Meet Ingrid Keriotis

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ingrid Keriotis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Ingrid with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

I believe that I got my work ethic from my parents. I think they passed it on to me because they led by example; it was not imparted to me by specific things they said. My dad worked very hard first as a minister and then as a nursing home activities director. He wanted to help others and that was always his driving force. My mom studied to be a therapist when I was little. It was extremely difficult for her to go though her Master’s program and obtain all of the hours she needed as an intern while raising three daughters. Seeing her become a Marriage, Family, and Child Counselor after all of her hard work impacted me. She, too, was driven by a wish to help others.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

My first book of poems was published in 2019. It is entitled It Started with the Wild Horses. I am currently at work on an essay collection. I started writing essays during the pandemic as a way to make sense of some of my lived experiences that I wanted to examine from the vantage point of story instead of poetic imagery. I spent a year interviewing my dad during the pandemic and a lot of his life story has been inspiration to me. For years he delivered sermons as a Unitarian minister and he recited poetry to me throughout my childhood. Both of those realities made me into someone who loves language and loves to see what creativity can do–Writing can inform people about social justices issues, be a creative outlet that helps our mental health, and it can be a way for us to connect with one another.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I feel that the art of reading is one that is not being stressed enough in our world today. Reading novels connects us to others’ realities and deepens our ability to sympathize with people who have experienced different lives from our own. Reading nonfiction teaches us about history and helps us to understand and critically think about the current world we live in. Reading poetry expands our hearts.
Secondly, I would chose the art of journaling. Whether you write to examine how you think about your day, to vent or to work out problems in your life, it is a wonderful tool to gain self-knowledge.
Last, I would say the art of sharing what you create with others. When you share your writing, your paintings, your songs, whatever form your creative expression takes, you are inviting others to be creative and to share their art. This gives us confidence in ourselves and helps us be true to the individuals we are inside.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird has been incredibly influential to me and to many of the writers that I know. It teaches us that creativity does not usually come in some amazing flash of insight that yields a great piece that is ready to be shared with others right away. Creativity is often a very slow process and one that is rife with mistakes, struggles and insecurities. Lamott teaches us to take our creative projects ‘bird by bird,’ meaning one step at a time. The art of revision is one she emphasizes as well. We can’t really know what we want to say until we have tried several times, rambled and hit walls. By being persistent and believing in the revision and re-writing process, we can eventually fulfill our vision for a given piece. But it takes time and patience and a little bit of zany boldness to follow a creative writing project through to where you could consider publication.

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Image Credits

main author photo by Lisa Redfern

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