Close Reader: An interview with Bri Soler
New! An interview series about reading and writing with some of my favorite creatives
Today is very exciting because I’m introducing a series of interviews!
In this series, “Close Readers,” I’ve asked some of my favorite Substack essayists, Bookstagrammers, and writers to share their reading and writing processes and habits, and tell us about what they’re currently studying.
Today’s *premiere interview* is with the luminous Briana Soler, who I met on Bookstagram and then decided that we simply had to be friends. You’ll see what I mean if you spend five seconds on her inspirational Bookstagram account, or read a single one of her open-hearted, confessional, and curiosity-driven essays.
After you read today’s interview, run run run to Bri’s essays to get more of her beautiful writing!
Let’s start with an introduction! What’s your name and where are you currently living? Tell us a bit about you.
Hello! Thank you for having me! My name is Briana Soler and I am currently living in Houston Texas. I am a writer and photographer, though calling myself that feels weird sometimes because I don’t get paid for my work. Though is that the only reason we can call ourselves something? No. I think what we do on a day-to-day basis is who we are, our passions, our interests, what makes us tick.
Anyway, I have a 9-year-old Frenchie/Boston terrier named Gordy who is a menace lol and I live with my fiancé Hayden, who I have been with for 11 years! He is an artist, and musician, among other things, and that inspires me a lot in my work. What else can I say? I read multiple books at once always, I am a picky eater and sort of plain, except I love jalapeños. I am half Mexican and half Argentinian.
I like maximalist decor, if that wasn’t obvious, I like to critically think about almost everything, I like fall/winter best, and I like to collect rocks and shells and flowers and all sorts of things really. If you asked anyone to describe me they would probably say, I am blunt. I am a Taurus sun and a Pisces moon.
What are you reading right now?
I just finished Good Woman by Lucille Clifton (brilliant). I have started Make It Scream Make it Burn by Leslie Jamison, Girl, Woman, Other By Bernardine Evaristo, and The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel. I am also thinking of picking up In Cold Blood by Truman Captoe, and I started The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy which I really want to get back to!
What are some of your favorite books or genres?
I am a huge nonfiction person. Essays, memoirs, letters, diaries, journals, biographies, autobiographies, reference books, psychology, lit crit, current events, sociology, etc!
Some writers that come to mind are Joan Didion, Clarice Lispector, Patti Smith, Lucia Berlin, John Steinbeck, Alain de Botton, and Barthes. Oh, there’s so many more…
I also love reading poetry and think there's so much to learn from poetry as a writer. And I do love fiction, though I am a bit pickier with it, but I enjoy literary fiction. My home is always nonfiction but I have learned the absolute value of fiction and why they play such a huge role in life.
What ideas are you studying or exploring right now?
Hmmm. Nostalgia. Identity. Being Latina. Second Generation. Rules. The mundane of life. The American dream. Money. Love. Social media. The meaning of life? Lol
What is your reading method? Tell us about your reading routine, habits, quirks, anything you'd like to share. (If you'd like to include a photo of your favorite reading place(s), please do!)
Hmm, I don’t know if I have a reading method per se. I usually try to read a little bit in the morning before I even look at my phone. I bring my book wherever and read where I can. I am always stuffing pens into my books as bookmarks and will underline what strikes me as profound, what I want to study, what I want to look up, and what I want to remember. But I do do the bulk of my reading in my library until Gordy cries at me to cuddle with him and then I’m usually on the couch or outside with him.
Do you prefer to read hardbacks, paperbacks, or digital copies? Why?
Paperbacks are definitely what I prefer, but I don’t hate hardbacks. The giant books of collected works are what get me though, even though I own so many, they make me not want to read them because how am I going to hold that comfortably!? I have not ventured into the digital side and I don’t think I ever will. I love the physical too much.
What’s your annotation process like, while you read? Do you write in your books? Why or why not?
I don’t really have a strict annotation process. I mainly underline sentences I like, that move me, that I want to remember, and wish I wrote. Sometimes I will circle words I don’t know and write out the definition. Usually my “rating system” is: underlines mean the things that are really important to me, a line or a block around a paragraph means I liked all of this but I’m lazy or overwhelmed by how much I like it it would be absurd to underline it all (though sometimes I do it anyway), and a circling of the page number means the whole page is glorious and I need to return to it again.
That’s another reason for my annotations, it’s breadcrumbs for me to return to, though I admit sometimes when I come back to a book years after I’ve annotated, I will sometimes come across passages that I have no idea why I underlined them. The passage of time I guess.
Speaking of writing, what is your current writing project?
I have been working on two essays for a really long time. Though “working on” seems like a stretch. Basically, I have written out the bulk of it years ago, adding a bit each year, telling myself I’m not yet ready to fully explore this, or get into it. But I can feel that time is rounding out and I am ready to work on them again and finish them.
Aside from that I am working on other personal essays with hopes of submitting them to literary magazines. I am working on a piece that is due by the end of the month, another personal essay. I am trying to reshape these flash fiction pieces I wrote a few years ago to see if they are worth submitting. I have had a novel idea floating around my head for years but that seems too grand to take on so who knows if I will ever get to it.
Describe your writing process. Where do you start? How do you get focused?
Hm. Where do I start? I’m not sure. I get ideas in my head and then write them out either on my notes app, my journals, or my computer. I try to actively write every day, and I find when I make the active habit of writing every day the words come easier, and so do the ideas. But sometimes that looks like just sitting in front of my computer and staring at what I’ve written and hating it, or sometimes it means just staring at my computer and thinking, and then reading instead or journaling instead. And some days (the best days) it looks like me typing away furiously, blissfully unaware of how much time is passing. The best way for me to get focused though is to turn on some sort of classical music or instrumental so I can sort of enter the headspace of writing and silence the doubt.
“I try to actively write every day, and I find when I make the active habit of writing every day the words come easier, and so do the ideas.”
Describe your revision process. How do you go back into a piece of writing to revise?
Revising old pieces is hard for me. Unless I have copious amounts of coffee. But really everything is timing so depending on how I feel about a piece I will either dread it and not want to reread anything I’ve written or I will be excited to revise it and it will feel like a puzzle. I am trying to not be so self-critical when returning to old pieces I want to revise and rework. Most of the time it takes me a few hours to sit with the piece and reread it and enter that frame of mind to be able to “get in the mood’ to revise it.
Describe your editing process. What’s that like? Do you self edit? Reach out to friends?
I self-edit. I used to reach out to friends in the past but I didn’t particularly like it. I don’t want my voice to be changed. But these were not writers just friends, so I would be very curious to see how an editor would edit my work, or even a writer friend. But I think there needs to be a lot of trust there, and maybe a level of closeness that I don’t yet have with any writer friends. I also always feel bad at making someone else read my work and edit it for free, so I typically stray away or tell them only when I have a “really serious” piece that I need another writer’s eye on will I reach out to them. But there goes that “really serious” argument…
As far as my process goes, I subscribe to the saying, “Kill your darlings”, meaning those ideas or sentences that we hold onto sometimes because they are our babies sometimes need to be killed. Sometimes they were just the jumping-off point but didn’t actually need to be in the piece. I used to hold onto everything and think, “I need this in here!” But I think I was mostly afraid that the piece I was writing was the only “good” thing I would ever write again so I needed every thought relating to the topic to be in it. But now I understand the importance of killing your darlings, and how it can make a piece much sharper and stronger. So I mostly just reread a piece a million times, in various forms. Out loud, on the computer, on the phone. It’s really a tedious process but I have come to learn to enjoy it. It’s where the piece gets molded and sculpted into the thing you end up reading.
What is the relationship between reading and writing, to you? Where are the overlaps? Where are the important distinctions?
To me, the relationship is everything. I cannot do one without the other. I always say I read to write. And I read to learn. Reading has taught me how to write. I am always drawing from other writers, from other books I am reading. Which is why I am such a mood reader. Everything I read directly affects my writing. I am trying to learn the separation and balance of things, but sometimes to be immersed in one way is not so bad.
What does close reading mean to you? Do you consider yourself a close reader?
You know, it's funny because I had never really thought of it that way until I met you actually! To me it means to critically read something, which doesn't necessarily mean to pick it apart in a negative way, but to think deeper into what themes are being talked about, how it relates to my life, what the writer was going through to produce this work, what the writer was studying/ around while this work was made, what influenced it, how does it relate to our society now, what is my opinion on what I'm reading, etc. The list goes on.
“I love making connections, figuring out patterns, and learning new things about others, myself, and the human race. So in a way, close reading means finding out what's being said underneath what's being said, or sometimes things just are, and being okay with that too.”
I really enjoy thinking, which sounds sort of silly, but I do. I love making connections, figuring out patterns, and learning new things about others, myself, and the human race. So in a way, close reading means finding out what's being said underneath what's being said, or sometimes things just are, and being okay with that too. I guess I draw parallels between psychoanalysis and close reading in a way. Close reading also means studying the craft for me, and you have honestly helped me implement more tools or ways of looking at the text and asking the right questions (so thank you!) So yes, I absolutely think of myself as a close reader now, and I'll never go back!
What’s your current coffee or tea order?
I make myself a latte with an extra shot of espresso and right now I am using the pumpkin spice oat creamer! Cut with almond milk too.
Anything else you’d like to share about writing, reading, or annotating?
"There is no rule on how it is to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly. Sometimes it is like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges"
- Hemingway
Lastly, for those who want to get to know you better, where can they find your work? Share your @ for anyone who wants to follow along!
You can find me on Instagram @bribeatris or here on Substack:
Thank you so much for sharing all this amazing inspiration, Bri!
For more interviews and close readings on Sunday mornings, subscribe now.
Eeeeek!! Thank you so much for having me!!! I’m so excited for this series!
Love this--these are perfect questions for this kind of thing. I’m always interested in people’s reading and writing routines!