Writer Showcase: Melody Schwarting's Best Work
A summer interview series, volume 8.
Long before I had this Substack, I had an old-fashioned Blogger blog. On Blogspot. And in those merry days of writing about anything and everything related to Jane Austen and period dramas and a great deal of absolute nonsensicality, I made some dear friends. Some of those have passed in and out of my life as is the way of things. And some have stuck around, and the Internet has kept us bound together over a matter of… well, decades now. One of those latter ones is
. I am honored to call her a friend (though we’ve never met in person!) and delighted to share some highlights of her writing with you today. We have both come a long way since the early blogging days (listen, there’s a good reason why I’m not linking my old blog here— the fact that she still willingly reads my work to this day is a testament to loyalty!) and her intelligent literary analysis is an absolute day-making treat when it lands in my inbox. I’m delighted to share this interview with all of you!What do you write about?
Books worth reading, ideas worth considering, beauty worth seeing. Mostly I write about books, but I share anything beautiful and thought-provoking. I focus on topics that give me a sense of longing for eternity, and subjects that I think will touch that longing in others. I try to offer something a little different, most often by talking about books that are worth being more widely known, and sometimes by taking a slightly different angle on a common topic. Mirrored Longings comes from Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt: “I found lines that mirrored an ache and longing I had so often felt when the beauty around my woods cathedral was too intense, when the need to grasp and keep loveliness left me with a sense of desolate frustration.” The ache is still there, but it’s shared, and that helps.
Why did you choose this theme/topic?
It felt like the best way to sum up my life: orienting myself to what is most beautiful, while looking for meaning in the darkness. I’ve gone through phases where I felt different and lonely for experiencing those longings. The evangelical church of my childhood reverted to easy answers and Christianese, yet my parents were handing me Les Misérables and “Babette’s Feast.” Clearly there was a way to be a person of faith without shushing my mind or disguising my heart! Over the years, I’ve come to find every longing I have mirrored in literature, friendship, art, faith, and the great tradition of being human. There truly is nothing new under the sun, and I love that. I hope my writing mirrors others’ longings, too, and makes the world feel a little less lonely.
How long have you been writing on Substack?
I started Mirrored Longings in February 2024. By that time, I had enjoyed following other writers on Substack for long enough to know I would be a good neighbor on the platform. It took a while for the concept of my little corner to emerge. I wanted to keep a publishing schedule and have enough writing topics jotted down so I wouldn’t feel desperate for ideas. I hadn’t poured into my creative writing since college (I focused on academic writing through grad school, and then needed a break) so it’s been wonderful to find that side of myself again.
What other bylines have you had in the past?
My writing self needed a long winter’s nap after my MA, so I haven’t submitted my writing to many places. I’ve published at Jokien with Tolkien most recently. My MA thesis on a feminist/abolitionist, Witness to Liberty: Angelina Grimké’s Abolitionary Exegesis, is on ProQuest under my maiden name Cantwell. No one, least of all me, expects anyone to read their MA thesis, but it’s brought me some interesting connections and speaking opportunities.
Please share a few links to your favorite pieces of work and tell us a little about each one.
“The Swastika and the Crucifix: Day of No Return by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor” profiles a gobsmacking 1942 book by a forgotten writer. It’s a marvelous look at the German Lutheran church in the 1930s and has one of the best sermons in all of literature.
“Great Christian Literary Fiction” was a labor of love. I enjoy books old and new and don’t think “Christian fiction” is entirely made up of Amish romance novels. We are “the test of time” and I am doing what I can to make sure modern books I love will last: “Living authors are our neighbors. Reading their books is neighborly, especially for those who hope to be published one day…Stewarding the fledgling reputations of new books is neighborliness to future readers.”
“Jo March & Guy Morville: Following a Thread in Little Women” was the most fun research I’ve done for Mirrored Longings (which is saying a lot because research is my favorite part). I found the book Jo March wants in chapter 1 of Little Women and the book she cries over in chapter 3 (they’re connected), discovered the most convincing inspiration for Laurie along the way, and met a new Victorian author to enjoy, Charlotte Mary Yonge.
“Love Makes One a Better Person: Irene Hunt’s Up a Road Slowly” covers one of my favorite vintage young adult novels, and gives the full story behind the name Mirrored Longings. If you love Anne Shirley, Betsy Ray, and Marianne Dashwood, Julie Trelling is waiting to meet you!
“Art and the Difficult Artist: A Still More Excellent Way” gave me a chance to wrestle with artists and historical figures whose moral choices fall short of the moral and aesthetic beauty of their creations. It was hard and rewarding to write, contains a cool story about Charles Dickens, and is the fruit of many years of working on this topic for myself. I often need my own advice: “Setting things in context involves nuance, and nuance is a hard task. It requires careful thinking, further research, and more words. Walking the middle way of nuance keeps us from the extremes of fanaticism for idols who can do no wrong, or narrow-mindedness that fearfully rejects art.”
Who is one other Substack writer you admire? (Link to one of their pieces.)
Dominika, at Gathering Light, convinced me to read Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton in one sentence: “Pandora, Thisbe, our narrator Morgan, Cressida, and Teresa have had an unconventional, often scattered, and mainly artistic education at home.” I needed to meet the literary family who gave five daughters those names! Dominika is Substack’s queen of 20th century women writers, and I adore her focus on retrieving women writers who have been obscured by literary history. She is effortlessly funny and deep in the same article and I always save her posts to read when I can immerse myself in her writing.
Amy here. Whenever I settle in for a Melody post, I know I am in for a treat. I don’t open her emails right away; I savor them. Because of this it was very hard to pick a favorite piece of my own to link! I'm choosing From Page to Screen because it offers insights I had not considered about a film I didn't enjoy as much as Melody did. But that's exactly what good literary analysis should do! I highly recommend subscribing to
for the improvement of your mind— and the delight.
Thank you so much Amy! It was a true delight. And it's been so fun to hear your voice develop, especially your humor (humorous writing is VERY hard!).