that Vaz drew from some of her own experiences with death, fear and religion when creating the Isabel character, and yet I didn’t dwell on this fact while reading it. What caught my attention more was the idea, the process of overcoming fear, which is essentially what Vaz wants the reader to focus on.
Hearing Vaz speak about how she came to be a writer also inspired me very much. I feel a writing persona within me as well. It is part of me in the same way 12-year-old Vaz realized it was a part of her. Once she had this realization, Vaz began practicing. She gave herself prompts, played around with ideas, and even took other people’s writing and began to deconstruct it in an effort to further her understanding of the structure and how she could improve her own. Considering the persistence and determination Vaz exhibited in honing her craft, it is no surprise that she is an acclaimed writer. I, myself, have only recently begun to truly exercise my writing muscles. I have always had a facility with language and writing which has caused me to rest upon that skill and regard it as my comfort zone. After hearing how Vaz pushed herself to improve her writing however, I feel motivated to do the same.