Inspiring Women Summer 2018

as I’m trying to solve different problems with my
own writing. And so many of my books are
marked up and written in and underlined and
have sticky notes all over them, and all those
markings are like a roadmap of the people I’ve
been. If I had all my poetry books on an e-
reader then I could cheat and say I’d save the
e-reader, but the act of marking up poetry
texts is too important to me to move away from
my paper books. But at the moment the
answer to this question is my copy of Forest
Primeval by Vievee Francis, which has been a
pivotal book for me the past two years or so in
terms of learning how to write more deeply into
truth and a radical vulnerability. Vievee Francis
is one of the best poets writing today, her work
moves me deeply as a reader and teaches me
something new as a writer every time I read it.
What is your favorite word and why?
Chuchichäschtli. It’s a Swiss-German word for
kitchen cabinets. I love its sounds and rhythm
and the open vowels and that it is so, so, so
very Swiss. My goal in life is to use
Chuchichäschtli in a poem.
If you could meet one writer, dead or alive,
what question would you ask them and why? I
would love to talk with Anne Sexton. I don’t
really have a specific question, I would just love
to talk with her about being a woman writer
and writing through motherhood and mental
illness and the work of being a woman claiming
her space in the world. I’d love to just sit and
drink wine with Anne Sexton and we could talk
about whatever she wanted.
“None of us
want to be in
calm waters all
of our lives.”
Jane Austen
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