‍"Meet the Teacher" offers a quick introduction to The Porch's Teaching Writers. Today we welcome Amy Estes,  who is teaching “Tarot and the Creative Practice” for us on June 30. Amy is a writer, storyteller, and educator from Sacramento, CA, and a dual-genre MFA candidate in fiction and non-fiction at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has been featured on The Rumpus, Huffington Post, Catapult, and elsewhere. In 2022, she was a curated writer for Corporeal Khôra and her piece, “Won’t Someone Think Of The Women?” was nominated for Best American Essays. Amy’s humor writing has been featured on McSweeney's, Slackjaw, The Belladonna, Weekly Humorist, and others. When she's not teaching middle school English or online satire writing for Second City, Amy enjoys reading, vying for Genius status on the NYT Spelling Bee, drinking vanilla lattes, and spending time with her spouse (also named Amy!) and their two dogs, Hank and Olive. She shares too many photos of flowers at @amymelissaestes on IG/Twitter. —Ed.

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Tell us about a book you've recently read and enjoyed. 

I read Leslie Jamison’s Splinters recently and even though I am neither a mother, nor particularly interested in heterosexual marriage, the book was so rich and brilliant that I could not put it down. Jamison is such a talented writer. She combines criticism and threads that seem unrelated to one another until she pulls them together in ways I never see coming but suddenly make perfect sense. Additionally, I am a real Ann Patchett gal, and have been reading through her entire catalog — recent favorites have been Commonwealth, and I enjoyed Tom Lake so much that I read it, and then immediately listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Meryl Streep, and absolute perfection.

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What’s one craft book or essay you return to again and again?

Melissa Febos’ Body Work is (in my humble opinion) the most outstanding, thoughtful craft book I’ve ever read. I read it multiple times a year (along with Girlhood, my all-time favorite essay collection).

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What is your favorite writing rule to break?

I was once told that it was vital to make sure that you had “distance” before you wrote about anything so that the story wasn’t tainted by high levels of emotion. While I agree that perhaps it’s wise to wait to publish things written when you’re highly emotional, I now endeavor to capture my feelings when I’m in the middle of things, especially things I think I may want to write about later. I try to focus on the somatic sensations I’m experiencing in particular to give me the ability to return to how something effected me physically, as opposed to the facts of the situation. One of the writing instructors in my MFA program, Sue William Silverman, urges people to consider writing from the voice of innocence (who you were when it was happening) and the voice of experience (who you were after), and I try to document my innocent self as much as possible now. 

I will make a playlist for a character or the mood I’m trying to capture for the story, or music from the age or time frame I’m writing about. Sometimes, when I’m starting a piece, I’ll put on Gilmore Girls in the background because it’s my comfort show and I know it by heart so it feels gentle and soothing.

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Music while writing: Y/N? 

It depends! If I’m writing fiction, I will make a playlist for a character or the mood I’m trying to capture for the story, or music from the age or time frame I’m writing about. I’ll do the same thing for creative nonfiction. Ffor example, I grew up very religiously, and I have a youth group throwbacks playlist I’ll listen to when I need to remember what I felt like at that age. Sometimes, when I’m starting a piece, I’ll put on Gilmore Girls in the background because it’s my comfort show and I know it by heart so it feels gentle and soothing. I get up early in the morning to write (during the school year — I teach middle school) and I listen to either instrumental lofi or classical in the morning to keep me focused. If I’m editing or doing academic writing though? Silence. 

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What do you love most about teaching writing?

I have met some of the kindest, most thoughtful, interesting people while teaching writing. Most of the time, I feel like the writers I encounter in my classes have the tools, ideas, and talent to write whatever they want. They need the reminders and encouragement to do so. I like getting to provide the little nudge and point out the things that they already so clearly possess. So frequently, I feel like others can see gifts and talents that people possess, and I like to spot them in the writers in my classes and point them out, provide a space to begin, and watch people succeed. 

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Tell us why you pitched this class. 

I know that some folks use the tarot as a method for divination or to make predictions for the future. I prefer to use tarot as a tool for reflection and inspiration. Most of the writing I do begins with a question, or writes towards an answer, and I find the tarot to be a creative tool for inspiration. I also like to use it as a tool for grounding and reflection in my own life. 

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I know that some folks use the tarot as a method for divination or to make predictions for the future. I prefer to use tarot as a tool for reflection and inspiration.

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Share something that has inspired your creativity lately, other than a book.  

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I enjoy spin classes, and something about the loud music + being told what to do + movement + being in my body/less cerebral is really inspiring for me. Also, my backyard is in bloom, and I love to float in my pool and look at the trees and the flowers all around. It’s so pleasant and peaceful, and gives me time to turn my brain off and think. 

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