Author Q & A with Christi Krug

This week’s Author Q&A is with Christi Krug. Christi has been a community educator in Vancouver, Washington since 1997 and she is also and a creativity and mindfulness coach. Her piece appearing in this issue of The Good Life Review is a nonfiction essay titled “The Coats in Summer People.” 

We asked Christi to tell us some unique or surprising detail about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of her essay. 

Her Response: “I was working as a human resources temp many years ago, chatting with a co-worker about my new pursuit of hiking. She was a hiker too, but there was one situation that had given her pause. It was a hot day in July and a man in a thick down jacket came down the trail and she felt unsafe. “Anyone who wears a coat like that in summer – you just know there’s something wrong,” she said. Until she spoke those words aloud, I had never realized how awkward and embarrassed and sad I felt about the clothing choices of my mother and brother. The remark stayed in my mind until a couple of years ago when I used it for what I call “wildwriting” – writing all my thoughts fast. Leafing through my notebook earlier this year, I liked the piece and decided to revise and submit it.”

We then asked what she learned (about herself or craft or the world) through writing and revising the essay?

Her Response: “Writing this piece, I learned that the younger me, still in there somewhere, feels a lot of shame and confusion about my early years with a mentally ill family. There is also a great deal of guilt that I didn’t develop their diagnosis and a longing for their recovery. And under all those layers is my love for my biological mother, who is no longer alive, and for my sensitive, smart, older brother.”

And finally, we asked Christi if she has any exciting projects she’s working on or something she’d like to promote. She let us know that she frequently facilitates 20 minute “wildwriting” sessions via zoom audio Zoom (no screens) and participants follow intriguing prompts in order to make all kinds of discoveries on the page. She has several lined up for December and anyone interested in attending should reach out to her via her website www.christikrug.com.

In addition, in January she will be facilitating “Wildfire Writing,” which she’s been teaching for 23 years. The class shares the practice that has helped her write with confidence while processing her life stories, harvesting their beauty. It is a distance-learning class available through Clark College and anyone interested can learn more or signup here.

Christi’s poetry and prose have appeared in everything from religious magazines to horror anthologies to comic zines. Her latest stories appear in Griffel, Nightingale & Sparrow, Montana Mouthful, and Luna Station Quarterly. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and recently served as writer-in-residence at North Cascades Institute. Christi is the author of Burn Wild: A Writer’s Guide to Creative Breakthrough. If you want to get in touch www.christikrug.com

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Thanks, Christi, for being a part of our 5th issue and for participating in this Q & A!

Cheers,
~The Good Life Review Team