Exploring the Arts with Krystle DiCristofalo
Krystle DiCristofalo is an avid writer and full-time OHSer. Contributor Nicole Wu learns more about Krystle in the interview below.
Pixel Journal: When did you discover your love of writing?
KD: When my sister and I were really little, I guess 3, we had all these different toys and dinosaurs, and we would make up stories and play them out. Once I was able to handwrite and type, I would write down whatever came to mind. I think, though, it originated before I could even write in the enjoyment I had with storytelling.
PJ: What would you say is the biggest inspiration for your writing?
KD: My writing comes from a lot of different places. It comes from a lot of deeply personal places like things I’ve experienced in the past or seen friends going through. I like to deal with topics of intimacy and relationships with one’s self and others. That usually comes from my own relationship with myself and the mind-body relationship. That sounds really philosophical, I know, but that sort of experience.
PJ: Who are your favorite authors?
KD: This is a cruel, cruel question! :D I’ve been really into a lot of poets right now. So, Warsan Shire, Tarfia Faizullah, Aimee Nezhukumatathil. I also really like George Saunders (he’s not really a poet; he’s a short story guy). I’ve also been really into Natalie Diaz, Justin Torres, Sherman Alexie, Holly Henry, Ryan Ross... There’s a lot of people I really enjoy! But, I kind of look for something that is relatively similar between the poetry and prose I read. I really like this certain tone that a lot of authors use. It is not flowery, but very descriptive, a sort of gritty description. I was talking with a friend the other day, and I think I said, it avoids the fanciful in the description even if it’s something that has more of a surrealist bent to it. It avoids becoming too precious, even if we’re dealing with something really profound. A lot of what I read tends to deal with pretty heavy subject matters. So, I think if you’re writing about it, you have to write in a way that gets to the truth of it and doesn’t mask it with too much floweriness or eloquence. Eloquence is awesome; I love eloquence. But, you have to be careful not to misrepresent your subject.
PJ: Why do you write? Is there something that really drives you?
KD: I think in our Western society, we have a lot of really strange conceptions about the separations between ourselves and other people. We have a lot of requirements that we place upon our bodies and what are allowed and not allowed to do with them. I think it’s important that we challenge convictions and keep that going, not allowing ourselves to become complacent in what we are or who we should be.
PJ: What is the biggest impact your writing has had on people?
KD: That’s a really interesting question! Well, this past summer I attended the Telluride Association Summer Program where I studied creative writing with twelve other kids. We all shared our writing with each other, so I’ll base my answer off of that. Most of what I saw was that people felt like my writing kind of, thankfully, seemed to achieve some of the goals I had set for myself, mainly in challenging some of the ideas of who we try to be and who we try to force ourselves to be. I think people there tended to think my writing was pretty dark -- which it was, definitely! It’s so hard to judge how people reacted to it! Mostly, I think they thought I was achieving my goals, which is something I strive really hard to do. I know I’m nowhere near what I set out for myself to do, but I’m taking little steps and achieving goals.
PJ: How has writing shaped you and impacted the rest of your life?
KD: Writing has always been something that I’ve done as my main extracurricular and passion. It’s really helped me to get started on my hopefully one-day career. Getting published has made me realize that it’s possible to acheive things. It’s helped me figure out how to actually go about putting myself out there in other areas of life as well. I’m very shy, so I really hate soliciting people and calling them up on the phone if I need to talk to someone who is my superior. The process of writing, trying to get published and succeeding a little bit has helped me become a lot braver, and it’s also helped me to find myself, to consolidate my identity as a clear person in a body who is living in a Western society.
PJ: What has been your proudest moment during you writing career?
KD: This past year I was one of the 2017 Scholastic Art and Writing Award gold medalists, and they had this annual ceremony at Carnegie Hall. A couple months prior [to receiving the Scholastic award] I had just played the harp at Carnegie Hall for the first time, and few years before that, I used to dance -- that was another one of my passions -- and my dance troupe performed there [at Carnegie Hall]. So I was really happy that I got there three times with my three main passions and before I turned eighteen. That was really exciting to me. Also, there was this moment [during the Scholastic award ceremony] when the host of the show said, “All right audience, let’s give it up for the 2017 National Gold Medalists.” And we all had to stand up and turn around to the rest of the audience, and everyone was clapping really loudly. I was recording it on my phone and Instagraming the moment. It was really fun. We had Ellie Kemper and Amy Schumer come and talk to us, and it was just a really cool moment. One of the most dramatic of my life, but very exciting.
PJ: Any thoughts about your literary future?
KD: I definitely want to get an MFA in creative writing after high school, but I do have other concrete goals as well. I don’t think I’m going to be a starving artist, hopefully, but I do want to pursue writing in some fashion. Maybe get a novel published. I think that would be a big goal of mine, just to go into a bookstore and see a book I wrote. That’s probably the dream. Right now, I’m kind of editing for a literary magazine and sending my writing to a few different places. It’s not easy -- it’s so, so difficult. So, I think probably another big goal of mine would be, if I were to send my work to a really big liteary magazine, they would be like “Oh, I know who that is.” That would be really, really cool.
PJ: Do you have any advice for aspiring writers, or those who struggle with writing?
KD: Oh my goodness, I don’t know if I’m qualified to give advice! But, I think, just find what you’re passionate about and how you want to speak to the world. Have some sort of goal or some sort of drive in your writing. Otherwise, why are you writing at all? Have an artisitic viewpoint, no matter what form you are working in with your art. That’s when we see masterpieces of whatever genre popping up, and that’s when people are creating work that is really important. Whether it be something about Black Lives Matter or shootings in schools, or something much more happy and light-hearted, I think it’s very important to have an artistic viewpoint and to know what you want to get across to the world. Have a reason for why you’re doing this or else it will become sort of meaningless. It wont’ have that drive behind it, and it won’t be as fulfilling for you. Oh! And also, get a really, really good grasp of grammer. That’s really important.
PJ: Is there anything else that you would like to share with our readers?
KD: It is really, really easy when you are someone who creates art, since it’s such a difficult proccess, to bend into what our society says right now -- that artists are not doing something important to move our society forward. I urge people to consider how in certain eras of the past, artists were seen as the movers and shakers in society more than anyone else. Trends and what society deems important are constantly changing and very much temporary. If you want to create art, a lot of people are going to have something to say about it, and it not always going to be super nice. But, that really does not matter. It has no bearing whatsoever on whether you should or should not create art because the world needs as many artists that it can get. Yes, there are many viewpoints that have been shown already, but there are so, so many that have not.