Isabelle: When you write a
poem, do images or words come first?
Sarah: It depends.
Usually, I’ll get a phrase or two, or a line, but sometimes I will see
something which I think is so lovely that I want to write about it.
Isabelle: How does your
environment and your upbringing inform your poetry?
Sarah: I grew up with
literate and educated parents and we read all the time. Mom used to read
rhyming prose to me and we used to see writing anything – like thank you notes
– as creative. As an adult, I was introduced to poetry in around high school or
middle school. T.S. Elliot and Sylvia Plath captivated me with the work they
did. As an English major, and as a grad student, I hung out with creative
writers and I also have an aunt who is a writer. Becoming a writer myself was
always a possibility and it is always been part of my worldview because I have
been an academic since college.
Isabelle: If you had to
describe your collection in one sentence, what would it be?
Sarah: “Never One For
Promises” examines relationships at a critical moment and offers insight into
the connection between relationships and spirituality.
Isabelle: Which writers do
you admire and does their work influence yours?
Sarah: Merwin Douglas
influences my line breaks – he got rid of punctuation about a third of the way
through his career which I found inspiring. K.Ryan is a rhymer and even though
I don’t rhyme, I love her capacity to communicate a feeling in just two lines.
Gwendolyn Brooks, Tess Gallagher, and Evan Bolland are all writers who have
influenced me.
Isabelle: What is the worst
writing advice you have ever received and the best?
Sarah: The worst writing advice was “Write What You
Know”. It’s not what writing is about. What I know doesn’t necessarily create
interest or create tension within a poem.
Also, the advice
“avoids sentimentality” is mostly directed at women but I think there is room
for that. I don’t want to be called ‘cute’ as a writer, so it’s not terrible
advice but it’s so subjective, how can you judge? Typically, women are assumed
to be confessional, autobiographical writers, whereas men are seen as detached,
or less confessional writers and therefore are “allowed” to be sentimental in
their writing.
The best writing
advice I’ve ever received is to carve out time in the day to write as though it
is my full-time job. Sometimes, that needs to be every two weeks, or even a
month, but the best thing is to do it even if I don’t feel like it, or if I feel
like I’m too busy! Also, getting valuable readers to feedback on my work.
More about Sarah Etlinger:
Sarah A. Etlinger
holds a BA in English from Skidmore College, an MA in English from Syracuse
University, and a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition (English) from the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Scholarly interests include new media
studies, first-year composition, feminist literature, the Beatles, and
popular culture. Currently, she is Associate professor of Composition and
Literature at Rock Valley College where she teaches courses in composition,
film, and literature.
A Pushcart and
Best of the Net nominee, she is the author of two books: Never One for
Promises (Kelsay Books, 2018) and Little Human Things, forthcoming
from Clare Songbirds. Other poems can be found in a variety of literary
magazines, including The Amethyst Review, Neologism Poetry Journal,
Mookychick, The Penwood Review, The Magnolia Review, Brine (where she was September 2018’s
featured Poet of the Month) and many others.
Interests include
cooking, traveling, and learning to play the piano.
https://sarahetlinger.com/poems/
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