“When someone can present a topic to me that otherwise I wouldn’t have known about and suddenly ferociously make me care about it, that’s when I feel like I’m in the presence of fearless curiosity… It’s infectious!” ~ Kayla Lightner
A few months ago, I got a text message from a friend: “I’m at a writing conference,” she typed, “listening to a panel of agents answer the question ‘What are you looking for?’ Kayla’s answer began: ‘I’m looking for fearless curiosity.’”
And with that text message, my friend tapped into a curiosity conversation I’d been feeling my way around for some time — intellectual gatekeepers, if you will — the people who make it their business to shape what gets into the public’s mind, what informs our thinking, perhaps even our actions.
Teachers, obviously. Journalists, of course. Writers.
But take it further up-stream. Who helps see that the rest of us have an opportunity to hear from those writers and their many different perspectives, to learn new ways of seeing, or to confront uncomfortable truths?
Well, literary agents, for one.
Kayla Lightner is a writer and a literary agent with Ayesha Panda Literary. Together we explored how she knows “fearless curiosity” when she sees it; how agents partner with and champion writers; what about the job makes her come alive — and her scariest power; being an open and adventurous reader; the indulgence of centering our curiosity; and coming into her own professional power with fearless curiosity.
I think they are two sides of the same coin, being fearlessly curious and fearfully curious…If you were curious about something, you felt that trepidation, you felt that fear and you did it anyway, there’s something equally amazing about that.
Listen to Choose to Be Curious #229: Literary Agent Kayla Lightner Is Looking for Fearless Curiosity
Check out Kayla Lightner at Ayesha Pande Literary
Be an adventurous reader! Kayla mentioned some of the authors she’s worked with. I recommend The Mango Tree: A Memoir of Fruit, Florida, and Felony, by Annabelle Tometich and I can’t wait for Madame Queen: The Life and Crimes of Stephanie St. Clair by Mary Kay McBrayer.
You might also enjoy Laura McBride, the dear friend, writer and one-time C2BC guest who tipped me off to Kayla. Listen to Curiosity & Writing Fiction, with Laura McBride.
…and be an adventurous listener! You might like these C2BC Classics: Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times, with Monica Guzman; The Inquiring Minds Behind Science Writing, with Kim O’Connell; and Wait…What? Revisiting Curiosity, Race & Healthcare with Dr. Nicole Rochester.
Theme music by Sean Balick; “Filing Away” by Crab Shack, via Blue Dot Sessions.
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Wear your curiosity on your sleeve. Check out the Choose to Be Curious shop.
