Check Out Demelza Champagne’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Demelza Champagne.

Hi Demelza, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
For several years I thought I wanted to be an academic. I even attended graduate school – twice! I have two master’s degrees. My first master’s was at San Francisco State and I had a wonderful time. I then attended the New School for Social Research (NSSR) in NYC and I had a terrible time. The students were very competitive, which wasn’t something I was used to. I decided to go to the NSSR because of a particular professor. This particular professor ended up verbally abusing me for 45 minutes in her office (while she smoked!). She complained about my writing, humiliated me and made me feel low. After that experience, I had panic attacks for several months. And unfortunately, my mental state was a wreck and the work I turned in wasn’t any good. I had intended to leave the NSSR with my PhD, but instead, I left the NSSR the semester after the professor had verbally abused me with another master’s.

This experience was a wake-up call; I couldn’t go back to academia because I saw how unsupportive it was for a student like me. After taking some time to think about what I really wanted to do, I decided that I wanted to be a writer. (Which was really what I always wanted to be.) A few years later, I read about a writers workshop for BIPOC (I’m Native American) called Voices of our Nation (VONA). I ended up getting in the first time I applied, which was a stroke of good luck because VONA can be competitive. At VONA I met other BIPOC writers and I was with a community of supportive writers. My experience at VONA finally gave me the courage to call myself a writer. Since that summer at VONA, I’ve put all my energy into writing. I am now on my way to completing my first novel. A personal essay about my time at the New School was published, and I am currently working on an article about the Indian Child Welfare Act, to be published in November.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Aside from my graduate school experience, I have also faced mental health issues (some stemming from my graduate school experience and others from my past) and have long lived around the federal poverty rate. My student loan amount ballooned after going to the New School because it’s a private school. Finding work that allows me time to write has also been difficult. I have recently been certified as a book coach by Author Accelerator, so I’m now trained to help other writers.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a fiction writer and a book coach. Taking from my own life experiences as a Native American woman growing up in an urban center (Los Angeles), my favorite themes to write about are decolonization, the occult, and the ways in which Native American people navigate contemporary life. The main theme of my novel is about the healing of historical trauma and how indigenous people cannot ignore the past. In particular, my novel looks at the horrors of the boarding schools and how those horrors continue to reverberate through our lives.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
I’m looking for fiction writers to work with. If you’re a fellow BIPOC fiction writer and need help starting or finishing your novel, please consider getting in touch with me. My favorite genres to work in are literary fiction, upmarket fiction, and anything surreal or having to do with magical realism.

Also, my inbox is open to publishers, literary agents, and editors. I have a ton of research experience from all that time in graduate school and I am passionate about showing how cool indigenous America is. If you need a writer to cover something having to do with Native American history or culture, or even something to do with the occult, I’m definitely interested.

Feel free to get in touch and join my newsletter to keep in touch.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://alchemical-writing.com
• Instagram: @foxandthestoryteller

Image Credits
The Headshot photo: Kristin Ulmer The rest of the photos: Scott Johnson at sejcreative.com