32. Erin Vincent: Fragments, Grief and Memory
About this episode
Erin Vincent discusses her book '14 Ways of Looking' and the interplay of grief, memory, and constraint-based writing.
In this episode of Fully Lit , Erin Vincent, in conversation with writer and academic Sarah Attfield, reflects on returning to a subject she once believed she had left behind in her verse novel, 14 Ways of Looking. Moving between memoir, research and constraint‑based writing, the book is a fragmentary work that reimagines how grief can be written, building a mosaic of memory around the the number fourteen — Vincent's age when she lost both her parents. Drawing on the playful constraints of the Oulipo movement, Vincent constructs the book through fragments, each linked by the repeated appearance of the number 14. The result is a work that is at once formally inventive and deeply personal, where meaning emerges through juxtaposition, white space, and the connections made by the reader. Together, they discuss the creative possibilities of constraint, the challenge of shaping fragments into a cohesive work, and the emotional and structural role of white space on the page. Vincent also reflects on the difference between writing in grief and writing about it — and how distance, precision and form can open up new ways of expressing loss. At the heart of this conversation is a question…
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