Brooklyn Writers Bloc: Melissa Lozada-Oliva explains why being a writer is sexy
“The human race is consistently awful, naive, hilarious and kind,” the poet reminds us in our summer writer interview series
All summer, we’ve been asking a selection of local writers — across poetry, art, food, fiction, non-fiction, zine making, and party reporting — to bring us into their own private Brooklyns and share what (and where) they are reading, pondering, people watching and daydreaming about as an escape.
For the fifth installment of our Brooklyn Writers Bloc series, we meet a poet who loves overhearing people on Hinge dates in Domino Park and drinking a “slutty” gin and tonic.
Photo by Ari Zenelli
Melissa Lozada-Oliva
Melissa Lozada-Oliva is a poet and author of “Peluda” and “Dreaming of You.”
Describe your writing practice in 10 words or less.
Sitting somewhere spiraling as a silly woman.
Favorite spot to journal outside the home?
Playground Coffee Shop, a great place to sit and read.
Best place to people watch?
Domino Park. I literally can’t get enough of overhearing people there on Hinge Dates recounting the mundane details of the way their Covid romances derailed while looking out at the water and giggling with one another hoping that this turns out to be something okay.
Summer drink of choice?
I love all the ways you can make a gin and tonic a little slutty. Put an egg white in there! A sprinkle of mint! Splash some blueberries in that bitch, let’s go!
What will you be reading this summer?
I’m reading this book by Cristina Rivera Garza called “The Iliac Crest” and my boyfriend wants to read “2666” by Roberto Bolaño together; sorry to casually drop my happiness on main!
Favorite reading nook in the wild?
Cafe Calaca is nice and I would say hidden in plain sight on Franklin Avenue. They have a nice outdoor area and a really good spicy mocha latte that pairs well with a nice collection of short stories written by some esoteric woman from a foreign country. Would not have the spicy mocha latte on a date!
What’s one book you’re ashamed to say you’ve never read?
I’ve never read “100 Years of Solitude” By Gabriel García Márquez and as a half-Colombian that’s already embarrassing but also as someone whose work has to do with magical realism, family, sex and love, it’s like, bitch how have I not read this? Straight up LAZY!!!
What is it about Brooklyn?
As a lowly transplant, I have to say that is because it’s a haven of culture. Art! Progressivism? And to be honest with you, community! No offense but this place rules and it’s an honor to live here! Where else can you go to a book release at Powerhouse Arena? Make a run for it with your artist friends to the nearest dive bar after you realize the margaritas on the menu cost as much as your monthly Wi-Fi bill? Watch a friend who perpetually has holes in their socks play music at TV Eye? Be lovingly reprimanded by a neighbor for missing last year’s block party? Fight over the last Gwendolyn Brooks collection left at the free book fair your best pal organized at Grand Army Plaza? Bike euphorically through Prospect Park while listening to Bad Bunny? Feel like you’re on another planet baking in the climate disaster sun while topless at Riis Beach? Sing “Jessie’s Girl” at Branded Saloon while Jared the karaoke DJ makes a strobe light with his phone? I’m getting hyper-specific to myself and my fabulous life, but that’s how I live it! There’s nowhere like here.
Tip for getting unstuck (in writing and life)?
Okay so firstly, work on your jealousy and its entanglement in late stage capitalism and stop thinking about being remembered or being the only (insert marginalized adjective) person who can be doing what you’re doing. Nothing is original because the human race is consistently awful, naive, hilarious and kind. Just look at the art in museums where everybody is processing the same shit we’re processing now: plague, war, love, debt. So get rid of any mentality of, like, becoming Steven King and writing from 9-5 every day because that’s boring as hell and the whole point of being a writer is that it’s sexy. Additionally, whenever I feel like shit about whatever I have a snack and go on a really long walk with my destination being a wine store (I’m bougie!), or Exposure Therapy Lab where I drop off film (I am a Charlie Kaufman sex dream) and it clears my head.
Which writer living or dead would you like to tour guide around Brooklyn?
Izumi Suzuki but she would probably be super judgmental and weird and make me question every step of my life and I would love every moment of it.
Favorite representation of Brooklyn in literature, film, art, or other media?
Bring “High Fidelity” back! I also always cry to “Bushwick Blues” by Delta Spirit because I like fantasizing about being the one who got away.
