Guest Blog: An Interview with Liz de Souza —2020 Alumna and Rona Jaffe Foundation Fellow
by our Spring 2023 Seattle University Interns: Isabella Martino, Kat Pursell, and Viv Vargas-Silva (edited for clarity and brevity)
Elizabeth de Souza is a woman of many titles: author, mother, sister, daughter (of Bunch Washington), foundation founder, teacher, 2020 Rona Jaffe Foundation/Hedgebrook Fellow, MacDowell fellow, the list goes on. We interviewed Liz about her experiences at Hedgebrook, and how both the Rona Jaffe Foundation and Hedgebrook changed her life.
“I didn’t know this when I applied,” de Souza said, “But Hedgebrook is really, really, really, really selective.”
She had only applied because of a nudge from fellow Hedgebrook alumna, Kamilah Aisha Moon, and didn’t realize how lucky she was to get in until Moon explained that most writers are not selected on the first try.
De Souza stayed at Hedgebrook as a writer-in-residence in March of 2020, just before the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That was the last alone time I would get,” said de Souza, who at the time was living with her husband, two children, mother, and mother-in-law in a duplex apartment. “The time that I had [at Hedgebrook] really sustained me through what would be a very difficult two years.”
De Souza also noted how unique the residency experience at Hedgebrook was.
“You’re not being paid to do something, somebody’s not hiring you for your talents,” De Souza said, “They’re investing in you.”
The investment in de Souza went further than just offering her a residency spot. She recalled the importance of the additional stipend funding to assist with expenses for her family and travel costs. “It can bring anyone to tears,” de Souza added.
When asked about the barriers to entry that Hedgebrook and the Rona Jaffe Foundation helped to break down for her, de Souza spoke about the difficulties of being a Black woman author and academic. “There’s less than two percent of tenured professors who are black women,” de Souza explained. “It’s not because there aren’t qualified people, it’s because the systems in place are biased.”
She also listed consumerism and its warping of competition as a barrier to creating. “Our creative energies are misdirected into consumerism,” de Souza said. “If you’re not selling something, it’s like it’s not important.” However, she noted that Hedgebrook is a place outside of all of that.
