3 Questions with Amanda E. Scott

Originally from Houston, Amanda E. Scott is a Latinx writer currently pursuing a PhD in fiction at Western Michigan University, where she also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Third Coast Magazine. She is also co-founder and Assistant Executive Editor of Porter House Review, and her writing has been published in Crab Orchard Review, Entropy, Gulf Coast, Juked, New South, and elsewhere.

Nonfiction Editor Amber Wardzala chats with Amanda about her work from Issue 71, out now.

I love the way the section breaks after each paragraph are working within your essay, “A Room So Ancient I Almost Forgot.” Why did you choose to structure your piece in this way?

I think I’ve always been attracted to vignettes, so a lot of my writing tends to move through these snapshot moments. This piece started as an essay in fragments, but I always figured it would turn into something more longform. I guess I felt I needed to do my due diligence and excavate other details that seemed important—and certainly they are. But I found that the more I wrote, the further I moved away from this propulsive feeling I wanted to capture. So I worked on compressing the piece back down to its original bones, to these formative moments.  

I’m always curious to ask creatives this question—what led and inspired you to pursue writing?

 My father is a visual artist and musician, so I was immersed in the arts from an early age. I have a lot of memories of him painting on our back deck and playing piano. It was amazing to see him labor over something so private. I was drawn to that sort of conscious focus, but I took to reading and writing instead. He was also a big reader—mostly Beat novels and excursion memoirs. And while I’m so grateful for those books, I’m also glad I discovered other writers and forms. As a mixed writer, I was searching for those experiences and once I saw them represented in writing, I knew I wanted to commit myself to that mission, too.

Is there anything you’d like to share about your essay, “A Room So Ancient I Almost Forgot,” that we don’t know?

I know there’s more to say about this relationship and this period in my life, but I’ve slotted those notes away for another time. But it’s something I’d like to return to as it’s continued to shape the way I think about agency, empathy, and the difficult work of love (and forgiveness). Perhaps there’s a longer essay or a series somewhere in there, or a memoir—I guess we’ll see what happens!