Laurie Byro asked Alarie Tennille:

We are both Kelsay book authors, glad to meet you. Have you been writing poetry long? I started in a class when I was 30, abandoned prose, but before that thought Walt Whitman was a chain of schools across the US. NOT kidding. Have been running a poetry circle for 23 years in various NJ and NY libraries.

Alarie Tennille Thanks, Laurie. My odd answer is yes and no. I've been writing poetry, but not much of it, since the third grade. My first real love of writing was for short stories or children's stories (while a child), then plays, too. I wanted to be an artist, but my parents nixed the idea of an art major. Fortunately, I took a summer creative writing workshop before my senior year of high school that was so exciting I embraced an English major. Although UVa didn't have a creative writing program at that time, reading so much great literature made me want to write all the more. (I was in the first coed class, so standing up to sexism took a lot of my energy.)

My mother taught me how to scan poetry when I was little, so I managed to fit into a job writing greeting cards. Still not quite true poetry, but my company paid for workshops with many of the best poets in the country, including Ted Kooser, Naomi Shihab Nye, Jane Hirshfield, and Ed Hirsch. I loved the workshops, but it took about 12 of those to convince me I actually was a poet and to embrace that. I only began publishing my own work outside of my job in 2005, followed by about 5 years of fighting stage fright. I'm very proud I did master it and wish I could have done so back in high school.

We're both at Verse-Virtual, too, though I've been a sluggish participant lately. Your name jumps out at me when I'm reading journals.

flag