Meet Jade Lascelles | writer, editor, and musician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jade Lascelles and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jade, what principle do you value most?
Lately I have been devoting myself more actively to curiosity, having that be the primary driving force in the work I’m doing. I’ve come to realize that anytime things feel stagnant or disappointing, it is because I have let my curiosity wane. Sometimes this happens due to burnout or stress or being distracted by other life things. Sometimes it’s just a matter of complacency, feeling numbed out by the over-stimulation of the world around me. Regardless of the cause, the effects remain similar—I am not engaging in a way that excites me, and thus, I am engaging less and less. When you intentionally bring curiosity to the forefront, wonder tends to follow. I think prioritizing curiosity as a primary principle is what keeps both satisfaction and innovation as active collaborators. Not only do I feel happier during the process, but the results are often something I didn’t know I was capable of. Curiosity is what keeps me pushing forward, trying more and trying new. And that, to me, is a most important approach to life.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a writer creatively and an editor professional, which means I’ve somehow lucked into a life path that allows me to spend much of my time immersed in books. Writing is something I’d always done; I just didn’t realize it until I began taking writing courses as part of my undergrad years. Once all the pieces began to click into place, I felt the rush of finding my medium, of being able to confidently claim writer as an identity. This led to me pursuing my MFA with the intention of teaching writing and literature (in hopes of helping others find the same welcome I was able to). But I soon realized that my skills better serve the writing once it exists, rather than being the one to help coax it out, which is how I found my way into editing. I have worked on every editorial step, from developmental to copyediting to book production, and I have gained experience working with literary journals, small experimental presses, and large-scale trade publishing. Being able to straddle the line of both creator and editor gives me a unique perspective for both. As an editor, I am sensitive to the emotions and struggles that can come up as your work is being revised and reshaped. As a writer, I have a broader sense of the editing and publication process, which allows me to sometimes proactively address an issue, or at least to be less reactionary to the discomfort that may arise when a problem or struggle occurs.

A few years ago, I also turned to music. I’ve been a lifelong music lover, but I always thought my role was as someone who enjoys the music rather than makes it. (I grew up dancing, so I’d seen myself as a channel for music in a more distanced way.) But I’d always daydreamed about playing the drums, and thanks to a few friends asking me to join a band without having any experience, I did it. And now I am completely in love with it. Playing music is a whole new approach to composition that fulfills a different part of my creative urges. Plus, it’s a great counterpart to writing because it is so collaborative and public, as opposed to being hunkered away in a room with my notebooks and computer. I’m currently involved in several musical projects, all of which are vastly different, and all of which I feel intensely devoted to.

I don’t think any creative work is easy, nor is trying to live a life that prioritizes creativity in a culture that instead values productivity and logic above anything else. In the US, it is becoming harder and harder to be an active artist because we all have to work so much just to get by, and there is little-to-no societal support for creative endeavors. It’s something we have to find ways to do in addition to everything else we must juggle. But it is essential and it is undeniable; it is an absolute must. Not only for the contribution art makes to the larger collective, but for those of us who identify as artists, it is genuinely the life blood that keeps us going. I make art because I have no other choice, because that is my first and always response to whatever it is I am experiencing in my life. I don’t really know a better way to process, and I have seen (and felt) the impact sharing creative work can make on someone else.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I recently went to the Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art in Denver, and I am now telling everyone I know how they need to go there! It was one of the most grounding and soothing experiences I’ve had in some time, being surrounded by room after room of beautiful, well-designed, and carefully crafted items. It felt like the best balm possible to this world of quick consumption, disposability, and more and more movement towards intangibility. So that would definitely be on my list!

I love old cemeteries (again, that connection to rootedness, archive, artifact), and Riverside Cemetery is one of my favorites. Music would surely happen. Red Rocks is an experience of its own, but the Mission Ballroom, the Bluebird Theater, and the Hi-Dive all hold special places in my heart. We would have to go to the riverside labyrinth in Lyons because it is magical. And a picnic at Chautauqua around sunset is one of my all-time favorite things to do on a warm night.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
It is easy to think of writing as a solo endeavor. And yes, the actual act of writing usually is. But there’s no way I would have become the writer I am without the support of so many other people: Anne Waldman and my faculty and cohort at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics for their many years of support and encouragement, Sarah Elizabeth Schantz and the generous participants of her (W)rites of Passage workshops for providing the most nurturing incubation space, Gesture Press and Essay Press for putting my books out into the world. And also other writers of other communities who regularly bridge the distances between our lonely little islands of language by inviting me to participate in readings, interviewing me, and soliciting works for their journals and publications. The only reason people are reading my words is because so many kind hands helped me find ways to place them on the page.

Website: https://www.essaypress.org/lascelles/

Other: https://www.gesturepressandjournal.com/press/theinevitable

Image Credits
A Spark Catches photo: Natalia Gaia
Pink dress microphone photo: Dona Laurita