“I was very encouraged by one thing that people often said - lean into your niche. It was kind of like being given permission to write about the things that really interested me. […] Sometimes you just have to stop researching and think, well what is the story here?”
-Ann Kennedy Smith
I remember when I put out my covid-era passion project, On Fairy Stories -
At the time, I was knee-deep in fairy tales. I was dreaming about selkies and enchanted underwater worlds. I was totally in this alternate reality and somehow all these other-times were making the oddness and uncertainty of my own ‘real’ time make much more sense. As C.S. Lewis said,
“He does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods; the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted.”
So I was indulging a niche, to put it lightly. Yet much to my surprise, I found my inbox filling up with emails from fellow lovers of selkies and dream songs and hobbits. And even people who hadn’t heard of these things found a bit of their own loves there, hints of memories or stories they had forgotten. And they were excited by that.
No algorithm would have told me to publish podcasts on Yeats poetry and seal songs, but there we have it. Now perhaps the algorithms are right on one level - I don’t exactly make a fortune doing the sort of podcast projects I do. But I do find authentic connections, a genuinely interested reader/listenership, and a supportive creative community.
And this brings me to Ann -
In 2015 she gained her M.A. in Creative Writing from UEA and was shortlisted for the Biographers’ Club Tony Lothian Prize. She has written for the TLS, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and History Today among others, and is currently researching the
. In 2024 she was elected a Fellow Commoner at Clare Hall, Cambridge.But these duly celebrated notes of her life aren’t what drew me in.
It was her passion and more than that, her joy! Anyone who has encountered Ann on this platform knows she is incredibly supportive, affirming, and kind to fellow writers. But add to that, she loves what she’s doing. It’s so evident. And you want to talk about niche topics? How about unknown (or under-appreciated) women of Cambridge from the Victorian era and beyond? The algorithm probably doesn’t know what to do with that. But readers do. She recently celebrated one year on Substack, growing her base from 200+ subscribers to over 4,000 in a very short amount of time.
What I’ve learned from Ann is that conducting yourself with class, kindness, and genuine curiosity never goes out of style. I’ve learned that there are seasons of life for everything - for children and snatching moments of reading in between diaper changes, and for burying oneself in a dusty library at a romantic and beautiful university.
Ann takes seriously the old saying “behind every great man is a great woman,” bringing to light the complicated, illuminating, fascinating stories of women who made their mark on Cambridge and maybe haven’t gotten their due recognition. She brings us into the beauty, sadness, and joy of women’s lives and brings an important, compelling perspective.
I was so thrilled she joined me on the podcast. We were able to discuss some of the specific women she has profiled in her writing (including my personal favorite, Sylvia Plath), how to balance different priorities in different seasons of life, and how to lean into your creative niche.
I know you will enjoy the conversation. Many thanks to Ann for coming on and I so look forward to continuing to follow along with all her great writing here on Substack!
Would love any thoughts, impressions, and questions in the comments.
Cheers x
Katie
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Posts referenced in the episode:
Sylvia Plath at Home: Books & Babies & Beef Stews
Playlist referenced in the intro:
Listen to Born of Wonder the podcast
Email me anytime: marquettekatie@gmail.com
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