INTERVIEWERS: Gabriela Neves, Juliana Batosto & Mahmoud Mansi
PHOTOGRAPHY: Zohra Saed
- What are the career advantages of working as a freelancer than working as an employee? Why did you decide to work as a freelance?
There are clear advantages to working as an employee for a decent company. But as a writer and journalist working for a corporate news organization, I found myself writing things I didn’t believe in and didn’t care about. In fact, the whole way in which I was presenting information bothered me down to my toes. I am sure a bolder person could’ve changed the news organization from within, but instead I chose to write from the outside, working — for the most part — on projects and pieces that interest me. And most of all projects that I think fall under the Hippocratic “first, do no harm.”
- How do you manage your time and energy working for many media publications since you are your own boss?
Badly. I’d hate to have anyone follow how I do things. I am constantly telling myself I need to take one day off a week, or schedule vacations, sick days. But I never quite manage it. I see how it’s doable, it just takes a firmness. An ability to say, “No, not this project, not this time,” which is very important for a freelancer.
- What has changed in journalism since you started working? Does it lack anything nowadays?
So much! I’m so old! It used to be a field where most serious journalists worked full time at a particular publication. I was among the early internet-focused journalists. Now there are fewer full-time positions and more serious journalists who work as part of the gig economy.
- What is something that inspires you to keep writing? How do you deal with writer’s block?
Writer’s block is different for different people. You need to figure out the source of anxiety — you don’t have enough information/background/knowledge to write the piece, so that’s what’s making the page scream at you? Or some people are afraid of making a “mistake.” You need to locate the source of anxiety, talk to it, and then just jump in and write something. It might not be the right thing, but it’ll get you started.
- If you were to hire someone to work in a magazine or newspaper, what would you look for in a person? What would you ask during the interview?
Once upon a time, when I worked in corporate media, I did so many interviews that my brain hurt. (One day, I asked some poor young journalist three separate times where she’d gone to high school.) You could ask my husband what I asked him in his interview. To be honest, all I remember about interviewing him, now that 15 years have passed (and I stopped being his boss, and we got married), is that his clips really blew me away. I’m sure I also wanted to know if he had energy to really chase something down, a desire to know, a flexibility of mind, a willingness to be wrong and take advice.
- What can the Human Resources Department of a newspaper offer more to support the journalists of their company?
My first instinct was to say “the same as any other employee.” But I think in most countries, including the US and Egypt, HR departments also need to have an understanding of censorship issues and how to fight for their writers when the occasion arises.
- As an Author, how can one brand himself/herself?
If I’ve done anything to this end, it’s to find a particular niche that I care about. If you like writing about new types of cleaning technology, or hockey, or other galaxies, I suggest you really dive in. As to finding the voice of your writing, I think that’s in the doing.
- You work with many media corporations. How was for you to have a lot of contacts and maintain this networking?
I suggest people not be like me, and have some excellent filing system, and also learn the basics of a good contract. I won’t tell how often I lose my contracts, forget what they said, sign something I shouldn’t have, etc.
- How different is to write for a local and an international media? How is the media affected by the place it is located?
All media — even international media — is affected by their location, particular political concerns, and so on. Of course some more than others; a small-town newspaper in the US may only care about literature if it involves their small town. The Guardian doesn’t really care if a novel or novelist never writes about London. But the vision of any publication is absolutely affected by where and who they are.
- We can get news and articles from every place at any time, especially on the internet. Besides the internet, do you think print media still has an impact on youth?
That’s something else that’s so different from when I started. I used to think that my work being “in print” was much more valuable than being online. Even if the pay was less for the former. Now I get annoyed when my work isn’t available online. Some print media still has a big impact; it also depends on the internet penetration of a given city. But newspapers (since they’re generally full of short reads) haven’t showed the same staying power as print books. Indeed, I hate my ereader, but I can’t imagine not getting my news online.
- How to maintain loyal readers (especially on magazines) who will read your columns and articles even if you don’t write something that is their first interest?
Have integrity. This is what matters above all.
- If Marcia is to provide her own creative writing workshop, how would it go?
I have done creative writing workshops, including at Kotob Khan Bookshop (back when the main location was on Laselky). I suppose you’d have to ask my amazing, wonderful students, one of whom, Nada Adel Sobhi, has a story in the forthcoming The Djinn Falls in Love. I also learned a lot about teaching creative writing at the recent Dhaka LitFest, lessons that can be learned from conservatories, how to take one student’s story and go through it in detail in front of the group, and make that a lesson for everyone.
- Probably many of your writers and contributors can be working as employees in the corporate world. Do you advise job seekers to add “creative writing” as a talent in their CVs? Many HR people ignore the “Artistic” part when reviewing CVs or interviewing candidates. Can you please tell our friends in the HR how does Creative Writing affect the personality of the employee and his/her skills?
I advise them to add to the area for “publications,” unless it’s specifically for a creative job. It’s too bad more employers aren’t looking for creative thinking and writing skills. I had no internet or journalism experience when I applied for my first job. But one of the team who went over my first CV said they recommended me because, “Surely if she can read Russian literature, she can learn HTML!” (In the very olden days of internet journalism, we had to know HTML.)
- Why did you choose to spend time in Egypt? And how do you find Egyptian writers? What advice do you have for them?
I was terribly bored by my corporate-news job when my old university roommate said, “Take a vacation and visit me in Egypt!” On the second day, I had a Proustian experience down by Bab Zuwaila where the overlap between the real world and the Mahfouz novels, as I’d experience them, swept me off my feet. I flew back to America so intensely charmed that I convinced my husband to pack up and move to a country he’d never seen.
I am always looking for advice from Egyptian writers, not the other way around.
- Marcia, as a professional woman who has read a lot, worked in different places, and surely interacted with many people, what is your personal opinion about unemployment in Egypt, and how can the private and public sectors contribute to such global problem?
I’m sure an economist would have a better answer to this question. For myself, I suggest everyone read the excellent Arabic translation of Picketty’s Capital.
Marcia’s Excellent Articles, Reviews and Work:
https://www.theguardian.com/profile/marcia-lynx-qualey
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/marcia-lynx-qualey.html
http://www.yourmiddleeast.com/contributors/marcialynx-qualey_156
http://www.warscapes.com/column/marcia-lynx-qualey
http://chimurengachronic.co.za/tag/marcia-lynx-qualey/
http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/pages/?writer=Marcia+Lynx+Qualey
http://bookriot.com/author/m-lynx-qualey/
https://engagemn.com/tag/marcia-lynx-qualey/