Meg Weber Power Profile
I met Meg Weber through many different workshops in Ariel Gore’s Literary Kitchen. Meg’s ferocity and compassion intrigued me, and now that I’ve known her several years in a variety of arenas, I can attest that the first assessment of “fierce and compassionate” stands! Her generosity with other writers is also a gift to all of us.
Her writing impressed me with its depth and bravery. I have learned a lot from Meg, and I am thrilled to welcome her to the blog and to elevate her new release, A Year of Mr. Lucky.
LH: What issues/ideas/questions do you find continue to circle through your work?
MW: The themes that appear in my work most consistently include grief, identity, sexuality including kink, family, and therapy. I'm often exploring how or whether I belong in a group, in a relationship, in my family. I write to make sense of my world and my place within it.
LH: Kink features prominently in this book. I've read a lot of your work and have been consistently impressed with how effectively you write about a world that is unfamiliar to many people. What would you like the uninitiated reader to understand most about the world of kink?
MW: I think some people are afraid of kink because some of it involves pain and discomfort - the whole whips and chains and knives thing. And while that can be part of it, the most valuable things I have learned through kink have been about negotiation, personal agency and power, and communication. Some of those aspects come through clearly in this memoir as I get to know Mr. Lucky and as we negotiate the play we do with one another. Kink can involve and represent many different things. For some it is purely a physical or sexual experience. For me it is often a deeply emotional and sometimes therapeutic endeavor.
LH: How do you engage with literary citizenship and its role in building a community of supportive writers?
MW: I believe in supporting writers and do my best to share as many pieces of writing, announcements about events or readings, or book launches as I can for my fellow writers. I have had the great fortune of working with some phenomenal writing teachers and what I appreciate about so many of them is the ways they model this sort of literary citizenship - they don't take the spotlight by themselves, they are always mentioning, supporting, lifting up other writers. I've grown up as a writer within that example and it matters to me to do the same. I buy books written by my friends and other writers they recommend. I read those books, I share them with my friends. Having supportive writers to lean on when I need something is great - being a supportive writer other people can lean on is also important to me.
LH: Self-promotion is a necessary task in today’s marketplace. How do you approach self-promotion and have your views changed on it over time?
MW: The self-promotion piece of writing is tricky for me in many ways. Partly because of the many roles I play - I'm a writer, yes, but I'm also a mental health therapist, a clinical supervisor, a parent of a teenager, and a member of a large extended family most of whom share the last name that I publish under. So promoting my writing gets complicated really quickly. Recently I shared about my forthcoming memoir on my social media for the first time and I was terrified of receiving negative reactions. And I didn't! So many writing friends and people from all walks of my life have been celebrating this accomplishment with me, and even those who didn't comment have liked my post. I've read many posts from other writers ahead of me on the path of publishing who have written about how they don't really want to be constantly posting about or promoting their own work, but that it is a necessary evil in today's world of publishing. I like it when folks share different snippets of their forthcoming project, so that the posts are dynamic and compelling. The way you, Laraine, rolled out your Grief Forest book is a perfect example of that. Each time you posted a new image or something you were doing with the launch of the book, I got excited for your book all over again. That's part of my plan leading up to launch day for my memoir - sharing bits that hopefully entice folks to keep paying attention and ultimately to buy and read my book.
LH: There are so many extreme crises in the world today demanding our attention. Often, we hear push-back from others about how art doesn’t matter or isn’t worth the time of the artist or the receiver. What is your answer to those who say art is a waste of time?
MW: I believe art is essential and that cultivating a relationship with one's own art and the art of others is imperative. In the midst of so much fear and rage and unrest, art can be a companion, it can be an inspiration, it can be salvation. I saw a video of a young - maybe 3 or 4 year old - Latino boy explaining on camera to his mama why art is the most important thing. I believe art allows people to make meaning in their lives and can bring light into the darkness so many are experiencing in this moment in time.
LH: What metaphor best expresses your creative process?
MW: My creative process is erratic because it usually has to fit itself into the very limited time left once I've been all the other things I have to be in a day - a parent, a therapist, a partner, a friend, a supervisor, a sibling. I wrote the bulk of this first memoir at night after my then school-aged child went to bed. When the house finally got quiet and I'd done everything else, then I'd sit at my desk and write until I couldn't keep my eyes open. So, I don't know, I guess the metaphor is exhaustion?
LH: What do you hope readers will take away from reading A Year of Mr. Lucky?
MW: I hope readers will appreciate the journey I take as the protagonist from doubting myself at every turn to finding my voice and creating an ending that sets me free. I want readers to enjoy the word play that I loved so much in my exchanges with Mr. Lucky both in writing and out loud in person. And I'd like people to understand that engaging in consensual power exchange or kink can be fulfilling and fun and is not inherently dangerous or harmful.
LH: What are you currently working on and why does it matter to you?
MW: I'm working on another memoir, and I thought I knew what it was about until I spent time working with you as a book coach only to find out my book wanted to be much different than I originally imagined. What I thought would be a deep dive into the year I spent doing kink as grief work is instead turning into a book about the things and people I've been grieving throughout my life. Some of the kink as embodied grief work will be there, but so will many other aspects of my grief and the people I have loved and lost.
LH: What writer’s work would you like to elevate here?
MW: I am really enjoying sharing with people about Christie Tate's recent debut memoir, Group. I've recommended it to my students, to my clients, to the group of women I used to participate in group therapy with, really to anyone who will listen to me. Christie's book is so vulnerable in its honest look at the things some of us have to do in order to build the life we want. And I appreciate how actively Christie tells difficult truths about having a body
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Meg Weber writes memoir about sex, grief, love, family, therapy, and tangled relationships. Meg's writing gives voice to the ways her life continues to unfold outside the boundaries prescribed for her. She lives in her hometown of Portland, Oregon with her teenager and their labradoodle named Portland. Her writing is featured in The Quotable (Instructions), MUTHA Magazine (Yellow Brick Road), Rabble Lit (Wardrobe) and in anthologies by Seal Press and Pact Press. Her debut memoir, A Year of Mr. Lucky, launches from Sincyr Publishing on February 8, 2021.
