Heather Byrd

By Jasminum McMullen

Writuals explores how our city's rich literary heritage, cultural diversity, and iconic spaces inspire routines that fuel the work of local authors.

Heather 'Byrd', named a Living Legacy by Brooks Permissions, is an ancestral guided international award-winning poet and esteemed writing coach, and a catalyst of voice, story, and badassery. She is a giver of giggles and hugs, the queen of quirky and the author of the guided journal, Igniting Ink: 30-Day Writing Journey and her chapbook Mahogany: A Love Letter To Black. Byrd’s accomplishments extend far and wide, including being celebrated in numerous festivals and publications, including Cagibi, Expressions from Englewood, Hope Ignited, and Trouble The Waters: Tales from the Deep Blue, a finalist for the World Fantasy Award and Locus Award. She has been recognized for her editorial and curation of the diversity, equity, and inclusion edition of the “I See You” issue of the Cornell Report, earning her the International Anthem Award alongside industry giants like Google, HBO Max, BBC, National Geographic, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. In a world that needs amplification for the voices of women of color, Byrd ensures each person is heard, celebrated, and seen. Her favorite words are balloon and bubble.

CLHOF: What are your “writuals,” and how have they evolved?

Heather Byrd: There are several things that I do to keep myself in a healthy writing rhythm. First, morning pages. If you ever read The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, she talks about two fundamental principles for connecting with your creative self—artists' dates and morning pages. Morning pages are a three-page stream of consciousness writing practice that takes place first thing when you wake up in the morning to dump all of what is in your mind onto the page. Ideally, you are creating space so you can be more creative, making sure you’re not bogged down with your grocery list, figuring out when you can get your car fixed, or getting around Chicago traffic. By establishing this rhythm, I get to write it out so I can show up better on the page and in person.

I absolutely love this practice, and I’ve been doing it in community consistently for over two and a half years, and it has been an absolute game changer for how I show up regularly, regardless of whether I am writing for consumption. I've also expanded that practice to include evening writing sessions twice a week where I am brain dumping my creative ideas into a document.

Another part of my practice is being able to strengthen my spiritual practices with Tarot and meditation. In creating space throughout my day to meditate, whether it is five or twenty minutes versus an hour, I get to ask myself questions, pause, and listen to what comes up. Anytime I'm stuck in my writing, I use tarot as a tool to tap into my subconscious and help me journal through what it is I'm challenged by so that I can get to the root and work through it.

CLHOF: If you could have coffee with any Chicago author, past or present, who would it be and why? How has their work or legacy influenced your writing?

Heather Byrd: Oh, this is hard, but I do love the question. I've been fortunate enough to have conversations with many living Chicago writers, but there are so many from the past that I haven't had the chance to talk to. However, I will say, if I were to stick to having a conversation with a living Chicago writer, I would say, Shonda Rhimes. Her script writing and how she’s approached her work have been extremely influential in how I move, what I do, and how I build it.

Reading Year of Yes once a year for five years changed the way I approach ideas and doing things that scare me. Her courage to step outside of her comfort zone, really leaning into the worlds she's built, and the appearances that she needed to make as an introvert, I align with deeply. I love the way she approaches stories to make sure that the lives of so many types of people can see the screen. I appreciate how honest she is about the challenges that she's been through and how her need to prioritize her family at one point was a challenge for her, and so her being able to find a healthy rhythm was important. I love watching her evolution, which gives me the ability to see myself in how she’s built an entire universe. She has Shondaland, and I have Byrd’s World, a space specifically for women of color to come together, be themselves, and show up on the page how they deserve. Watching her build Shondaland is about the storytelling and the jobs that she's created. I would love to sit down and have a conversation about what that's been like for her and the lessons that she's learned in building Shondaland, being on the page, and how she's been able to take care of herself, family, the struggles, just all of it. I’d like to talk about it all.

CLHOF: Chicago is a city known for its activism and social consciousness. How, if at all, do these civic engagement and social justice elements find their way into your writing rituals or themes? Do you feel a duty to reflect or challenge the city’s socio-political landscape in your work?

Heather Byrd: Chicago is a city of resistance. We fight back against the labels put on us, and you can feel it in our streets, music, arts, food, and the way we gather. So for me, social justice is braided into everything, including the ritual of the most radical thing we can do, which is, tend to the self so we can show up for all the ways Chicago needs us.

My daily writing rituals include people who are change makers, educators and trailblazers, artists who are archiving our memories and changing the trajectory of how we receive information. I’m not only holding space for myself as a writer, I am inviting others to join me in the humming, breathwork, and the collective energy we create in our writing spaces. We are showing up to heal ourselves so we can go out and be active in social justice movements in each role we carry. We are challenging the way we approach writing, the way we show up in spaces, and the way we are told things “need” to be done. There’s nothing more Chicago than making sure the truth is documented and heard and all the mess in between.

Instead of writing alone, I have built rituals around the power in the collective, and it has wholeheartedly changed who I am as a person, an artist, and a writer. We gather here in the most authentic of ways with our bonnets, rollers, robes and caps to just show up as we are, remove our masks and take off our capes. The act of choosing ourselves and our healing is an act of resistance, and there is nothing more Chicago than that, especially when the messages that come our way want us to lose pieces of ourselves.

I believe the important part of the work that I am doing within my writing rituals is making sure that I can be a full human before stepping out into any room and having the larger conversation around the issues our city faces. If I am not healthy, whole, and healed, how can my writing be what it needs to be to move the conversations forward?

CLHOF: Name a movie shot in Chicago that best describes your writing style.

Heather Byrd: The Ironheart series episode 3, “We In Danger, Girl”, where RiRi and Natalie go to the lakefront by the Planetarium. They are just kickin’ it and having fun at what I consider one of the most beautiful places in Chicago – it’s peaceful and the water always knows. The lake speaks to us if we are listening.

Before this scene, Natalie just wanted to spend time with RiRi, hang like they used to, do something fun together, share stories and secrets. Though there were gaps in Natalie’s memory, their interaction was meaningful. RiRi struggled to acknowledge Natalie, hesitated in being honest with her. I see Natalie as a representation of our inner child, the creative parts of ourselves we’ve let go. My writing is like a conversation with self, recalling memories with my first love (self) and my best friend. Once I open up to the process and understand my writing is a journey, I can be honest, laugh, cry, reminisce, and listen to the water.

CLHOF: What advice would you give someone who wants to write and publish in the city?

Heather Byrd: Write like this city raised you. We are a people of breath, joy, and fight. If you're gonna write, don’t water down who you are – we’re all juke, ciphers, housemusic, footwork, Harold’s, and hot dogs without ketchup. Allow all of that and more to show up in your writing. Start with writing down all of it regardless of punctuation and misspellings. Start with the story that scares you – the one that still lives in your body that someone told you not to write. Ignore the naysayers and the voice in your head that whispers, “I can’t do this.” You technically don’t need permission to begin, and I understand how important it is to be seen, so I am letting you know I see you. START WRITING. All you need is a notebook, a pen, and hopefully a community that can hold your brilliance and your breakdowns. Write to break silences, reclaim space, and archive what the world keeps trying to forget. We are proud dreamers, legacy builders, and trendsetters. Lastly, remember, it is never too late to start.

Jasminum McMullen is an Associate Board Director at the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, interested in engaging writers from or living in Chicago about their writing rituals. Her writing has appeared in Black Joy Unbound, Mamas, Martyrs, and Jezebels, Past Ten, and The Elevation Review.