Amy Stewart: From Copywriting to Writing the Circus

Introducing Amy

Where are you from and where do you live now?

I’m originally from Edinburgh, and now live in York.

What did you study at YSJ?

Creative Writing MA, full time.

Where is your favourite place in York?

I have so many! Having lived here for over three years, I’m still bowled over by York Minster every time I walk past it. I like to stroll past then duck into Little Apple Books on High Petergate. York has so many good bookshops (and lovely scenic places to read your purchases, like the Museum Gardens).

What are you currently reading?

I’ve just finished Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan, which is a gloriously gothic novel set in a tenement in Edinburgh. I’m about to get started on Summerwater by Sarah Moss, a contemporary mystery set in rural Scotland. I’m often attracted to books with a strong sense of place.

What 5 books would recommend?

1. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Sparse, gorgeous storytelling about the last woman to be executed in Iceland.

2. The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

This is the story of a group of women living on a remote Norwegian island after all the men are killed. The first five or so pages feature some of the most visceral and evocative writing I’ve ever read.

3. Salt Slow by Julia Armfield

This is my all-time favourite short story collection. I return to it regularly, and each time I read it, it blows me away with its unique ideas and mastery of language.

4. The Doll Factory by Elizabeth MacNeal

Pulpy, addictive, sensual. This is a novel about desire, obsession and art set in Victorian London.

5. Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley

I love books steeped in folklore, and Starve Acre is a masterclass in the form. Strange, suspenseful and full of harrowing images I still haven’t shaken.

What do you do in your spare time?

I go to classes in circus skills (aerial silks and trapeze), sing in a choir and am a huge yoga fan. I have a rescue dog, so a lot of my time is also spent training him!

How has working as a copywriter informed your practise and impacted your life?

As a copywriter, you’re often writing to tight deadlines, very specific briefs and non-negotiable word counts. As such, I’ve become a lot more concise and considered in the way I write. I’m a sucker for a pretty sentence, and used to write paragraph after paragraph of description – but all that work cleaving words means my writing is more spare, now. I’m a lot more aware of the point I’m trying to get across, and how I can do that in as few words as possible. I think being a copywriter is one of the main reasons I write short stories, and not novels!

I also love being freelance, as it gives me a lot more freedom to write. I like that I can work from anywhere. I travelled around North America between 2015 and 2017 and funded myself along the way by copywriting, which was pretty amazing.

Studying at York St John

Why did you choose YSJ?

I chose YSJ because of the stellar reputation of its Creative Writing MA. I was lucky enough to be accepted by a few different universities, but YSJ stood out thanks to the opportunities offered by the MA and its connection to the publishing industry.

How did YSJ prepare you for your PhD?

My MA at YSJ was the first time I was given the freedom to pursue what interested me as a writer. I was actively encouraged to think of myself as a professional, and to take my writing seriously. My dissertation was all about the circus, which ultimately led me to the topic for my PhD thesis. I don’t think I would have progressed onto a PhD if it wasn’t for YSJ.

What is your favourite memory from YSJ?

There are so many! I loved my cohort, and made friends for life from the course. There were so many fun events and readings, and I loved attending the writing retreat in Haworth. I was also invited to read my work at the launch of the Beyond the Walls anthology, which was nerve-wracking but fun!

Did you submit to anything whilst you studied with us, for example, Beyond the Walls?

I hadn’t really had the confidence to submit my writing anywhere before my MA. But with the guidance of tutors, I started submitting my work to publications both through the university and beyond. I was published in Beyond the Walls, as well as the university-produced Waste poetry journal during the course. I also took part in the Enemies Project Camarade, in which I teamed up with a student from another university to produce a poem which we then performed at the annual showcase.

How did your time at YSJ help you develop your writing?

I found having constant feedback from my tutors and peers to be such a valuable resource. We were also encouraged to read widely and beyond our comfort zone, which meant I was constantly experimenting with new styles and techniques.

What sort of impact did studying at YSJ have on you and your writing?

It’s hard to overstate the effect that the MA had on my writing, really. It helped me to understand what kind of writer I wanted to be, and where I might fit in the wider publishing marketplace. That commercial mindset is often not what we concentrate on as writers, but having a general idea of how your writing might be marketed can be so valuable when it comes to things likes applying for awards or querying agents.

Writing Questions

You’re currently completing a PhD. In a nutshell, what’s it about and why did you choose that subject?

My PhD is a combination of short story, creative non-fiction, literary criticism and analysis of archival material, aiming to explore how the female circus artist can come to represent a modern definition of the ‘carnivalesque woman’. It draws on the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin, my own experiences as a practising aerialist and circus artists as depicted in literature by classic writers such as Angela Carter, as well as contemporary novelists like Elizabeth MacNeal and Erin Morgenstern.

I’ve always been fascinated by the circus – the impossibility of it, the virtuosity, the glamour – and have practised aerial skills like silks and trapeze myself for a number of years. It wasn’t until my MA at YSJ that I started thinking about the circus in literature, and some of the ways we can try and capture some of that magic in writing.

How do you fit writing around your PhD? Do you have a routine or timetable?

Ever since I started freelancing full time in 2015, I’ve been juggling multiple projects and clients, all with different deadlines. I think honing those time management skills has been really beneficial in preparing me for my PhD, which I study part time, and balancing that with my work and also my creative writing.

Still, it’s a juggle, and I’m always trying to get better at scheduling my time. At the moment, I do my creative writing first thing in the morning, as that’s when I seem to have most of my ideas. The rest of the morning and the early afternoon is spent on work, then I dedicate 1-2 hours at the end of the day to my PhD. This is working well – for now!

Do you write differently depending on the subject? For example, do you complete more drafts for academic work or complete more thematic research for your creative writing (eg reading other writing, visiting inspiring setting locations)?

My process for different types of writing varies a lot. For example, for academic writing, I have to be ‘steeped’ in the research area first – i.e., have recently read a lot of articles/books on the subject. I tend to have a plan of my argument structure or the points I want to make, and can stick quite closely to it. I write the first draft quite slowly, and then a lot of time is spent revising. This kind of writing feels quite logical and measured to me.

When it comes to creative writing, I have to write my way into the story. I absolutely cannot plan. If I do, I end up feeling stifled and often rebel against my plan in a matter of sentences. Instead, I usually start with a single sentence or idea, and I go with that in an intense burst until I run out of words. It’s only then that I figure out what the story might actually be about, and I often end up having to cut most of it out and extract the bits I like. It’s a very inefficient, often frustrating way to write – but it works for me!

How many writing projects do you currently have, and what are they about?

At the moment, I’m working on completing my first short story collection with the help of my mentor, as part of my Northern Writer’s Award. I already had about six completed stories, so I’m focusing on producing new work which ties in thematically to complete the collection.

What’s your favourite form to write in?

Short story. All my life I thought I was a novelist, until I started writing short stories. My work is quite intense in that I’m often interested in a single mood or moment. I find this kind of energy or intensity difficult to sustain across a novel-length work. Short stories seem to suit my style (and my impatience!).

How would you describe your writing and what inspires it?

My work tends towards the speculative, and is often inspired by folklore or myth. I gravitate towards darker themes, I think, and am really interested in exploring my experience of what it is to be a woman today.

Where have you been published?

My work has appeared in Test Signal (2021), an anthology of new northern writing from Bloomsbury and Dead Ink Books. My stories also feature in print publications like the Bridport Prize anthology 2019, Ellipsis Zine and the York Journal, as well as digital journals like the Crow & Crosskeys, the Aurora Journal and Bandit Fiction.

Why did you apply for a Northern Writing Award, and how did you feel when they told you you’d won? How has it impacted your writing?

I first heard of the Northern Writing Awards from my tutors at YSJ back in 2018. I applied for the Debut Award that year, but was unsuccessful. Over the next few years, I really worked on honing my craft and producing a lot of new work. I decided to apply for the Word Factory Apprenticeship award in 2021 because it focuses exclusively on short story, and I loved the idea of having a mentor to support me as I finished my debut collection.

I’m not too proud to say I shed a little tear when I found out that I’d won! It’s been such an amazing confidence booster and an incredible opportunity that I’m so grateful for. Starting off as a writer is really hard – often, you feel as though you’re shouting into an abyss. There’s just no validation at all. Winning the award was the support I needed to keep believing in myself, and to keep going.

What is your short-story collection about and how long will it be? Either number of stories or actual length.

My short story collection is about female transformation, both monstruous and otherwise. It focuses on connections between women, as well as the ideas of safe landings and rescue, dangerous desires and potential. I think there will be between 10 and 12 stories altogether, so the collection will be around 45k-50k words long.

What’s your writing dream? For example, to have a novel published, to have your work adapted for TV or film?

To have my short story collection published would be incredible. It’s a compilation of what I consider to be my best work to date, and I’m really proud of it. If just one person told me they enjoyed it, I’d be absolutely thrilled.

If I allow myself to dream onwards from this, I’d love to keep publishing and making writing my full-time career. I’d like to publish my circus collection from my PhD, and perhaps novels, too. I also love scriptwriting, so if the opportunity ever came up to adapt my work for TV or film, I’d jump at that.

Which authors inspire you most? Do you have different ones per form?

I think I admire different writers for different reasons. In terms of short story, I find writers like Alice Munro and Joyce Carole Oates incredible inspiring, because of their legacy and contribution to the craft. Then there are writers like Leigh Bardugo and V E Schwab, who create amazing and immersive fantasy worlds. There are writers whose careers I aspire to have, like Daisy Johnson or Julia Armfield.

Would you ever take part in something like NaNoWriMo or NaPoWriMo (national writing and national poetry writing months)?

I think these challenges are amazing. They create a sense of community, and goal-setting is also really important in writing. I’ve tried NaNoWriMo before, but because I struggle with writing novels, I ran out of steam at about 30k! I’d definitely like to give it another go, though.

The Future

Do you have any future writing projects already lined up, or any long-term projects you’re looking to finish soon?

Aside from my PhD and short story collection, I have an upcoming poem in a charity anthology from Bandit Fiction, and am co-editing the second issue of the York Journal.

Is there a publisher you’d like to be published by?

So many! I’d jump at the chance to be published by any of the major publishing houses like Penguin Random House or Harper Collins, but there are plenty of smaller, independent presses I admire, too. There are more and more based in the north doing amazing work, like Comma Press and Dead Ink Books.

What’s next for your career? Do you think you’ll be a full-time writer, have a ‘side’ or ‘day’ job, or something entirely different?

I would love to be a full-time writer. That’s always been my ultimate goal. I’d potentially like to teach part-time in a university, or tutor children in English. Books have always been a safe space for me, and I’d love to pass that on in any way I can, if possible.

Do you have any advice for budding writers?

There’s the practical advice, like don’t take rejections too personally, and keep going. I genuinely think the writers who ‘make it’ are the others with the dogged determination to just keep writing, keep submitting.

In terms of writing itself, for me it all comes down to honesty. Be you when you write. You’ve got lots to say. It’s great to be inspired by other writers and experiment as you find your voice, but I think really great writing in any genre comes from a place of authenticity. That’s the kind of writing that resonates; the kind of writing that people remember.