Writer-Parent Spotlight: Georgia Pearle Foster + Joshua Dewain Foster

Writers Joshua Dewain Foster & Georgia Pearle Foster with their adorable little spud (photo source: JDF & GPF)

Readers, I’m smack-dab giddy to introduce the new Writer-Parent Spotlight interview series, in which writer-parents I admire answer some (hopefully) fun and thought-provoking questions about their lives as writer-parents.

For the first installment, I interviewed not one but two fantastic writer-parents: Joshua Dewain Foster and Georgia Pearle Foster.

I met these wonders through Inprint, Houston’s premier literary arts nonprofit organization. (Along with writing workshops, Inprint offers a world-class reading series, which you can learn more about here.)

Josh led a Fiction workshop I attended in 2019. I quickly realized that on top of being a word and story genius (with a dash of literary maverick, to boot), he is a kind and encouraging teacher and editor. He introduced me to his then fiancée, now wife, Georgia Pearle, whose poetry—gripping, nuanced, intimate—brings with it the satisfaction of quiet yet profound revelation. In short, call me an unabashed fangirl of both writers.

I’m honored to share with this community Georgia and Josh’s thoughts on writing and parenting.

Without further ado, let’s dig in!

What do you write?

Josh: Literary Prose: short stories, essays, long-form narratives both fiction and nonfiction, collections; no end-rhymes or super heroes

Georgia: Poetry and Nonfiction/Memoir

How many kids? Ages?

Georgia: 3 kids, ages 19, 15, and 3 months

Josh: 1 x newborn son, 2 x Pearle’s teenagers, 2 x Dogs, 3 x Cats

Coffee, tea, or neither? (If neither, how do you make it through a day? (That is a serious question begging for a serious answer.))

Josh: Lately, 5-hour Energy or generic equivalent trucker caffeine shot/drink. I’m only ever trying to make it five more hours, anymore.

Georgia: There are mason jars of lukewarm herbal tea all over the house.

A food you think should not exist:

Josh: Water Chestnuts make everything/anything worse, and are inedible on their own. (And if we’re talking a food I think should always exist… I’m a spud man, myself, but never turn down cold cantaloupe.)

Georgia: Cantaloupe.

What’s something that once embarrassed you that you now find hilarious?

Georgia: My mother.

Josh: My hairline.

First country you’re visiting (or have already visited) post-COVID:

Georgia: Alabama? Realistically, I haven’t been out of the country since the year 2000.

Josh: Mexico would be the safest bet, seeing how it’s the only international travel I’ve ever done. Or maybe Alabama.

Are you bringing your kids with you?

Josh: Yes. My young son seems to enjoy taking in the world, and he needs to get out of Idaho more anyways. He’s very pale. My wife Pearle agrees.

Georgia: We’ll see.

Describe your writing process in 10 words or fewer:

Josh: Make pages. Take chances. Don’t be boring or cringe.

Georgia: I put on my gun range ear muffs and go.

Something about you that helps you as a writer:

Georgia: I like to be alone.

Josh: My optimistic production. I’m always telling myself that the next project will be the break-through; this gets me and keeps me working.

Favorite thing about parenting?

Josh: The variations on dancing and snuggling and nicknaming.

Georgia: Seeing all the versions of these people over time—and hopefully ushering them into a version of themselves they can inhabit freely and fully.

Worst thing about parenting?

Josh: Paying adult attention all the time. The existential fear and dread of the future. Trying to just get one wipe out of the package instead of a chain of five.

Georgia: The irrationality of youth. And the nagging.

Favorite thing about writing?

Georgia: Being subsumed in language.

Josh: My life is very busy, and has a lot of outside demands. The farm, the events and parties, the family, the pets, the garden, the parking lot, the weather, the baby—I could go on and on. Writing is the time that I just don’t care about any other thing. Instead I try to focus and make something coherent and creative, a paragraph or a page, by my best standards. I know outside my door are problems and annoyances and tasks and needs, but I shut them out briefly, as long as I dare. As well, I write because every day the world is changing and disappearing. I like contributing to the record in some strange slight time and space, and I try to etch the stories into existence quickly since the people and places are going fast. It’s important to me that the stories exist somewhere, even imperfectly.

Worst thing about writing?

Josh: That the creation of readable writing takes so much time and effort to get good, then right.

Georgia: The pressure of time. And the pressure to publicly perform “being a writer.”

Has your writing (content or process or both) changed since becoming a parent? If so, how?

Georgia: I became a parent at twenty, at a time that I knew I wanted to be a writer but wasn’t actually writing. Parenting is a process of daily diligence, of putting in the work long before there’s any inkling of the finished product, and of finding joy in that process, and I think that’s a vital way of approaching work as a writer as well.

Josh: I value my desk time much more, as it goes with any alone time from the kids. I feel urged to make progress, knowing it might be my only chance that day. I try to write every day and have that document/project/question up with me all day, so if I have any window I can switch over and work for five, ten, forty minutes, keep momentum up and progress going.

What aspect of craft excites you most?

Josh: Daily Practice, as it makes lasting art.

Georgia: I love revision. Working something out for years that then, finally, clinks into place is so satisfying.

What aspect of craft do you find most maddening?

Josh: Gate-keeping language and grammar. Words are alive, language changes every day, comprehension and connection are what matter most to me, not rules or formalities.

Georgia: The mass of initial drafts that are inevitably unsatisfying, that don’t seem willing to be steered wherever I meant the thing to go, not that I knew where I meant the thing to go. I spend far more time dissatisfied than satisfied.

Imagine you’re 92 and relaxing somewhere you love, surrounded by your books and photos of your grandkids (or granddogs or grandturtles, etc.).

1.     Where is that place you love?

Josh: Somewhere in Idaho, probably in the basement of a cabin.

Georgia: Somewhere along the Gulf Coast, somewhere hot where I can hear everyone else’s music and start my day with a swim. Also wherever Josh is, preferably with a shared desk in a shared office.

2.     Which three books are within closest reach?

Josh: My book, Pearle’s book, and some book I’m supposed to be editing.

Georgia: Adrienne Rich, The Dream of a Common Language, which I found in high school and which always calls me back, H.D.’s Trilogy, and Emily Dickinson’s Collected.

3.     What wisdom do you wish you could’ve shared with your younger self to have helped your writer-parent life go a little more smoothly?

Josh: Writing is the same hard forever—get used to it.

Georgia: Stability does not hinder the writing life. It’s much harder to be brilliant when you’re hungry. Nonetheless, your unwillingness to settle and your willingness to be hungry if necessary will serve you well.

Please share with The Write Parent community what you’re working on, how to find and read your work, and how to follow you/friend you/become an adoring fan.

Georgia: My first collection of poems, Refinery, will be out through our indie press, Foster Literary, this coming September, and I’m working on a second collection as well as a memoir tentatively titled Unmaking the Monster. I’ve had poems published online with Ninth Letter, Kenyon Review, and others. You can find links to those at www.gpearle.com.

Josh: My first book, The Crown Package, is forthcoming July 2022, published with Pearle by our indie house Foster Literary. It is a D-I-Y Personal Anthology, the content assembled from my 15 years of writing and publishing, presented in reverse chronology 2020-2005, including my published stories and essays, excerpts from novels and memoirs, select blog posts, unpublished experiments, and earliest works. We’ll be promoting it on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and selling it on Amazon and my website joshuadewainfoster.com, which is also where you can find my social media presence(s) and a place to subscribe for future book and Foster Lit news.

A big thanks to Georgia and Josh for sharing their wisdom and experience with this community. Writer-parents, let us know in the comments which of their responses resonated with you!

Happy writing, folks,

—Erin