Zachary Ostraff received his MFA in creative writing from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University (2016). He spends his time playing with his children, writing, and fishing. He is pursuing his PhD in English at Texas Tech University.
1. What writer do you want to be when you grow up?
If wasn’t going to teach or write (which is what I’m working towards in my Ph.D at Texas Tech) I would want to work in set and costume design for the stage and movies. I love the process of interpreting stories visually. I also love the process of working with my hands to sew and put together costumes. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays because it allows me to create costumes for my children.
2. What’s your favorite thing you’ve ever written?
It seems like the last thing I wrote is always my favorite thing. Although, it is also often times my least favorite thing. I think it is a conundrum that a lot of writers face: the feeling of doing good work, but also simultaneously hating it. At least I hope I’m not the only person to feel that way about my writing.
3. Who do you trust with your drafts and why?
The person I trust most with my drafts, with my ideas and concepts, with anything I’m working through is my wife Elise. She is a painter by trade and she is always willing to listen to me read and share her insights. Sometimes her insight is something I don’t want to hear, sometimes it is, but it is always pertinent and useful.
4. What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever gotten?
The best writing advice I’ve received is to read. But don’t just read. Read to learn how to write. If I read something I enjoy, figure out why, figure out how to emulate. So I guess you could say the best advice is learn to read to steal.
5. What’s your go to recommendation to read when somebody says “I’m not sure about this whole nonfiction thing?” Why? What do you hope it shows them? What about it excites you?
I don’t have a single go-to text when it comes to nonfiction. If someone asks me what they should read I usually try to figure out what other things they like to read and then I’ll recommend a text based on their interests. However, if there were one writer that I could become it would be John McPhee. I love how he incorporates research into all of his nonfiction—personal and impersonal. I love how his interests guide his writing.
Keep Reading
Zachary Ostraff, “The Lyric Essay as a Form of Counterpoetics,” Assay 7.2
Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies 