Success Story Spotlight with Ezrael Maher

Please share your exciting news (agent signing, book sale, award grant, publication, etc)

I am so super excited that I have signed with a literary agent! I am now represented by Tara Gonzalez at Erin Murphy Literary Agency. I am one of the lucky folks who found their agent by participating in the #DVPit contest on Twitter, where authors from diverse and marginalized backgrounds have a chance to pitch their novels to literary agents. Tara was interested in my pitch and was excited about the full manuscript, and the rest is history!

How did studying/retreating at The Writing Barn support you in achieving this goal? What workshop/intensives/or classes have you taken with us?

I absolutely would not be where I am today without The Writing Barn. It’s easy to rely on hyperbole for dramatic effect, but this time, it’s true. I lived in Austin during the period where I finished my first draft, and it absolutely would not exist without The Writing Barn. The first words I wrote for my manuscript were for a workshop at the WB with Libba Bray. Huge sections of the first draft were written during Write Away Days at the barn. When I was stuck, there was always a Write NOW! session that helped me rethink my project. Attending weekend intensives at The Writing Barn and giving feedback to others really helped me sharpen my editorial skills. Beyond the growth I’ve had in developing my craft, I’ve also met some of the most amazing people in my life through The Writing Barn.

How long have you been writing/pursuing an agent/publishing deal?

I’ve been writing short stories since I was in elementary school. I always knew I wanted to write novels, and I had a notebook filled with approximately a gazillion half-plotted ideas all throughout high school and college. I first started really plotting and drafting my manuscript when I finished graduate school in 2016. I finished the first draft in April of 2018, and spent the rest of the year querying.

What fears/hopes did you have before attending the WB class, intensive/or working with Bethany privately?

I was absolutely petrified before my first workshop at the WB. I remember opening the packet that contained the submissions from other writers and wanting to barf with anxiety. I saw the names of writers that I had seen in bookstores, on actual real-life books. I was so intimidated to see that published authors would be reading my work, and I was certain that my feedback for them would sound like gibberish and hollering.

How did the atmosphere of The Writing Barn aid you in achieving this goal?

The Writing Barn is magic. I can’t explain it any other way. I’ve attended three weekend intensives (so far!), and every single time, no matter what the dynamic of the group is or what sample we’re critiquing, the writers I’ve worked with all come together with the most thoughtful and insightful feedback I’ve ever heard. Everyone leaves their egos under the table, and the group comes together to deeply consider what’s working and what isn’t working about each piece. The discussions are full of so much care and consideration; every group treats every piece like a child that they want to grow up to be big and strong. It means so much to know that other talented and hard-working writers are reading your work and giving it the same kind of careful editorial eye that they give their own writing. Something about space really helps people get deep about their writing and about themselves.

Have you made friendships/colleagues as well? How has that supported you?

The friends I’ve made at The Writing Barn have been just as instrumental in my progress as a writer as the actual craft I’ve learned. Ryan La Sala, a fellow WB Success Story, encouraged me to enter #DVPit in the first place. He was my first exposure to the contest, and he not only encouraged me to enter but gave me feedback on my pitches. Without his help, I don’t think that I would have ever entered or connected with my agent.

My favorite thing about the friendships I’ve made at The Writing Barn is the wide diversity of experience. The first year of the Rainbow Weekend was especially important for me in this way. Like many young queer people, my social circle is largely other young queer people. That weekend was one of the first times that I had the opportunity to connect with other queer writers who not only had been writing longer than I had, but had been out and living their truest life for longer. A lot of the queer stories that have been told have ended in tragedy, and it was life-changing to see so many people not only living happy queer lives, but writing happy queer stories. It gave me hope for my own future, and for the future of the community as a whole.

Why do you think attending workshops/classes is important to writers at all stages of their career?

I’ve met writers ranging from just starting their first manuscript to authors with impressive backlists at The Writing Barn. From the outside, you might worry that you might not have anything in common because you’re all on different paths and in different places, but the truth couldn’t be farther. It’s truly amazing to be able to share your own experiences with others. Connecting with people farther along in their careers is a way of proving to yourself that you can make it, too. Connecting with people who are closer to the start to you is a way you can remind yourself of where you’ve come from, and to help them along their paths as well.

What is a takeaway you will carry with you far beyond this good news as you continue to build an develop your career?

I feel like I’ve stolen an entire MFA’s worth of knowledge from everyone I’ve met at The Writing Barn, but I think my biggest takeaway has been that the most successful stories are the one that have the most of ourselves in them.

My writing is generally very personal, and I often find that I use fiction as a way to process emotions and events in my own life. It feels at times like I’m sewing pieces of myself into my work, and when you feel that way, it’s easy to assume that your work is too personal to be relatable or understood. The more I’ve written, and the more people who have read my work, the more I can see that those pieces of me are the best parts of the story, and what make others connect to it more than anything else. My time at the Writing Barn has taught me to not be afraid of getting personal, deep, and complicated in my work.

Any advice you have for writers/creatives having trouble staying the course in pursuing their goals?

All of my advice boils down to being as fearless as you can. I spent my entire first draft terrified that I would never finish it, that it would join a large pile of things I wanted to do but couldn’t focus on or care about long enough to complete. When it was done, I was terrified it was no good, and that I would spend forever nit-picking it instead of trying to see if it caught an agent’s attention. And once I was querying, I spent every day afraid to find rejections in my inbox. From where I am now, I regret that fear. I wish I had developed a better sense of excitement and exploration in my work. I wish I had trusted myself more, and honestly, I wish I let myself have more fun with that first draft. There’s value in every creative pursuit you have. You don’t have to fear that you’re wasting your time.

On the first day of my very first writing class in college, my professor gave us a quote from Akira Kurasowa: “The role of the artist is to not look away.”
Don’t look away from your fear. but don’t forget to look at the other things in front of you, too.

More about Ezrael: