Five Questions with Washington State Poet Laureate Kathleen Flenniken

As Redmond's Poet Laureate, I've started a book group at the Redmond Library called "Redmond Reads Poetry," and our first book choice for Fall 2012 is Kathleen Flenniken's Plume. The book group meets this Wednesday night, October 24th, at 7 PM at the Redmond Library and Kathleen will come out to do a reading and a Q&A at Redmond Library on November 17th at 3 PM, so come out for one or both events!

I thought it would be fun to get to know our first "Redmond Reads Poetry" author a little better on this blog, so I asked her a few questions.

 

Jeannine Hall Gailey: Kathleen, congrats on your Washington State Poet-Laureate-ship! I just loved your second book, Plume, which recently came out from University of Washington Press (and which I reviewed here at The Rumpus.) Can you tell us a little bit about the process of writing that book? You did both historical and scientific research for the book, didn't you?

Kathleen Flenniken: The book started as just one one-page poem, a kind of letter to my friend Carolyn, whose father died of a radiation illness when we were in our late 20s.  I had never really faced up to it and wanted to make peace.  One poem led to another and I started writing about childhood in Richland.  At some point I realized I needed to visit the site and begin researching its history, and discovered Michele Gerber’s book, On the Home Front: The Cold War Legacy of the Hanford Nuclear Site http://www.amazon.com/Home-Front-Legacy-Hanford-Nuclear/dp/0803259956.  That book triggered many more poems.  I thought then I had a collection, a completed manuscript, but I’d guess it took another three years for me to realize the poems had to come back to me.  I’m not at the center of the story, but I had to be its conscience.  So—more travels, including a trip to D.C. where I saw an exhibit about Richland and Hanford at the Smithsonian.  It took me a long time to find the voice and tone for that last half-dozen poems.

JHG: So, I bet one question that a lot of people might have for you is, "What exactly does a State Poet Laureate do?" I know you have already started a blog called "The Far Field" to feature Washington poets? What other kinds of things are your responsibilities?

KF: The ingenious thing about the Washington State Poet Laureate program is its flexibility.  Applicants (and it is an application process) are asked to propose two projects.  The panel knows exactly what to expect from the candidates and the eventual Poet Laureate is encouraged to pursue his or her enthusiasms.  I came to poetry late—in my 30s—so one of my passions is getting into the schools to reach a young audience, especially 3-5^th graders. I grew up in Eastern Washington, so another priority for me was getting into all 39 counties in the state, not just the easy destinations up and down the I-5 corridor.  That’s a work in progress.

I visit schools and bring writing workshops into classrooms, I visit groups that invite me to speak about the PL program and read.  I work with librarians across the state (especially through the marvelous State Library) to set up readings and workshops for the community.  I try to bring other poets to various readings to give the audience a range of voices.  I love the poetry sampler. Even if I’m reading alone, I bring poems by other Washington poets to round out my offerings.

JHG: In a related question, can you talk a little bit  more about your plans for the next two years? 

KF: This first year I’m taking invitations as they come and trying to accommodate as many as I can. I can see that my second year will be more proactive,  going after readings and school visits in counties that may not know they want me.  But they do.  The State Librarians are helping immensely with this task.  They have arranged readings for me in prisons and tribal and remote libraries.  I’m indebted to them for taking me under their wing.

And I can’t repeat often enough how helpful my sponsors, Humanities Washington and Washington State Arts Commission, have been in getting the word out about this program and backing it with such energy and enthusiasm, not to mention their financial support.  We wouldn’t have this program without them and I’m indebted for life. 

JHG: You've worked with students with the Writers in the Schools. How has that experience been? What do you like best about working with young people?

KF: I got very lucky and hired on with Writers in the Schools fairly early in my poetry evolution. It is the gold standard  for teaching creative writing in the schools.  I use the WITS model in my visits across the state.  I’m not much for philosophical talks about poetry or defining what poetry is—I just don’t think about it that way.  In fact, hushed reverence for poetry as a calling or some elevated state of being is off-putting to me. I’d rather just get started. Let’s read a poem and talk about it.  Let’s use it as a model for our own writing.  Let’s share what we’ve written.

I’ve had the chance to work with every age group along the way, and each has its pleasures.  I’ve targeted third, fourth and fifth graders for my term as Poet Laureate because they are enthusiastic and open and their minds are beginning to appreciate—and make—metaphor.  I want to get to them early with the thought that when they try it they’re like it, they’ll connect poetry with enjoyment and, I hope, new confidence.  This is my sneaky way of building a new generation of poetry readers.

And sometimes they write poems that will knock your socks off.

JHG: Are you working on another book project? Anything else you want to tell us about?

KF: I am.  While I was working on Plume, which is entirely about the Hanford Nuclear Site, I was writing about other matters too, and those went into a separate folder.  I’m turning my attention to that work now.  I’ve got a long way to go, but a project has emerged.  I want to write about my twin concerns—long love and marriage, and my “troubled love affair” with my country, as my teacher Albert Goldbarth once termed this preoccupation I have with contemporary American society.  I’m calling it “Post-Romantic,” at least for now.  Unfortunately (or fortunately), I’ve recently been taken up by Chernobyl and Fukushima stories.  Part of me thinks, “oh no…” but another part is already spinning some web in my head between them.

JHG: Thanks so much Kathleen, and we're looking forward to hearing you read in Redmond!