At this year’s Wordstock, Chicago essayist Megan Stielstra will be in town to discuss her new collection of essays, The Wrong Way to Save Your Life. The Mercury sat down with Stielstra ahead of the festival to talk writing, our country’s current political hellscape, and what she’s going to do once she gets to Portland. (Spoiler alert: It involves a puppy.)
MERCURY: You’re both a writer and a performer. Can you tell me how one influences the other?
MEGAN STIELSTRA: In Chicago, the literature and performance communities are entangled in wonderful ways. While tending bar to get through school, I started to notice that work is people telling you stories all day. I was really into it, so I signed up with this storytelling company called 2nd Story. Oral storytelling and the writing we’re doing on the page are intertwined.