Interview with our spring WIP winner, Angie Curneal Palsak
About the writer
Jen Knox (JK): Hi Angie, Congratulations on winning our WIP Prize for your story collection Waiting for Glinda! We’re thrilled to feature a sample of your work, “Daylilies,” below.
Before we get to the story itself (below), I’d love to delve into your journey as a writer and with this particular WIP. Tell us: how and where do you find inspiration? What inspired this particular story?
Angie Curneal Palsak (ACP) Hi Jen! Thanks so much for this opportunity! I just want you to know that I am so excited and so proud to be a WIP prize winner. Thank you.
As for inspiration, I’d like to think that it finds me—that I’m just a radio tower: I pick up signals and then I transmit those signals into short stories, art, and other creative projects.
“Daylilies” is a story about burnout. It was inspired by my experiences working at a community college. I worked there for eighteen years, which is just one year shy of the amount of time Andy Dufresne was imprisoned at Shawshank.
JK: Who are your favorite authors?
ACP: I have favorite authors for different decades of my life. At 15 I discovered Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and that just cracked open a whole new world for me. It was the first time I read something that was edgy. In my early twenties, I read far too much Anais Nin, which got me into stupid situations. In my late twenties, too much Bukowski, which fueled my job-hating years. My thirties were Margaret Atwood. She helped me through this endless loop of bachelorette parties/weddings/and baby showers I was always attending. In my forties, I immersed myself in the non-fiction self-help space via audiobooks and podcasts. Now, in my early fifties, I’m trying to get back to fiction. Right now, my goal is to read one short story a week that I randomly find online.
JK: What is your revision process like, and how do you know when a piece of writing is complete?
ACP: My gut tells me when a story is done. Unfortunately, I often mishear my gut; I am guilty of sending off plenty of half-baked stories to literary magazines, just so I could feel like I accomplished something. I have noticed that some of my best writing is the result of melting several unfinished stories together, so maybe for me revision is more like welding. (Which gives me total Flashdance vibes!!)
JK: What is the best advice you’ve received as a writer?
ACP: I have a complicated reaction this question.
I earned my MFA when I was 24 and then spent the next couple of decades doing a little writing here and there but I mostly abandoned it.
I never had a mentor or a coach before, during, or after that time, so no one really pushed me or called me out for being an a-hole when I needed it.
I also never asked for help, and I take full responsibility for that.
One time I did ask one of my professors if I had what it takes to “make it” as a writer. This prof completely avoided answering the question, totally changing the subject. That stuck with me for like…forever.
It wasn’t until last year that I realized that that was a totally dumb question to ask someone. For one, I should never have given my power away like that. Secondly, I was both putting this person in an awkward position and perpetuating English Professor God Complex Syndrome. Anyway, that’s what Waiting for Glinda is all about—wasting time waiting for permission to do what you always knew you were meant to do.
So, the best writing advice I’ve ever received is what I finally told myself at 50: Angie Rae, just sit down, shut up, and do the damn work.
JK: What’s next for you as a writer?
ACP: I’m working on getting Waiting for Glinda published. I already have a sequel brewing in my head. I’m not sure if I should write it as a book though. I’m considering writing it as a television pilot. I could use the WIP prize money to pay for a script writing class…
JK: What did winning the WIP Prize mean to you?
ACP: Winning the WIP Prize meant that I gave myself good advice! I like it when the Universe occasional provides evidence that I’m not a total idiot. Also, winning WIP was a wake-up call—maybe it’s not good mentally and spiritually to be writing this intensely, all alone. So, because of the prize, and talking to you, Jen, I’m going to take some baby steps and try connecting with some other writers—like attending the Unleashed Creative Resilience Circle. This is actually very hard for me. I don’t like breaking my routine. For example, when the workday is done, I go home and put my jogging pants on. There is no “other” like having a drink with a co-worker or stopping by a bookstore. Except for my life with my husband, I’m pretty much a loner. My husband, Tibor, is great at encouraging me to put on pants that don’t have drawstrings and getting me out of the house to see the world…which is important if you are going to write about it.
JK: What didn’t I ask that you’d like to answer?
ACP: How about… Name a guilty pleasure that you’re into lately?
My guilty pleasure is the band, The Doors. I’ve loved them since I was 14. I flew myself to Paris at 20 to visit Jim’s grave and then flew myself to Venice Beach at 50 to pay homage to the band’s birthplace. This year is their 60th anniversary and they are everywhere right now. (I was super geeked when Daryl Dixon noted Jim’s grave in an episode of The Walking Dead and there’s a fun cover of “People Are Strange” in Pluribus.) This means a lot to me because I think The Doors are just true poetry and they speak to some little barefoot hippie girl buried inside me.
Thank you for sharing a little more about your journey, Angie!
Angie Curneal Palsak is a short story writer based in South Bend, Indiana. Her work examines the emotional weight of stuckness and the struggle to move beyond it. She has stories published in: Academy of the Heart and Mind, 10 by 10 Flash Fiction, Prosetrics, and The MacGuffin. She was recently shortlisted for The Letter Review’s quarterly short story prize, was a finalist for Short Edition’s “Money Chronicles: A Story Initiative” contest, and the winner of Unleash Press’s 2025 Works In Progress award. When not writing, she and her husband of twenty-plus years, Tibor, travel in search of live music, good food, dog-friendly breweries, celebrity graves, and amazing art. Find her at angiecpalsak.com.
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Love reading about other writers! Congratulations to Angie, and best wishes with Waiting for Glinda!