^ Beth Breese ~ ~ ~ !!! welcome to lady-roars, 6 ~ !!!
i initiated freeform conversation with fellow women creators about art, identity, and whatever else.
I am from Wisconsin, though I currently live in Columbus, Ohio. I have a chapbook just out from Kent State University Press called "The Lonely-wilds." I'm always surprised at how difficult it is to describe my own art (poetry) and my life as an artist. Yet, if it were easy, maybe it would mean I was missing some really interesting nuggets or some essential nuance? Then again, just because it is tremendously difficult (don’t you find?), I don’t ever feel if I’m representing my work and my life with total accuracy. I try though:
I won't go all chronological on you, but I don't know if I'd be calling myself a poet if I hadn’t registered on a whim for a literature class at Lawrence. English 250 was Major American Writers and the syllabus did include major writers—Emerson, Thoreau, Dickenson—but who’s a/what’s a Lorine Niedecker? Not only did I feel moved by her spare and lyrical poems (read, read, read), but the fact that she was a Wisconsin girl, too (I think we would have been friends), really touched me. Before Lorine, I didn’t know the Wisconsin landscape was worth writing about, even though it was my landscape. So, that’s Lorine. And that’s Professor Faith Barrett who taught the class and who eventually taught my first poetry workshop at Lawrence. And who encouraged me to consider an MFA program. And that’s Professor Kathy Fagan, poet-lady-extraordinaire, my mentor through the MFA program at The Ohio State University. She’s a life-changer. I really do feel I owe my poet-life to these three women.
I wrote before college, but I wasn't calling myself a writer until just a couple years ago, and now I can’t imagine doing anything else; I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn’t registered for that class (Yiker’s Island!). It’s not likely that I’ll be able to support myself as a poet, so I envision balancing teaching and writing. At the moment I am adjuncting at a couple local colleges, but I find this arrangement exhausting (I just began work on two poems for the first time in months!). So, my ultimate goal is to teach writing and creative writing at a less harried pace and with more reliable income. For me that means getting a full-length book out and getting on the job market. This is a multi-year plan and, at the moment, I’m okay with that.
I won't go all chronological on you, but I don't know if I'd be calling myself a poet if I hadn’t registered on a whim for a literature class at Lawrence. English 250 was Major American Writers and the syllabus did include major writers—Emerson, Thoreau, Dickenson—but who’s a/what’s a Lorine Niedecker? Not only did I feel moved by her spare and lyrical poems (read, read, read), but the fact that she was a Wisconsin girl, too (I think we would have been friends), really touched me. Before Lorine, I didn’t know the Wisconsin landscape was worth writing about, even though it was my landscape. So, that’s Lorine. And that’s Professor Faith Barrett who taught the class and who eventually taught my first poetry workshop at Lawrence. And who encouraged me to consider an MFA program. And that’s Professor Kathy Fagan, poet-lady-extraordinaire, my mentor through the MFA program at The Ohio State University. She’s a life-changer. I really do feel I owe my poet-life to these three women.
I wrote before college, but I wasn't calling myself a writer until just a couple years ago, and now I can’t imagine doing anything else; I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn’t registered for that class (Yiker’s Island!). It’s not likely that I’ll be able to support myself as a poet, so I envision balancing teaching and writing. At the moment I am adjuncting at a couple local colleges, but I find this arrangement exhausting (I just began work on two poems for the first time in months!). So, my ultimate goal is to teach writing and creative writing at a less harried pace and with more reliable income. For me that means getting a full-length book out and getting on the job market. This is a multi-year plan and, at the moment, I’m okay with that.
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