Contributor Interview: Gillian Gurley

Gillian Gurley's "Grief is a Guilt" can be found in the Spring 2026 issue of Broad Ripple Review.

What’s your favorite punctuation and a literary hot take you have?

I am a maximalist. I love a semicolon because it can be my co-conspirator in packing more clauses into a sentence. My hot take is that it's fine to set aside prize-list books and bestsellers in favor of recommendations from people you love and trust. My closest friends are all big readers, and when one of them presses a book into my hands and tells me I must read it, I rarely regret following their advice.

What inspired you to write “Grief Is a Quilt”?

Well, my father died in an accident on our family farm in the summer of 2024, and what followed was a complete dissolution of self, thought, ambition, and comprehension. I typically work with my hands when my brain is not compliant enough to write, so I was doing a lot of quilting and ceramics in the aftermath. The only writing I was able to do was journaling about grief and writing scraps of poetry about him, and one day I realized that the quilt I was working on was doing some serious grief work in me. I was thinking about him constantly while I was piecing it together, and my brain was starting to connect thoughts again in ways it hadn’t in over a year.

My mother is a weaver, and she gave a wonderful presentation to a group she's part of, called Friends in Council, about the book Women's Work: the First 20,000 Years by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. That got me thinking about fiber, making and unmaking (shoutout to Penelope), and all the wonderful metaphors tying human experience to the labor and relationships we—especially women—have with fabric and thread. The long piecing together of this quilt has helped me live in a liminal space that connects me to my father, and writing the essay helped me understand why I've been taking my sweet time with the project.

What writing/publishing trends are you hopping on for 2026? 

I am 42 and am told any attempts at trendiness are too cringe for words. What I will say, as a writer with a day job who was too scared at 22 to try for a career in it, is that I'm invigorated by the range and options of high-quality lit mags out there. I know there's hand-wringing about literacy and readership levels, but my experience is that when people connect with something, they're ravenous for it, and the Internet really helps people find the art that moves them. That's got to be a good thing. So I don't know if it's a trend, but I'll continue to keep my eye on neat pubs like Broad Ripple Review, enjoy the fact that there are lots of readers and writers out there who are still plugging away, and that there seem to be lots of homes for writers these days.

You seem to be well-versed in many writing genres, from prose to poetry to script. Would you say you have a favorite amongst these genres? Or do you think there are merits in every form?

Yes, of course I think there are merits in every form, and I don't spend too much time worrying about form when I write. If I have an idea, usually I know in what form it wants to be. I like the idea of form as suggestion rather than prescription. I think if you are comfortable experimenting and willing to learn, form shouldn’t be a restriction. But the flip side of that looseness is that I try not to be surprised when my less-disciplined approaches to form aren’t successful. It’s good to be respectful and willing to try new things. 

I also saw that you have a day job as a civil servant. Would you say this field of work has influenced your writing in any way?

I’ve been working for the federal government basically since I graduated from law school in 2011. I loved the idea of being a small part of a big system that serves the public good. While there was a lot of naïveté in my initial attraction to the work, I am not ready to give up on the idea of a civil service built of hard-working, mission-driven people who care about helping others. The work has influenced my writing most directly in that I’ve written a play about the agonizing questions facing civil servants, when their good intentions are twisted in the service of bad-faith policy. But I think being a lawyer and employee subject to plain language directives also has helped me write more persuasively and clearly, some of the time.

Now that “Grief Is a Quilt” has wrapped up, what’s next on the writing docket?

As mentioned, I am finishing my first play, and hoping to spend some time this summer finding collaborators willing to help bring it to life. Since it’s a new form to me, I am trying to balance humility in approaching the world of experienced dramatists, with energy and confidence needed to promote the project. I think it’s worthwhile. After that, I may revisit a novel I wrote during the pandemic about a woman exploring a mystery at the heart of her identity through her relationship with her difficult mother and a young, ambitious lover from her past. 

Do you have any advice for upcoming writers looking to get their work published?

I feel incredibly lucky to be placing some pieces right now. My writing professor in college was adamant that if you maintain a practice and show up for your writing in a regular and committed way, the rest will follow. It’s easy to be tempted to believe there’s a formula for success, but I think the only truly necessary ingredients are love for the work and dedication to it. If I could give advice to my younger self (the only person I feel comfortable advising), it would be to maintain that regular effort, regardless of external feedback, and not give up because publication is such a slippery marker of success. 

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About the Author

Gillian is a civil servant by day and an aspiring writer the rest of the time. She moved from New Orleans to San Diego in 2022 and writes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and plays. She has poems forthcoming in A Year in Ink and The SCOP.

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About the Interviewer

Ollie Sikes (they/them) is an evolving queer writer, editor, and creator based in Dallas, TX. They completed a double BA in Creative Writing and Theatre at Butler University. Besides volunteering with Broad Ripple Review, they also serve as Content Creator for the little things literary magazine. Their poetry has been published with Synchronized Chaos. You can follow them on Instagram @ollie.sikes.