Kim Fairley
Kim Fairley was raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. She attended the University of Southern California and holds an MFA in Mixed Media from the University of Michigan. Her first book, Boreal Ties: Photographs and Two Diaries of the 1901 Peary Relief Expedition chronicled the Arctic expedition of her great grandfather, Clarence Wyckoff. Kim lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Twitter: @KimFairley1
Instagram: @KimFairleyWrites
Have you ever experienced Imposter Syndrome?
I think it’s human to experience Imposter Syndrome occasionally. When I was young, I was a competitive swimmer. Whenever I would win by a few hundredths of a second in a race, it would feel like a fluke. When people would pat me on the back and tell me about what a great job I’d done, and I knew I was only a fingernail faster than my competition, it always seemed like luck. It’s the same way with writing. I don’t know many writers who don’t doubt their ability to write. And with the three books I’ve written, no matter how many years I’ve devoted to getting them completed and published, I’ve always been aware that there were many other people who played a big part in my accomplishment.
Is there a work of art that you love. Why? Have you ever visited it in person?
I am a big fan of the mixed media artist, Joseph Cornell (1903-1972). Cornell was self-taught and he constructed intimate assemblages of found objects, which he arranged to create a story. They’re very dramatic and mysterious. I love that he used birds and butterflies, small glassware, maps, spheres, and pharmaceutical gadgets. Each box seems to relate to the next like a chapter in a book. By just looking at his work it seems he’s giving us access to his questioning mind. Whenever I go to Chicago, and have a chance to visit the Art Institute, I try to see his work because I love all of it.
Do you have another artistic outlet in addition to your writing? Do you sew? Paint? Draw? Knit? Dance?
All my life I’ve created art. In graduate school at the University of Michigan, I created monumental collages with color xerography to share what I’d learned about my great grandfather’s expedition to the Arctic. That project led me to write my first book, Boreal Ties, about the 1901 Peary Relief Expedition. I also love to dance and for a long time, I’ve been a contra dancer. It’s a dance style that goes back to the early colonists and is similar to English country dance, where you switch partners and dance with other people up and down two parallel lines.
What do you worry about?
Um, everything? I worry that if I don’t double knot my shoelaces, I’ll fall and break a limb. I worry that if I leave the windows open in my car, some rodent will climb in and build a nest. I worry that if I eat fish, the mercury and plastic will become lodged in my intestines. I worry that I could write a book about worrying and it would only add to my worries.
What brings you great joy?
My relationships with my family—my son and daughter and their children as well as my sisters and brothers and their families—give me the most joy in life. Our interactions are not always blissful, but there’s something powerful in having grown up and been through some tough times with other members of the family. These moments connect us on a deeper, more meaningful level. As painful as my family relationships can be sometimes, they also give me the greatest joy.
