Multi-genre writer Amy Berkowitz reflects on three things she regrets leaving out of her first book, Tender Points, a decade ago.
Tender Points was first published in the summer of 2015 by visionary, now-defunct indie press Timeless, Infinite Light (and later reissued by Nightboat Books in 2019). At the time, I couldn’t have imagined disclosing more about my experience. But looking back, I notice a handful of things are missing from the story.
When I say regret leaving these parts of the story out, I don’t mean that I think the book is deficient without them. Tender Points is a book that recognizes the importance of absences and gaps — you can tell that just by looking at the cover (designed by Timeless, Infinite Light cofounder and generally very talented designer Joel Gregory), which is riddled with holes. The book’s title repeats eight times across the purple background, and each time there’s a hole punched through in place of a letter, so that the words are never intact.
When I talk about regret, what I mean is that I wish I could have felt safe enough, confident enough to say these things in 2015. I’m interested in writing about these lacunae because they give me a chance to reflect on how much I’ve changed and how much the world has changed in the decade since the book was published.
Yeah ableism does a number on us, especially if we have invisible disabilities. Super happy you’ve found sick & disabled communities.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about audience. Who am I writing for? I’m not sure I even want to write for able bodies people anymore. Your thoughts?
I think about audience a lot. I think your question is an important one. My instinct is to say, you should write for the audience you want to write for! I had a conversation with a friend recently where we talked about the books we are both writing about traumatic birth. She is interested in reaching an audience of people who’ve experienced birth trauma; I’m interested in reaching an audience that’s as wide and general as possible, because it feels important to me to talk about birth trauma as a problem that affects everyone (given that we are all birthed by someone). I don’t think there is a right answer, I think it can change with every project. So yaaaaa write for the disabled community you are stoked to connect with if that’s what you feel drawn to.
Yeah ableism does a number on us, especially if we have invisible disabilities. Super happy you’ve found sick & disabled communities.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about audience. Who am I writing for? I’m not sure I even want to write for able bodies people anymore. Your thoughts?
I think about audience a lot. I think your question is an important one. My instinct is to say, you should write for the audience you want to write for! I had a conversation with a friend recently where we talked about the books we are both writing about traumatic birth. She is interested in reaching an audience of people who’ve experienced birth trauma; I’m interested in reaching an audience that’s as wide and general as possible, because it feels important to me to talk about birth trauma as a problem that affects everyone (given that we are all birthed by someone). I don’t think there is a right answer, I think it can change with every project. So yaaaaa write for the disabled community you are stoked to connect with if that’s what you feel drawn to.