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1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
My first two books, Flood Patterns and Feeding Hour, are both poetry. My current book, A Little Bit of Land, started as a few poems I could never finish. They begged to be essays, so I finally decided to try to write something longer. That work eventually became a memoir after many years of experimenting. While I still consider myself a poet, primarily, I appreciate memoir as a genre. People relate to storytelling, so I feel like this book has expanded my readership and is in conversation with other books about land, place, and home.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
When I was younger I loved rhyming and form and poets like Ogden Nash, Emily Dickinson, and Robert Frost were very inspiriting to me. I am also a song writer, so I appreciate short forms in general. I love the associative nature of poetry and its potential for discovery.
3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
I joke sometimes that alternate titles to my poetry books could be “Poems Written Between 2010-2014,” etc. My poetry is autobiographical and so far has been born out of distinct time periods in my life. Some poems are almost direct downloads from an idea or specific incident, while I have several poems that have been worked and reworked with feedback from other writers. Once I have amassed seventy or so poems, I start to think about putting them together as a book and it has been really interesting to see how various themes emerge and how various poems speak to each other.
I recently started a second memoir and that has a heavy research component. My first memoir as well started as various essays and it took me a long time to arrange them and find a form that felt true to the story. I have a novel as well that is in a very early form. Both fiction and non-fiction take me a long time and are a seven to ten year process, generally.
4 - Where does a poem or work of prose usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
The origins of my creative work varies widely. I just had a writing moment where I realized that eleven “poem ideas” were actually all one poem and that was very exciting and somewhat shocking, to be completely honest. For both of my memoirs, and the new novel project, I definitely start with a linear mindset, however that can change with progress. As an example, with A Little Bit of Land, I found myself playing with time and towards the end of that writing process I jumped around quite a bit. Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design Patterns in Narrative by Jane Alison has been very helpful and liberating for me.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I love doing readings. When Flood Patterns came out I had a new baby as well so I didn’t get to do a lot of readings for that book. Feeding Hour came out in the pandemic and all my readings for that book were online. This was convenient in some ways and I was able to read and collaborate with authors outside of the northwest. For A Little Bit of Land I ended up doing all in-person readings this fall and it has been an amazing experience, reconnecting with old friends and colleagues and also being in beautiful bookstores again. I definitely have not gotten a lot of new writing done during this fall, but now that things have quieted down I have some new pieces to sit down and finish and I hope to get back to a regular writing practice in January. I have learned that book promotion and generative writing do not work together well for me.
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
I explore relationships between managed and natural ecosystems through my work. Food, at the confluence of science and art, is of particular interest to me. In my poetry and creative non-fiction, I am informed by my experiences in agriculture and the complexities of the landscape around me.
7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
Farming, like writing, are undervalued vocations in modern life. However, I think that both roles have tremendous value. I wish we had more resources available to let writers be writers and to let farmers farm.Many writing friends are juggling other work and, in some cases, parenting and they fit writing in on the side.
Writers help us process our world and make meaning of it. They also entertain and illuminate ideas/issues that we need to consider.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I love feedback, so I appreciate working with an editor. For all of my books I had a fantastic editing experience. I am grateful for all of the journal editors that have offered feedback on my individual pieces. I have only had one bad experience with an editor and it was largely because that person seemed short on time and patience and they were preoccupied with a new book coming out.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Show up for the work and it will show up for you.
10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to memoir)? What do you see as the appeal?
It has been a rough transition. It took a lot out of me to write my memoir, which by comparison is a shorter book than creative non-fiction works. I love reading memoirs, especially those written by poets, because they pay attention to line-level details and there is a certain precision and succinctness in those books that I appreciate. I am actually teaching a class about this next year: https://hugohouse.org/product/cross-pollination-poets-writing-memoir/
11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
My youngest daughter just started Kindergarten and my oldest is in Second Grade, so we are in a new chapter. I have other work that I do, but I am trying to schedule specific mornings for writing and also various days when I can meet with my writing group and dedicate blocks of time to editing and developing specific writing projects.
12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
I love music, so listening to good songwriting is helpful to me when I am feeling stuck. I do ceramics and knitting as hobbies and that work with my hands helps to take me out of my head. In the Skagit Valley, where I live, there is an active visual arts community and I love being in conversation with the many painters, printmakers, and sculptors here.
Most times, taking a walk really helps. Either a stroll around the farm or down to the river is a great way for me to wake up a bit and find new inspiration. In the pandemic I learned how to play tennis, too, and that has been a great outlet for me, both physically and mentally. I considered myself an athlete when I was younger and reconnecting with that part of myself post-pregnancies has added a new sense of vibrancy to my life and writing. Andre Agassi’s Open is one of my favorite books!
13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Hay and wool!
14 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
See #12
15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass came out as I was writing my memoir and that had a deep effect on me. A Little Bit of Land is a conversation with Wendell Berry’s The Unsettling of America which was published the year I was born. These days, I am trying to read more fiction. I am loving Jenny Offill, Claire Vaye Watkins, and Kevin Wilson right now and I just started The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty.
16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
17 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer? 18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
This is all one question in my mind. I am a naturally curious person, so I have already explored a lot of activities in my life and worn a lot of hats, from cheesemaker to wedding singer to mom. I feel pretty content at this point and am in a phase of letting go of things so that I have more time to focus on writing. Personal growth is an underpinning of writing for me and one of my favorite responsibilities as a teacher was the one-on-one mentorship relationships I had with students. Recently, I opened a coaching practice which focuses on manuscript coaching, but also helps people recultivate a sense of wonder and place. It is easy to get bogged down in daily life and responsibilities, especially as we enter midlife, and as a creative person I am actively trying to stay open to new ideas and possibility. To answer your questions, I may have been a psychologist or naturopathic doctor had I not been a writer. The art of healing fascinates me and is at the heart of memoir and poetry in many ways. I am a creator and after years of searching realized that writing was what made me feel whole and complete versus other professions. https://www.ecointegralcoach.com/
19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
E.J. Koh’s The Magical Language of Others is a masterpiece.
To be honest, this time of year I binge on holidays movies. It’s like a cleanse of sorts—they are so bad they are good. I am watching more TV than anything else, since there are so many great options out there. King Richard was a great movie, because the story of the Williams’ sisters is so phenomenal. The White Lotus is a hilarious and full of complicated characters.
20 - What are you currently working on?
I have a third poetry manuscript in the works, As Long As You Need Holding, that is focused on ecological grief and I hope to edit and submit that next year to various small presses. I am starting a second research-heavy memoir that is about reinhabiting the body after childbirth and the ecological challenges facing migratory Trumpeter and Bewick swans in the United States and UK.
12 or 20 (second series) questions;
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