What does it mean to be an author at the end of an era? What is our responsibility when free speech and the concept of truth itself is under attack? How do we use the power of the pen when basic human rights are disappearing? What does a specifically American writer do when nearly the 250-year-old American experiment appears to be coming to an end? Are new genres or new approaches needed?

As an author and a teacher of literature, I have always believed in the power of fiction to change the world. When we enter a story as a reader, we enter a world that is often unlike our own. Not only do we see the world through different perspectives, we experience the shared humanity of those whose lives little resemble those that we know. This enhances empathy and gets us to question our previous world view in a way that emotionless facts can’t accomplish. It is this empathy, more than anything, that is dying in Trump’s America. Literature is always a causality in an authoritarian state. What does a writer do when she sees this dark new world approaching, but feels powerless to stop it?

I never remember wanting to be anything other than a writer and began writing my first stories for my older sister when I was seven or eight. While my books haven’t gotten as many readers as I would like, I am proud of what I have written. My own journey as a writer came to a screeching halt on October 12, 2020, when my 24-year-old son and only child was murdered. (I have written of this elsewhere on my blog.) I was nearly destroyed by my son’s death and strongly considered joining him. While it has taken me some time to work myself up from a dark place, I have come to the decision that if I’m not going to die, I need to live. To me, living means writing. I have long said that a writer needs to write to be happy. About nine months ago, I began The Llama Apocalypse, a dark comedic speculative fiction novel in which Native American gods get their revenge. For awhile the writing went quite well, and I was starting to feel alive again. I presently have over 77,000 words of it completed.

But as the destruction of the Trump era rips apart the very fabric of democracy, I have had increasing problems concentrating on this novel, as it seems somehow trivial when faced with my government imprisoning people without trial and attacking the right of transpeople to even exist. I temporarily abandoned in and have attempted working on numerous other projects, including the fourth novel in my epic fantasy series, The Kronicles of Korthlundia, a paranormal novel in which a drug addict sees ghosts when he isn’t under the influence, a fantasy novel in which a 21-century college student finds himself in Valhalla, a non-fiction analysis of MAGA as holy warriors, and a memoir/historical fiction exploring my deconstruction of my Mormon faith and my relationship to the great, great grandmother I was named after. But none of it seen right in the current political environment.

All of this leads to the questions I began this post with. What do I write when my country seems to be dissolving from within? Should the current political situation effect my work? Am I being too alarmist? Will the United States be able to pull back from the precipice? Or as a writer do I have some responsibility to fight or document this collapse? If so, what form does that responsibility take? And how do I do so? Or should I just relax and write as I always have?

I would love to hear the thoughts of other writers, especially American ones, but all others welcome, on your thoughts of writing in the Trump era? Has the political situation effected your writing? How? Have you found any answer to these questions that has worked for you? Or are you untroubled by them? Or as a reader, what do you want from writers at this time?