Kimberly L. Wright

I’m working on an essay for a change, thanks to an essay prompt by Saeed Jones.

It’s in the form of a Q&A with myself, and it’s been a lot more fun, therapeutic and revelatory than I expected.

Here’s a segment:

JOURNALIST: But let’s get back to your so-called writing career. Why didn’t you ever pursue freelance writing like you had a mind to back in high school?

WRITER: Well, thanks, by the way, for calling it a so-called writing career. I do have a full-length poetry collection, though I didn’t really bother trying to aggressively sell it because it came out in March friggin’ 2020, when so many things were shutting down. They shut down NBA games! My non-selling poetry collection seemed like small potatoes when people were dying. Poetry collections aren’t big sellers anyway, unless you happen to be poet laureate or something. But I could make more of an effort, though it’s uncomfortable.

But I never really pursued freelance writing because I prefer the stability of an office job and not having to “shake my money maker” to drum up business, pitch stories, scramble to find places to sell my stuff. I like the security of that paycheck hitting my bank account every two weeks to the point where it’s kind of unimaginable to live any other way, though I may call upon freelance writing after retirement, assuming there’s still a market for content not written by AI.

JOURNALIST: AI, yes. Does that seem like an existential threat to you?

WRITER: It’s hard to say. Potentially? I guess for me it is because I don’t want to dabble in it like at all. Zero interest. Right now, I think there’s still a place for human writers because what it seems like what AI produces is total garbage. Probably I’d be more alarmed about AI if I knew more about it so I’ve just avoided it as much as possible. So far in my day job, the use of AI is highly discouraged, but I’m not sure they will be able to keep less reputable members of my profession from using it.

JOURNALIST: So what is your opinion of fellow journalists and the state of journalism in general?

WRITER: I feel like some of our smaller market folks and others are only too willing to turn a blind eye to abuses of power or let the segments of their readership/viewership that are the loudest control their coverage. It’s not a good look and not a positive development for those who profess to be unbiased, particularly as American democracy faces a possible extinction-level event, as well as erosion of liberties at the state and local levels, the increased banning of books, closures of libraries, intolerance of minorities, outright lies and scapegoating. I could go on. It’s pretty grim.

JOURNALIST: Wow, you don’t sound very empathetic toward small-market journalists. How are they supposed to handle pushback from the segments of their readership that are MAGA?

WRITER: Be firm. Point these people toward facts, though they will probably reject them. But we cannot cede reality to extremists. We cannot.