Photograph by Bryan Formhals
Depending on the day, Jessica Machado’s dark, medium-ish length hair may be bouncing with curls, mildly waving at the wind or smooth as silk straight. Dimples and a quick—but noticeable—snort, however, always accompany her easy laughter. That’s because Jessica’s state of hair is changed by the weather, not her mood—which is always genuinely genuine.
Jessica is a nonfiction writer, which today means she’s a journalist, copy editor, memoirist and blogger, just to name a few. The driving force behind any of these titles is her curiosity. When it comes to her freelance articles—which have been featured in Bust magazine and the online offshoot of the Economist, More Intelligent Life—Jessica says she pitches stories that she wants to learn more about, whether it be the explosion of food trucks or female performance artists.
“Writing my memoir is like being in therapy with myself over and over and over again,” she adds. To be more specific, it deals with having to watch her mother die from breast cancer, and “ten billion other things,” when Jessica was 25, nearly seven years ago.
Apparently hunger is also what helps get her butt in the chair and writing. “Lunch—I have to sit down with a cup of coffee and something to eat,” she says. “I have to pick at stuff when I’m thinking and when the food’s gone I chew gum. Coffee shops are even better because I can’t get up and go in their fridge and start looking for snacks.”
A relatively newbie New Yorker who calls Park Slope home, Jessica still wears heels and hasn’t yet gotten so lazy that she refuses to take the subway home after 11 pm. It’s cute. And as a freshly minted MFA-er from Portland State, Jessica is rolling full steam ahead. “In grad school I realized how much I love writing,” she says. “I knew that after that was done I would still want to write every day. I can’t live without this—writing is what keeps me sane.”
Jessica Machado Under Fire: 20 Grilling Questions
1.) Biggest vice? Cereal.
2.) Hometown? Honolulu, or more specifically, Makakilo, before there was a Kapolei and Kalihi Valley, a block down from Machado Street, named after my great great grandfather.
3.) Most surprising thing about yourself people might not guess? I’ve never done drugs.
4.) Favorite TV show? Six Feet Under. Best character development ever.
5.) Most recent most embarrassing moment? Sang Journey’s “Lights” at a crowded karaoke bar in Chinatown. Out of 150 drunks in the room, only my boyfriend clapped.
6.) Favorite shave ice flavor? Strawberry and vanilla. I’m a traditionalist.
7.) Writing superstitions or superstitions in general? I won’t send anything off, even if I’m happy with it, until I’ve walked away, then snuck up on it again.
8.) Most hated grammar error? Not all sentences end like this! nor should they begin like this.
9.) Pet peeve? Rude service workers. Probably because I used to be one.
10.) Best meal you’ve ever eaten? Half a chocolate cake and pot of coffee for breakfast. It was my birthday.
11.) Latest favorite book? The Ticking Is the Bomb by Nick Flynn.
12.) Number one thing you loved about waitressing? Money. Number two, sexual candor in the workplace.
13.) First job? Pulling weeds and hoses at my father’s plant nursery. Also, the worst job I ever had.
14.) Best advice anyone’s ever given you? Take life one minute at a time, or one second at a time, whatever you can manage.
15.) Proudest moment? Walking away from my thesis defense knowing that I’d made some sort of book.
16.) Do you believe in writer’s block? God yes.
17.) One thing you will absolutely not eat? Man, why can’t I think of anything?
18.) If you were on a deserted island, one thing you’d have to have…? My thoughts came in this order: peanut butter, my iPhone, my boyfriend. Make of it what you will.
19.) Favorite drink/cocktail? Vodka soda. It goes down easy.
20.) What do you love to hate about LA? How all old people look weird, i.e. plasticized and unfazed.
Curiosity spiked? Learn more about Miss Machado by visiting her blog baggageclaimed.tumblr.com
