We were lucky to catch up with Kate Gale recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kate , so excited to talk about all sorts of important topics with you today. The first one we want to jump into is about being the only one in the room – for some that’s being the only person of color or the only non-native English speaker or the only non-MBA, etc Can you talk to us about how you have managed to be successful even when you were the only one in the room that looked like you?
Everyone in the Los Angeles literary world came from Ivy League schools. They went to Yale and Penn and they swept out to Los Angeles to speak about literature. I come from hay and farming, from eggs and chickens, from horses and sheep. I come from hard labor. I come from community colleges and state schools, living in cars and food shortages. Poverty isn’t popular or fun.
But it gives you an edge because you can’t be stomped down when you’ve already been down. There is no place to go but up, and hard work takes you up into the open air. Also, you don’t feel the need to impress anyone fancy. You just work hard to create literary community for other outsiders.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Red Hen Press is expanding our work to include podcasting this year, and I can’t wait. We get to include Red Hen writers and discuss the kind of writing we are excited about: The work of outsiders, of LGBTQ writers, of diverse writers of all kinds, of writers with disabilities. This year, we published a book called Floppy, by Alyssa Graybeal, who is a lesbian writer with Ehlers Danlos disease. I can’t wait to hear talk about writing this book, what her intention was, who she wanted to reach, how she wanted to change the world.
When we write, when we create literary community, we want to change the world. I am ready to step into the podcasting space as an extension of the conversation we are having with the world of literary world which is sometimes a fist bump, sometimes a long swim, sometimes wrestling with the angel, but always we are in motion toward grace.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Here you go: 1. Never keep anything for the swim back. I throw down everything I’ve got every day.
2. When people tell me I’m doing it wrong, I listen. I improve my game. Even if I don’t like them or how they are saying it. I still improve my game. I leave the house and go to other cities to find people to tell me what I’m doing wrong so I can keep improving my game.
3. When I get kicked down, I sit there for a minute with the wind knocked out of me. I know there are people who don’t want me to get up, and I respect them for it. I say, You may be right. But I’m getting up anyway. I am going to learn from my mistakes and keep going into the ocean wave of my only life. Because of I sit on the shore, I am never going to reach the island.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
My parents gave me away. My father was gone when I was one. My mother when I was three. I had no parents to impress. I wrote “No one,” on who to contact in case of emergency.
They got out of my way. I lived my life to the full. I didn’t become something to please them. I roared through my life working to create something wild and wonderful on the West Coast, and the great thing about being in Los Angeles, is that you are invisible, so like my parents , no one noticed at all, and I could just create a press and become a writer without anyone caring.
Being a passionate creator is a lot easier if no one is stopping you.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kategale.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drkategale/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drkategale/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-kategale-66a3b544/
Image Credits
Emily Claire Harper Petrie
