“I want [people] to understand that it is everyone’s responsibility to be visionaries and socio-political activists to engage, instruct, and inspire our communities to become better. Age, occupation, education, or income level should not limit one’s sense of responsibility to help create a better world.” Celestine Davis
Read More“ This year, as we stay home and dig deeper into the earth, I am writing in a way that allows me to say things as if they were the last things I would say.” Cassie Premo Steele
Read MoreWhat do you get when you ask a bunch of ten to fifteen-year-olds to read Shakespeare?
Read MoreGot duct tape? or What happens when two creatives get together on any given afternoon.
Read More"I am passionate about dismantling racism: one-on-one, creatively and systemically. It is systemic. It will take all of us to defeat this man-made design." Glenis Redmond
Read More"If someone hit me on the head with a frying pan, no one would confuse that with cooking. And damn sure no one would ask me if I enjoyed the meal..."
Read More"My aim is to let us black women know that we have value, worth, and a voice that is just as imperative as everyone else." Jasmine Farrell
Read More"I have two hopes: the first is that queer readers can see a different part of their lives reflected [in my poems], and the second is that straight readers can read these queer poems and, just as I did with the poems of straight writers, find themselves there, as well." Jessica Jacobs
Read More"[T]he crux of what I’m seeking is a continuation of what I’ve always done—using poetry to attempt to find words for those who have no voice of their own, to try to save stories that don’t have a language, at least not a kind of language with access to the kind of words that will save it in this world." Nickole Brown
Read More"An MFA is not required to be a good writer, nor is it necessary for publication, but it opens so many doors; not only in a networking sort of way, but in one’s own mind. It absolutely changed my writing—and my life—for the better." Rhonda Browning White
Read MoreApril, as it often does here in Eastern NC, went by in a blur of mornings so clear and green and beautiful that it was almost possible to forget…everything, even the shitshow that we currently call the news. Well, ok. Maybe not that.
But April went by in a blur of thunderstorms and packed lunch boxes. A blur of graded papers and bills and laundry. A blur of workshops and readings.
All of this is to say that I have not had such an epic fail in keeping up with NaPoWriMo in years, and Fierce Friday had to go on hiatus. But I want to get back to it, as much as I can, because I miss it. I miss reading the responses to the questions by amazing women. When I wrote the questions, I don’t think I fully understood how important reading their answers would be.
Question one asks: “Out of all of your accomplishments, what are you most proud of and why?” One of the women I featured told me that I had asked a question that made her very uncomfortable right off the bat. Why? Because she has been conditioned to think of being proud of herself and her accomplishments as negative, as something women shouldn’t do.
I started to think about the times I have been shamed for for being proud, for talking about and, god forbid, posting about the things I have done. Among writers on social media, there is an ongoing discussion about whether or not one should “brag” about publications, readings, awards, etc. Whether or not one should “advertise.” In my experience (see how I tried to minimize negative reactions by qualifying my statement there?), this question comes up mainly in reference to women writers.
After announcing my graduation from my MFA on Facebook, a male colleague of mine commented “Congratulations on all your many accomplishments.” As positive as I generally try to be, I know this was not meant as an actual compliment. It was a “shut the fuck up about it already.”
But isn’t it possible that he meant it as a compliment?
No.
But surely you’re misreading it?
No.
But of course you’re overreacting.
Just no.
"Stop telling people that you wrote a book, nobody likes a bragger." #ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear
— A. L. Freeman (@CallMeRexy) April 23, 2017
You know what? I just had two poems accepted in two different journals on the same day. I worked hard on those poems. I worked hard submitting those poems to journals. And you're damn right I'm going to post about them when they are published. But I consciously did not post about them being accepted because, somehow, that might be "too much."
Fuck. That. Noise.
Fierce Friday will be back next Friday.
"One of the underlying principles that guides my moral framework is the inherent worth and dignity of every person. That means that people don’t have to meet some kind of threshold, they don’t have to look like me, think like me or worship like me in order to gain their worth, it is part of them just because they exist." Jennifer Thielen
Read More"I want the next generation to grow up embracing feminism as a word and concept--women, trans-people, and men alike. I believe in the intersectional ideals of third-wave feminism--the need for all civil rights movements to collaborate with each other, to build strong coalitions." Julie Marie Wade
Read More"It seems sort of crazy to say that my proudest accomplishment is being stubborn. But without stubbornness (or its kinder cousin, perseverance) I can’t imagine that anything I value having achieved would have come about." Leslie Pietrzyk
Read More"[I]t is refreshing to me to listen to [...] screaming examples of women’s voices in action. It reminds me that women have been creating discourse around the realities of sexism and other atrocities for as long as we have existed." Mel Sherrer
Read More"People think I’m outspoken, but I have nothing on [Dorothy Scura]. The best lesson she taught me was to support other women." Margaret Bauer
Read More"There isn’t one milestone that I am most proud of. However, something that I am grateful for is that I don’t fear change." Sarah Cooper
Read More
poet Denise Duhamel
"I grew up on that kind of [second wave] feminism and thought, with Hillary in the White House, I would be in the zeitgeist. Little did I know I would instead be part of the resistance." Denise Duhamel
Six years ago, I met poet Denise Duhamel at the Pine Crest Inn in Tryon, NC. It was my first residency for my MFA, and I was nervous and a little afraid. This was it; I was either a writer, or I wasn't. Denise taught me to trust my instincts, but to also actively think about them. She taught me to be brave in my writing by being brave in her own. I would not be the poet I am today without this wonderful, fierce woman.
Out of all of your accomplishments, what are you most proud of and why?
That is a hard question, but I would say I am most proud that I “stuck to my (poetic and therefore metaphorical) guns” and didn’t give up on poetry when so many rejections kept coming. I went to school (both undergrad and grad) with extremely talented classmates who, for one reason or another, stopped writing poetry. There is no judgment as many have gone on to have happy lives outside of literature. I just knew that, for me, writing was my way of being in this world.
What are you currently working on? How long have you been working on it? How did you become interested in it/ where did you get the idea for it?
My new book Scald is out any day. My last book Blowout was so personal that I wanted to leap into something else. The book is arranged into three sections dedicated to Shulie Firestone, Andrea Dworkin, and Mary Daly—three controversial second wave feminists. I grew up on that kind of feminism and thought, with Hillary in the White House, I would be in the zeitgeist. Little did I know I would instead be part of the resistance. The post-Scald poems seem to be about feminism and pop culture as well, but it’s too soon to tell what will develop. Like so many others, I am writing about Trump and most recently cast him as a Legally Blond figure in “Lethally Orange.”
What issue are you currently most passionate about? What is the one thing you would like people to know or understand about this issue?
I am constantly trying to articulate my views on feminism to people who think “humanism” is a better term, people who think I am a nag. This is the first time in a long time that there are fewer women on the planet (some say because of China’s “one-child policy” and the preference for male heirs.) In any case, this is a big problem—women live longer than men on average, so there should be more of us. I truly believe that the feminization of culture could lend itself to a healing of the planet, especially when it comes to climate change.
What book or film with a female protagonist would you recommend and why? What female author’s, artist’s, or musician’s work would you recommend and why?
Lisa Glatt’s novel The Nakeds is a hilarious and poignant take on what it is to be female child in a body cast with a mother who joins a nudist colony.
I absolutely love the film Blue is the Warmest Color in which there is a beautiful and sexy teenager who actually eats two bowls of pasta.
As for musicians—Margaret Cho’s “I Wanna Kill My Rapist” is terrific.
As for poetry, Amy Newman’s re-writing of Howl is simply brilliant.
Aria Watson, only 18, has done a photo series of women using Trump’s own misogynist words.
Name one woman who has influenced you/ had an impact on you, perhaps as a mentor. Why and how did she impact your life?
My friend and collaborator, the poet Maureen Seaton, is a woman who lives with integrity and grace. She was “ahead” of me in terms of publishing and poetic maturity when we first met in 1987, but she always treated me as an equal. She and I talk endlessly about feminism and poetry and social justice through literature. She is often fearless when I am afraid—and has always believed in me, even when I didn’t truly believe in myself. She is a shining example of Poet!
"Following your own vision is political, and it is vital. Write what you must write, I say." Suzanne Cleary
Read MoreA dear friend once described writing, the attempt to create something that might be considered art, as a life affirming act. I know that, for many of us, the campaign/election/inauguration and the recent threats to cut funding to the NEA and other cultural programs have blocked our creativity, have made it seem impossible at times to produce a single line. And without that spark, without that feeling that you are channeling something elemental through your words or your art, without that absolute magic that happens when something you’ve created feels just right, it becomes more and more difficult to get through the day. It makes it difficult to feel wholly alive.
I, myself, have been having trouble gathering enough focus to write, to really write, to get in the zone. But while I was thinking on this today, I thought about reading a friend’s work-in-progress, and it came to me that I am so lucky to have so many creative friends, to have so many writer friends who are willing to share their works-in-progress with me. I thought how wonderful it is that I can say, “I read _______________ before it was even published.” How cool is that? And I realized that reading other writers’ works-in-progress helps me feel centered again. It makes me feel that it is possible to create again. So I thought I’d share something I’ve been working on with you.
About two weeks ago, I wrote the line “I get your rain a day later.” That’s it. That is as far as I got with that thought for two weeks. I found that line again on Tuesday, and I sat down to try to work with it. I wrote about rain, how it hits different surfaces on my deck — the folded umbrella, the covered grill, the strings of globe lights — and then I wrote about smelling the rain coming. And it turns out that that was the thing I needed. I wondered what that meant. How do we smell rain? Well, it turns out that light rain releases aerosols containing dust and oils such as plant oils, and any wind pushes the aerosols ahead of the rain. So when you smell rain coming, you’re really smelling the dust and oils that collected on surfaces far from where you are. And I thought what a romantic notion it is that rain falling on a someone who is somewhere else announces itself to another someone far away.
That research brought me this gift of a word: “petrichor.” Petrichor is the name for the smell of rain falling on dry surfaces. Its etymology is equally wonderful: petra + ichor. Stone and the fluid that is the blood of the gods. I mean, come on! I get your rain a day later…AND the smell of it is the blood of the gods? Yes. Yes. Yes. Right now, all I have are notes, but I have a concept that I’m excited about.
And so I’m back to life.
What are you working on?