{"id":621,"date":"2021-04-05T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-05T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/howlingbird\/?p=621"},"modified":"2021-03-30T10:20:41","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T15:20:41","slug":"running-and-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/howlingbird\/2021\/04\/05\/running-and-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Running and Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Kristine “Kris” Joseph ’20<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kris Joseph is joining a growing list of MFA alumni with published books. She is a 2020 Howling Bird Press and MFA nonfiction graduate from Augsburg University. However, she has been a writer since she was a little kid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After receiving her undergraduate degree in Communication at UW Milwaukee, Kris started working at United Health Group (Optum). She\u2019s an executive assistant, but her passion for writing has never taken a back seat to her work. When she started looking into a master\u2019s program for writing, she spoke to her boss who encouraged her to go back to school. And with her company\u2019s tuition reimbursement benefit, she was able to do so at Augsburg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAugsburg best fit since I was working full time and needed a low-residency program,\u201d says Kris. \u201cI knew I wanted to write about mental health, but decided I needed to polish my work. At Augsburg, my thesis was my memoir.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kris incorporated her running into her writing. She hasn\u2019t read about many people using running to help with mental health, despite Kris meeting so many runners over the years who shared stories of their own battles with mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re running with a team, you have so much time with people and coaches, so there\u2019s always mental health training. Runners talk about their own problems. It was super interesting to me to meet these wonderful people and hear their stories,\u201d says Kris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kris\u2019s memoir is about her struggle with mental health from eight years old until the present. She integrates ways she fights depression, which includes her running. And while she always knew what she was going to write about in her memoir, she credits her time in the MFA program \u2013 especially her work on Howling Bird Press \u2013 as a huge help to her final book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kris was part of the editorial team that published Self, Divided<\/em> by John Medeiros<\/a>, which will be released April 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing able to work on the publishing process for Self, Divided<\/em> was the most helpful class that I took during the MFA program at Augsburg. I wouldn\u2019t be the writer I am today without going through this process with Jim Cihlar and team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kris was surprised how much she enjoyed reading the Howling Bird Press contest submissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReading others’ work and editing helped with the classes I was taking. When I had to send in a draft for my own thesis, it was easier because I\u2019d been editing and thinking creatively already.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Kris worked with a self-publishing company, Wise Ink, to publish her memoir, Simply Because We Are Human<\/em>. Wise Ink is a small Minneapolis company started by women, something Kris was particularly interested in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI could do a lot myself because of what I\u2019d learned from Howling Bird press. For example, I used a friend from my undergrad program to do the cover art. And I\u2019m doing the audio book with a friend who is an actor. Wise Ink hooks you up with everything you need, kind of an \u00e0 la carte deal, and they have a project manager that oversees it all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kris loved being able to shape her memoir \u2013 the writing and the publishing \u2013 herself. And she sees self-publishing as a growing commodity for writers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m done I have all the rights, 100% of sales. Self-publishing is something that will be utilized more in the future. There are some people that won\u2019t look at a book if it\u2019s self-published, but they\u2019re missing out on a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before her memoir was officially published, Kris was already thinking of her next project. She wrote a screenplay based on her book in partnership with Andy Froemke, the MFA screenwriter professor. The script is called Beyond Blue<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is also writing through her training for this year\u2019s Grandma\u2019s Marathon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never thought I\u2019d run another marathon, but I wanted something to help deal with the grief of this last year, so I\u2019m writing about that. It might be a book, it might not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kris\u2019s memoir, Simply Because We Are Human<\/em>, is available for order at her website: https:\/\/www.kjjosephwriter.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Review from James Cihlar, Howling Bird Press<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Simply Because We Are Human<\/em>, running\u2014both competitively and recreationally\u2014is the lifeline that helps KJ Joseph manage clinical depression. A track star from a young age, Joseph finds motivation to keep running in the memory of her late grandmother, a gifted athlete who competed in sports as a member of the first class of WAVES in the 1940s. This swift and dexterous memoir lays bare the challenges and triumphs of effective mental health treatment. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

How do we live with depression without shutting down all of our emotions, even the painful ones? \u2018Running is all about letting go,\u2019 Joseph writes. Bracing, sensitive, and savvy, Simply Because We Are Human<\/em> shares hard-won lessons along with a vigorous dose of inspiration.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2014James Cihlar<\/a>, author of The Shadowgraph<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kris Joseph is joining a growing list of MFA alumni with published books. She is a 2020 Howling Bird Press and MFA nonfiction graduate from Augsburg University. However, she has been a writer since she was a little kid. After … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[40,39],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/howlingbird\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/howlingbird\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/howlingbird\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/howlingbird\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/howlingbird\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/howlingbird\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":625,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/howlingbird\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions\/625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/howlingbird\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/howlingbird\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/howlingbird\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}