Shontay Luna

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.

Shontay Luna is a self-proclaimed goddess who lives in Chicago with her mix of pens, paper, and Sons of Anarchy’s Juan Carlos “Juice” Ortiz fanfiction fantasies. A part-time public service worker, her poems have appeared in WestWard Quarterly, The Listening Eye, Canyon Voices, Toasted Cheese, EKL Review, The Beatnik Cowboy, The Taborian, Brittle Paper, and The Literary Yard, among others. The author of four collections of poetry, the most recent is "To James & Sarah with Love - Poetry based on slang of the 1920s through 1940s."

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

Shontay Luna: When I first started writing in my early teens, I needed silence. The thought of music I perceived as a distraction. It was like this for many years. After I had my three daughters, I'd write in the bedroom closet in the middle of the night, usually between 1 and 3 a.m. After they were older, on my bed, I'd surround myself with notebooks, four to five pens (each a different color), and start writing. In 2020, I also started writing fanfiction. Writing stories by hand before typing them up later. Now, I listen to instrumental music. Though I had a desk for the specific purpose of writing, I never use it. I still write on my bed with pens, notebooks, and now a vintage dictionary and thesaurus. My fanfiction, I now create on the computer, making it up as I go along.

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?

Shontay Luna: Carl Sandburg. There is something about his "Chicago" poem I find riveting. I'd ask him about the things he'd seen in his time, perhaps the things that never made it to the page.

I find a brutal honesty in the lines, and I'm at the point in my life where I'm done being nice. I'm attracted to that honesty, even if it is brutal. I wrote a Golden Shovel in his honor that was published by Flying Island Journal this year.

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?

Shontay Luna: I don't watch the news, so whatever news stories I come across are via social media or on my search pages. I wait for a 'pull' in the middle of my chest. When I feel that, then I think, “I’m going to write about THAT." There is so much going on, that even if I wanted to write about everything, it would technically be impossible. So instead, I wait for the pull and write about things that matter to me. Things I've written about in the past derived from news items like the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, Larry Nassar, and the preacher who demanded a certain amount of money from church members.

It is my duty to challenge the socio-political landscape and to always say what is fair. Though I'd definitely call myself a dreamer (as well as my third and fourth grade teachers would), I can't write about things being all flowers and butterflies when they aren't. But I write about those as well, because I need a balance.

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

Shontay Luna: The Blues Brothers; the first thing that came into my mind. When I sit to write, I have a purpose. I know that I'm going to write. I may even have a vague idea of what I'll write about. But things usually don't go as planned. What results on the page may be completely different from what I intended starting out. It's chaotic, full of detours but fun and with its sad parts (only sometimes) like the movie.

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

Shontay Luna: Don't be hurt by rejections, you'll get many. So many, they'll resemble stars in the sky. Write about what you haven't been able to speak about. Stay focused, life is full of distractions. But keep writing and reading, read some of everything, even things (or authors) you may not like, because there is something to learn from everyone. I've tried countless times to submit to local lit mags. I'm not there yet, but one day I will. And they will be too.

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, and Past Ten.