Connecting with the Authors

11-11-11. I captured an entirely new perspective of Veterans Day this year when I had the chance to listen to the inspiration behind the intense writing of Poet Jehanne Dubrow at the College of Southern Maryland's Leonardtown Campus. Part of our "Connections" series to bring well-known writers up-close and personal with our community, that Veterans Day evening included a reading by Dubrow from her recent collection, "Stateside," as well as a student round table in which she candidly responded to their questions. I gathered the conversation into an interview that was featured this evening among the selections chosen for the Fall 2011 "Connections"  literary magazine published each semester through this program.

Although her poetry is centered on a military husband’s deployment, the collection is driven by intellectual curiosity and emotional exploration. The voice of the poetry experiences the deployment through the eyes of a spouse waiting at home, and Dubrow is described as fearless in her contemplation of the far-reaching effects of war on the homefront, and even more so in her excavation of a marriage under duress. Here's a sampling of the raw emotions she exposes as she reads "Nonessential Equipment."

During her hour-long conversation with the students and faculty who had spent the semester studying her work, Dubrow described the lack of a military spouse's voice in literature today. "If the military spouse perspective has never been represented in literature, what does that mean about the way we think about how difficult it is for a military spouse and how difficult it is to be a part of a military family? If that experience simply isn’t being given a voice, what does that say about us? Does that mean we just don’t want to hear about that voice or we don’t think it matters? Or that military spouses should just be quiet and suck it up?"

Through questioning, Dubrow described how she began her writing career when she was managing coffee shops and challenged herself to write a sonnet daily. The results she described as some really bad sonnets, but the practice and discipline were worth the effort although not monetarily, cautioning, “You don’t become a poet for the money.”

 

Dubrow's observation gave me pause and offered a point for me to make tonight as I offered the reporting perspective of writing with the other magazine contributors. Among those poets, photographers and short-story authors who like Dubrow bring a literary freedom to their creative works are Geralyn Adams, Judith Allen-Leventhal, Julian Cooperman, Tabor Elisabeth Flickinger, Allison Gragg, Rachel Heinhorst, Robin Karis, William Poe, Lisa Presgraves, Kate Richardson, Chris Rubenstahl, Tyler Scott, Linda Cooke Smith, Dee Sydnor, Paul Toscano, Joanne Van Wie, Joyce Vincent, Shannon Wilder, Brett Worrell and Brittany Yee.

As Dubrow noted, money isn't the allure of being a poet, and from my perspective, neither does a byline lure your into PR. As a reporter, my bylines were common, and delightfully so for this Connections feature as well, but those days are infrequent within PR since pieces are written from the organization's voice, not an individual's.

I still love writing regardless if I get the credit. In PR, the joy comes for me from searching out an individual's story, then sharing it, as I've done in the interview in the Connections magazine. Dubrow would say you become a poet because "poetry chooses you;" for me, I became a writer because storytelling chose me.

Click on this link if you're interested in previous author interviews and upcoming CSM's Connections programs. If the video link above doesn't open, use this link: http://youtu.be/fmCeHRYJhNc.