New Ways of Surviving: Writing through a Global Pandemic

American poet Tiana Clark reflects on processing her COVID-19 grief through self-compassion and rediscovering the meaning behind her art in her article, “New Ways of Surviving: Writing Through a Global Pandemic.” She confronts an unhealthy attachment to validation through productivity and professional achievement by intentionally slowing her pace in the early stages of the pandemic. This recalibration was complicated by the murder of George Floyd, which intensified the expectation that Black writers perform their pain for predominantly white audiences seeking catharsis. Clark resists this demand, choosing instead to foreground joy and pleasure in her work as a Black woman. Her assertion that “there is enough written about Black suffering (and also never enough)” underscores the paradoxical nature of racialized artistic expectations. She critiques the persistent pressure placed on artists to respond to collective trauma in real time and embraces a more introspective and healing approach to creativity through meditation, exercise, and domestic rituals like baking.

Clark also details how pandemic-induced shifts in teaching and literary culture opened new possibilities for connection and expression. She describes the unexpected intimacy of online classrooms, where students engaged more freely from their personal spaces, and the communal energy of virtual poetry readings, where poets supported each other via chat in real time. The pandemic, layered with ongoing structural racism and the emotional burden of public expectation, initially disrupted her creative output. Yet Clark ultimately reframed this disruption as an opportunity for self-reflection and ethical realignment. Refusing to commodify Black suffering, she turns inward, privileging self-compassion and integrity as modes of artistic survival.