My summer here in central Illinois has been spacious, humid, and full of words.
I’m preparing to move next month to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point where I will begin working as an Assistant Professor of English. I get to teach Poetry Workshop, Introduction to Creative Writing, and College Writing. I’m excited to be moving back to Wisconsin.
I’m certain it will be a busy and fun autumn of teaching, so part of my preparation this summer has involved attempting to make some serious headway on my writing projects.
I’ve devoted much of the last several months to working on a series of essays about the years I lived in Florida. As a poet, I tend toward writing disjointed, experimental creative prose, but I’ve challenged myself to practice long-form, narrative essay writing. I’ve found myself telling old stories in new ways.
I’ve also been doing a lot of walking. Lately on my walks, I’ve been thinking about how and why we delineate between prose and poetry. When creative writers meet each other for the first time, we don’t usually ask each other, “What are you writing about?” (Or at least, I don’t get asked this much, unless the other person knows me pretty well.)
Instead, we tend to ask, “What do you write?” so we know if the other person writes poetry, fiction, memoir, etc. Why are these distinctions so important to us?
Some of it is just that the second question is easier to answer. Many of us answer with three words: “I’m a poet.”
Besides, especially as poets, it can be hard to describe what we’re writing about. (It’s just like when someone asks, “What’s this poem about?” and the answer is something complicated, like, “My grandmother, seed saving, labor organizing in Milwaukee in the 1920s, the body, the movements of the sun, generational trauma, and more…” Poems are rarely just about one thing, and it’s usually better to read them instead of summarize them, anyway.)
But I also can’t help but think that the question, “What do you write?” enforces the rigid binary between prose and poetry and limits us, genre-wise, as writers.
What would you write if you believed you were capable of writing anything?
New Online Poetry Class
On July 11th and 18th, I’m teaching an online class called “Writing Poetry about Family Histories.” It’s online and will happen on Zoom in real time. I hope you’ll consider joining us.
Freesia’s Recent Publications
Here are some of the other things that have happened in my writing life since the beginning of the year:
Fugue published two poems from the manuscript I wrote while poet-in-residence at Ripon College last autumn. Fugue hosted a warm and wonderful release reading online several weeks ago. They have an amazing staff.
Split Rock Review published a poem I wrote about the ethics of homeownership. They also were kind enough to publish a mini-manifesto-memoir I wrote about land, memory, and the writing process for their Contributors Spotlight series.
TriStates Public Radio invited me to record a commentary for their Women’s Voices Series on a topic of my choice. I chose to write about how drag has been a positive force throughout my life.
The Porterhouse Review published a craft meditation/essay I wrote about one of my favorite Marge Piercy poems, “For the Young Who Want To.”
Several months ago, About Place Journal published two ecopoems I wrote last fall.
What have you been writing about?