MENTORSHIP RECIPIENT 

Mentorship Recipient
Locks Unlocked

Recipient Reflection: 
Tiffany Mi

On "Locks Unlocked" by Tiffany Mi

by ​​Laura Maylene Walter

When I started reading through Gordon Square Review’s submission queue this summer, I didn’t anticipate accepting many—or even any—pieces related to the pandemic. But when I came across Tiffany Mi’s flash nonfiction piece about her father’s unwieldy hair, I was charmed. It’s a vivid, specific, bittersweet snapshot of life in the time of coronavirus, and I knew from my first read that I was interested in accepting it for Issue 7.
 
The essay originally concluded with an image of the father’s hair being compared to an enoki mushroom. While this was a startling, playful ending, it left me wanting a bit more. I wasn’t sure whether this ending was meant to be purely humorous, and if so, what that might mean for the complex emotions coursing through the rest of the piece.
 
I reached out to Tiffany to share my views on the ending and ask what she hoped to achieve. She was immediately receptive, responding with a thoughtful message about her intentions. We both agreed there’s a fine line between creating a powerful end note and over-explaining the piece’s themes to readers, but Tiffany was game to return to the essay and consider the ending.
 
When Tiffany submitted her revision, my anticipation grew with every line I read as I wondered just how she might have changed the end. When I reached the new concluding paragraph, I was so impressed—it opens with confidence and authority, and it ends on a lovely note that I think conveys the emotional heart of the piece. That Tiffany was able to achieve this while still trusting the reader enough to not wrap things up too neatly speaks to her gifts as a writer. Most of all, Tiffany was a delight to work with—she was thoughtful, responsive, and dedicated to her craft—and I can’t wait to see where her writing takes her.

Laura Maylene Walter

Laura Maylene Walter is a writer and editor in Cleveland. Her debut novel, Body of Stars, is forthcoming from Dutton. Her writing has appeared in Poets & Writers, The Sun, Kenyon Review, Ninth Letter, Michigan Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. She was a Yaddo Fellow, a Tin House Writers’ Workshop Scholar, the recipient of the Ohioana Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant, and a past Fiction Editor of Mid-American Review. Her debut story collection, Living Arrangements (BkMk Press), won the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize. Laura holds an MFA from Bowling Green State University, teaches workshops for Literary Cleveland, blogs for the Kenyon Review, and works for Cleveland Public Library.