Things That Are by Amy Leach

Things That Are by Amy Leach

Amy Leach has received the Whiting Writers' Award (2010), a Best American Essays selection (2009), a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award (2008), and a 2011 Pushcart Prize since completing her MFA from the University of Iowa in 2005. Her pieces have appeared in Tin House, Orion Magazine, A Public Space, and the Los Angeles Review, among other publications. She lives in Chicago, where she teaches writing at Loyola and Northwestern Universities and plays the piano in a bluegrass band. Q&A with Amy Leach, author of Things That Are Your pieces delve into the natural world's often-overlooked phenomena; what do you hope your readers will take away from your work? Animals are underrepresented in our imagination, art, and lives, which is tragic and impoverishing.

While writing these articles, one of the things I was attempting to do was to fill my own imagination with varied creatures, lifestyles, and global experiences. This endeavor offered me a lot of delight, and I'd like to share that joy with my readers. What is your favorite real-life or made-up word? It was fascinating to reread the writings as a whole and notice which words, such as oblivious, appeared often.

I believe I keep it in my notepad as a word to use, oblivious to the fact that I have already used it several times. I also have a soft spot for the word sheep and use it liberally. Your contributions cover a wide spectrum of animals and occurrences, including space dust, pea tendrils, Borneo frogs, and the Earth's mousy core. What sources do you turn to for ideas?

The pea-tendril article began as a cabbage essay, and the panda bear essay began as an essay about neutrinos with panda bears as minor characters; in both cases, I had to forsake my first subject in favor of one that piqued my interest more. Of course, seeing bright red mushrooms in the forest, squirrels chasing each other beneath ferns, and moths wandering across parking lots can all inspire you. What about research that isn't contained in an encyclopedia? Every other day while I was writing Silly Lillies, I rode my bike up to the botanic garden to appreciate the massive ruffly lotus leaves and pink water lily petals.

I spent the time writing The Wild What in the Adirondacks, where the stars light brightly and where, after a long day of writing about the Great Bear, I could sit outside and admire the Great Bear himself. A Dictionary of Weird Creatures and Phenomena is included in the book, and it contains entries that are almost too outlandish to believe--did you make any of these up, or are they all true? Yet it was a lot of joy unearthing ancient great words and helping to restore their former powers. Defining them towards the conclusion of the book took me back to fifth school; I remember developing my own definitions of terms in fifth grade, and it's still as much fun as it was then.