Interview with ​Cassondra Windwalker

Meet NUNUM's Contributor: Cassondra Windwalker

10/23/2023

NUNUM

Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Interview with Cassondra Windwalker

What was the first book you remember picking and reading by yourself?

The first book I remember picking out and reading by myself was a Little Golden Book, whose title I can't recall, about a little orange kitten named Oliver who bumped into everything because he was near-sighted (like me) and needed glasses.

What writer(s) or which book(s) influenced your decision to become a writer?

I agree with Le Guin - I was always a writer, it was never a decision for me. But the writer who most influenced me to believe that it could be a profession as well as a passion was also my fourth-grade teacher, Carol Hamilton, author of The Dawn Seekers.

Is there a writing craft book that you would recommend to new writers?

I'm not a huge fan of craft books, but there is one I absolutely love:

The Ode Less Traveled, by Stephen Fry. It's worth reading even if you have no interest at all in poetry because Fry does an excellent and wildly irreverent job of exemplifying both what is vital about "the rules" and how devotedly they must be bent. His humor and humanity make what might seem arcane approachable and relevant. He exemplifies the utility of craft: art is not an end in itself, it is its end - its connection, its communication - that makes any work art.

Is there a writer who has influenced your current writing style?

Probably none of my readers would believe this, but the answer is Ernest Hemingway.

Why write flash fiction?

Flash fiction forces both the writer and the reader to acknowledge unflinchingly a single moment in time. There's no seeking refuge in what comes after or what came before.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting to send their work out to journals?

Even if you've never published a thing, consider yourself a professional and behave accordingly. Do the research, follow the guidelines, and send out submissions like you're filing a spreadsheet. Whether your work is accepted or rejected, don't take it personally, and don't make it personal. Only send what you truly believe is your best work that needs to be read, and don't let anything shake that faith.

And remember - if 100 journals reject your story, that means you found 100 readers for your work. The rejection may have nothing to do with the quality of your work, and editors may still be thinking about your characters years from now. Your job is to write and submit, so do that and let the rest resolve itself.

What is your relationship with AI?

I am strongly opposed to any use of AI in the arts. Art is communication between the artist and the person experiencing the art, as well as communication with all the art of the present and past that influenced and shaped the artist. It is inherently personal, emotional, and experiential. AI can churn out variations on any theme, but it cannot express anything of its own. The nonconsensual, theft aspect of the question is legitimate, but to me, the violation goes much deeper than that -

it is fundamentally an ignorance of what art is and where its power lies. It's also, most simply, lazy.

Are you leaving Twitter - and yes, it's still called Twitter.
Not if I can help it. The writing community was a vital, magical, mad place there long before the current landlord came in with his goon squad, and I'm confident we'll outlast him.

Coffee or tea?

Coffee and tea and whisky, please.

Cassondra Windwalker is a poet, essayist, and novelist presently writing full-time from the southern Alaskan coast. Her novels and full-length poetry collections are available in bookstores and online.