This blog post is by Sarah T. Dubb, the Library's Fall 2025 Writer in Residence.
If time flies when you’re having fun, I must have had a great time as the Pima County Public Library Writer in Residence, because those three months flew by in a flash!
From August through November, I had the honor of meeting with writers every week. Each time someone walked into our shared space of the library study room for a one-on-one consultation, I thought the same thing: Wow, this person is so brave and amazing!
Just think about what each of these writers did: They stepped into a room with a total stranger, and they did so as their most vulnerable selves. I know how it feels to share my work, to talk to someone about my hopes and dreams, or to try to make some kind of sense of my writing process in a way I hope someone will understand: it’s terrifying. Yet 44 amazing souls did just that this fall. I got to see picture books, read terrifying ghost stories, dive into a memoir chapter-by-chapter, and brainstorm swoon-worthy romances. I learned about community-based solutions to climate change, the path of migrating monarch butterflies, and how a seemingly normal day in Tucson can change a person’s life. And that barely scratches the surface!
Each writer also brought something else very special into the room: their trust. They handed it to me, sometimes with shaking hands, and I did my best each time to honor both the writer and the person with my attention, my own vulnerability, and an open heart and mind. We talked about how to honor our own voices and our own paths, how to protect our creativity in a world of commodification, and most of all: how to keep having fun while we’re writing.
But the best gift I received this fall? Inspiration!
This residency corresponded directly with my starting of a new novel, which meant I spent hours every week encouraging people to have fun with their writing and believe in themselves, then went back into my own document, where I often was neither having fun nor particularly believing in myself. In fact, during the course of my residency, I restarted my novel twice and lost hope more times than that. I would often stare at my screen, my own internal dialogue repeating the very same insecurities folks brought into their consultation rooms with me, and feel too paralyzed to proceed.
Then I thought back to the amazing writers I’d met over that week and the weeks before, and how they bravely stepped into the study room and shared their ideas. I thought about the great conversations we had, and how I truly felt like I was helping people in their process, and that if I helped them with their writing, I could help myself, too! One particular day, when I was feeling hopeless about developing a new story, I remembered how just that morning I’d spit balled ideas with another romance writer, so that in only 30 minutes we developed several possible paths for her characters, sorted out their internal wounds, and helped plot the way to their happily ever after. I called a friend and said, “Today I helped brainstorm a million ideas for another person, so surely I can do that for myself, right?”
And I did. I was able to find my way to a new story and make it work. And each time I falter, I remember those writers in my consultations and my workshops, and hear my own words of encouragement. I think about how they brave they are, and I try to harness even a portion of that for myself.
To all the writers who came in for consultations, workshops, and write-ins: Thank you for your trust and inspiration. I'll do my best to make you proud!
