Q & A with author Kelly Bargabos and Susan J. Farese of SJF Communications
SJF: In a nutshell, tell us about your book or written piece.
KB: The memoir I’ve written about my brother, Bobby, Chasing the Merry-Go-Round: Holding on to Hope & Home When the World Moves Too Fast, is a true story of what it’s like to live in a world where you can’t keep up. I wrote my brother’s story because I believe it is an important one. In a culture that has historically valued strength over weakness, intellect over character, and accomplishment over a simpler life, a segment of our population is systemically and repeatedly marginalized — unseen and unheard. When someone has physical disabilities that are invisible and intellectual limitations that aren’t always obvious, life is challenging in ways that most of us don’t understand. There are many people like my brother in this world. People who need a little extra help to keep up with this fast-paced system we’ve created. How we care for those who need help has an everlasting impact. If the basic needs of a person’s spirit, soul, and body are met, it allows them the ability to keep their own corner of the world — their home — safe and prosperous for them and their family. This is all there is.
My heart has always been to tell the story of my brother, Bobby, so that people could see what life is truly like for someone like him. It’s a story about struggle and hope, survival and resilience, and most of all, the gift of acceptance and love.
SJF: What has your experience been as a writer in San Diego?
KB: I arrived in San Diego on November 1, 2016, a transplant from upstate New York. Almost immediately I began searching for writing groups. I discovered that the La Jolla Writer’s Conference was happening in a few days so I sent an email request for a last-minute registration. I remember the event director, Jared Kuritz, calling and asking me rather incredulously, “You just decided to attend the conference? You do know it starts tomorrow, right?” But he graciously accepted me, and that event was my first introduction to the welcoming writing community in San Diego.
I met Marni Freedman and many other amazing people at that conference. After that, I joined San Diego Writers, Ink, San Diego Writers and Editors Guild, and the San Diego Memoir Writers Association. My worries about finding a vibrant and soul-filling writing community were over.
SJF: How has storytelling influenced your life?
KB: I fell in love with stories and words, and Laura Ingalls, after I received my set of Little House on the Prairie books. I can’t remember a time that I didn’t love to read or collect quotes, poems, and song lyrics. As a young girl in a rural community, the weekly Book Mobile arrival was the highlight of my summer. I still remember how I puffed up with pride when my fifth-grade teacher gave me a “Prolific Reader Award.” Stories broadened my universe and gave me a worldly perspective that I am grateful for.
As an adult, storytelling has been therapeutic and healing and has allowed me to make sense of many things. If we are brave enough to tell our own stories, we prevent other people, or situations, from defining us. We define ourselves.
SJF: If you had a magic wand, what kind of opportunities would be available to writers in San Diego?
KB: San Diego is already pretty magical, but if I had that magic wand, I would create more opportunities for readings and performances, and engagement with the community, especially with those that are typically unseen and unheard.
SJF: What are you excited about when it comes to participating in the inaugural San Diego Writers Festival?
KB: To be among such talented and accomplished people is a gift. It is such a special thing to be involved with something like this at its birth and inception. I know this event will be life changing for many people, and I can only imagine how it will grow and evolve in the years to come.
SJF: What advice would you give to a new writer in San Diego?
KB: Go where writers are! You have to put yourself out there, almost like dating. Join writing groups, go to their monthly meetings, and keep looking until you find your tribe. Conferences, such as this one, are a great way to immerse yourself quickly and meet a broad range of people who work in different genres and disciplines. In today’s world, there really are no excuses. The internet makes it so easy to find people who are passionate about the things you are passionate about.
SJF: Many thanks, Kelly!
Learn More about Kelly Bargabos
Learn More about Susan J. Farese of SJF Communications
