BY THE EDITORS OF LUNA LUNA
We here at Luna Luna love our contributors. We know how busy they are—running their own magazines, writing books, resisting the darkness in the world, and making all sorts of magic. That they come back to Luna Luna again and again to write and share and create is an honor, and there are no words to express our thanks. They are family to us, so we thought we'd spotlight them so you could learn more about who they are and what they do. Please support them! Read their articles, buy their books, subscribe to their blogs, and send kisses.
TRISTA EDWARDS
Tell us a little bit about what inspires you as a writer!
Right now, what inspires me as a writer is seeing and reading other writers that create with abandon. I don't mean that their writing is careless or reckless but that they seem, to me anyways, to write as if nobody is watching. I often get too caught up in my head and, at times, this really prohibits me from going to strange and necessary places in my writing. I like weird. I like reading weird things that don't always make sense, have a perfect ending, or follow the rules of reality. Although I'm a poet, I have been reading a lot of fiction and I am feeling the itch to get down on paper some short stories that have been floating around in my head. Lately, I have been most inspired by J.T. Leroy, Julia Elliot, Claire Vaye Watkins, Edna O'Brien, and Shirley Jackson.
What projects/pieces are you working on right now?
I am currently circulating my first-ever poetry manuscript, "Spectral Evidence," around to contests and publishers. I would say the book has a lot to do with belief and creating your own mythology. I write a lot about witches, folklore, superstition, and invented rituals. This summer I am also a poetry mentor for the second year in a row with The Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program. It is a free online summer workshop in which I get to work with two tremendously talented high school students and their poetry. I love it. Also, I am working a few new posts on travel and tarot for my blog, Marvel + Moon, which I am trying to revive after neglecting it for a bit. Life happens, you know the story.
Which one of your LL pieces do you recommend people read right now?
Dearly Departed: Our Writer's Diary of a Hollywood Death Tour
I have been reminiscing a lot of about a particular trip I took to Hollywood and a death tour I took while there. I am obsessed with fetish objects-the idea of them, collecting them, the power we ascribe to them, their ghostly qualities-and this tour featured not just locations of famous deaths but items involved either with that death or the deceased person. I am always curious as to what draws us to these objects and how Hollywood often glamorizes death.
Ghosts, Vampires, or Witches?
This is a hard one because I have an attraction to all three but I have to say I was instantly drawn towards ghosts. Ghosts carry so much metaphorical power but I have also had experiences with what I would call ghosts that I can't really explain. I just know the experiences were real. I find comfort in the fact that not everything can be explained and not everything is for me to know. For me, it creates a sense of possibility, awe. and wonder.
Trista Edwards is a poet, land mermaid, light witch, horror enthusiast, creatrix, traveler, and dog lover. She is also the curator and editor of the anthology, Till The Tide: An Anthology of Mermaid Poetry (Sundress Publications, 2015). She is currently working on her first full-length poetry collection but until then you can read her poems at The Journal, Quail Bell Magazine, 32 Poems, The Adroit Journal, Sou’wester, Queen Mob's Tea House, and more. She writes about travel, ghosts, and poetry on her blog, Marvel + Moon.