Michelle Otero, a poet and memoirist from New Mexico is teaching a memoir class on using food memories—and even recipes—from childhood as a way to tell deep stories of self and family. We performed a mini-interview with her and here are her answers to our questions.

Q: Favorite family recipe? 

A: Red enchiladas (flat) with a fried egg on top, whole pinto beans and Spanish rice on the side.  

Q: One writing trick that has never failed you?

A: Micropractice. If I am short on time or feeling blocked or don't know where to start, I'll find a prompt, set a timer for 5 minutes, and just write. It usually gets me over the hump and enables me to sit for longer and longer periods.

Q: Favorite childhood book and/or first book you remember reading and loving? 

A: Young reader: Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarek, illustrations by Maurice Sendak. I especially loved the story "Birthday Soup." 

Middle reader: Sing Down the Moon by Scott O'Dell and Iggy's House by Judy Blume

Junior high: The Dead Zone, Pet Sematary, and Thinner by Stephen King. The Talisman was next on my list, but my mom thought Stephen King was "too creepy" for a 7th grade girl and made me find another author. 

Q: What would you like to write about, but have never dared?  

A: It took me 18 years to finish my memoir Vessels, partly because I was writing the things I wouldn't dare write. I would love to finish a  3-act, 1-woman show centered on a suitcase: packing it to leave Deming, NM for Harvard when I was 18; clinging to it when I lost my apartment and most of my possessions in a fire while visiting friends in Mexico when I was 37 (suddenly this suitcase that had felt so heavy through the airport contained everything I owned); unpacking and putting it away when I came to live with my now-husband and his two kids and became their stepmom. The fire and stepmom parts are complete. The Harvard part puts me in touch with 18-year-old me, who had no idea how to ask for help and felt she was carrying an entire community to college with her. 

Q: What is the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received? 

A: From Sue William Silverman, one of my graduate school mentors at Vermont College: If you could explain the significance of the events you're writing about, you wouldn't need to write. We don't write because we know all the answers. We write because we have great questions. 

Michelle Otero served as Poet Laureate of Albuquerque, NM and just published her first memoir, Vessels: A Memoir of Borders.  She has appeared nationally at conferences such as AWP and Santa Fe International Literary Festival.