Interview: writer and humorist Claire Zulkey

"Who? "

Claire Zulkey. She’s written for The Wall Street Journal Online, ElleGirl, and The Chicago Tribune, among a long list of other publications. She also writes the MBToolbox blog over at Media Bistro. She lives in Chicago, she’s funny, she loves writing, and she’s crazy enough to consent to being interviewed by me, but I don’t hold that against her.

"Oh, THAT Claire Zulkey. I thought you meant the one with the kangaroo."

She’s that one too.

"Oh."

Can we start now?

Describe the path of your writing career. Whatever possessed you to start writing, and how did you end up doing what you’re doing?

I had a really good writing teacher in 8th grade, Mr. Onofrey. It probably sounds hokey but I went to a very small Catholic grade school and we were a really tight-knit class. Most of us still talk and we agree that he was one of the best teachers any of us had ever had. Anyway, he always had us working on writing projects—sonnets, novels, group projects, class newspapers. So I kept working on that kind of stuff through high school, where I got a little bit of journalism experience. I didn’t go to a very writing-focused university so at Georgetown I largely wrote to entertain myself. For some reason they gave me a column in the school paper and that probably helped me hone my voice.

What are you wearing? If you’d rather not answer that, what’s the most fun you’ve ever had on a writing project?

I just got back from the gym so right now I’m wearing my very space-age looking Pumas, stupid cropped black sweatpants (my regular-length ones are dirty), a gray tank top and black sports bra. Most fun on a writing project? I’ve had a lot. Maybe a favorite was when I got sent on a trip to the British Virgin Islands for an article for a bridal magazine.

What’s the worst writing job you’ve ever had?

In some sense for me there is no bad writing job because I’m always amazed I get paid to write period. But now that I’m done being all high horsey, it was definitely being a copywriter. I was a copywriter for an extremely shitty ad firm here in Chicago and had to write weekly newsletters for an extremely shitty riverboat casino in Gary, Indiana. That was pretty bad.

What is the most-used writing resource on your bookshelf?

I hate to say it but I rarely use any resources off my bookshelf. I probably pull out my Chicago Manual of Style out once in a blue moon only to realize I have no idea how to find in there what I’m looking for.

Admit it. You like it because it has "Chicago" in the title. (That and the snappy orange book jacket.)

 You’re right, that’s true. But it’s also sort of the standard that EVERYBODY uses, unlike the AP Manual.

And the jacket IS hard to resist. I own three orange coats of my own. For real. 

Tell us about being a writer in Chicago. Is there a special "vibe," or is that word passe now?

I love being a writer in Chicago. I’m actually leading a panel next week on what it’s like to be a freelancer here, but on a broader sense, I feel like it’s been really supportive. There has been a reading series at the Museum of Contemporary Art that’s wrapping up on the 16th that involves contributions from a bunch of major reading series in the city—I love that collaboration instead of competition. We have fun together, I think, we writers here in Chicago. We take our work seriously but don’t take ourselves too seriously. I’m wildly generalizing of course. Also, did you like that I plugged not one but two events of mine in this paragraph?

Very smooth. Have a cookie. Aside from MBToolbox, your favorite writing website is … ?

Freelance Success. It’s a subscriber-only resource for freelance writers—you pay $100 a year to have a group of experienced writers help you out with your freelancing queries.

[We pause momentarily while your humble correspondent tries to cover up his disappointment that she didn’t mention this site.]

Oh, shut up.

Sorry. Clean or messy desk?

At home, it’s very small so it’s messy 90% of the time. Put anything more than a pop can on it and it’s messy. At my office, it’s messy during the day, clean by the time I leave.

Any advice or words of writerly wisdom you’d like to pass on to the non-writers or aspiring writers in the audience?

It’s the same old crap you always hear: Keep working. If you persevere, it’s likely you’ll find success—and I imagine if you have the drive to keep working, it’s because you’ve experienced a modicum of success—it only takes one small success to lead you to much larger ones. Or, if you happen to be a person who hasn’t found any particular writing career success but just love writing so much that you can still keep going just for the joy of it, then God bless you.

God bless you too, and thanks. For more Claire, check out her site: www.zulkey.com.