How did you first.....?

[Christina]

How did you first know that you were really a writer and a poet? Did you write when you were a child?

[Joan]

I think reading incites writing. I was fortunate to have a father who read to me when I was very small. Not children's books but The Odyssey, Shakespeare's plays, Byron and Keats. I've written as long as I can remember and started publishing fiction and poetry in my early 20's. I thought I would be a fiction writer (Flannery O'Connor was an inspiration) but I found that poetry was more satisfying.

[Jan]

I wrote my first short story when I was seven. I won a Scholastic Magazine creative writing contest for another short story when I was 12 and got published in the magazine. But I didn't know I was a poet until 2013.

[Joan]

Jan! Really? But I too thought I'd be a fiction writer and did have quite a bit of fiction published. Lots of my poems are narratives.

[Christina]

Why do you write that you didn't know that you were a poet until 2013?

[Jan]

Joan, I love your narrative poetry! Christina, in 2013 I won the Lambda Literary Award for my first full-length book of poetry. Admittedly, it's just external validation, but it made me realize that the head of poetry in my college creative writing program was wrong. He agreed to my being accepted into the program on the condition that I stick to writing fiction and desist from writing poetry.

For decades I thought that meant I was a fiction writer but not a real poet. Now I know he was wrong. I'm a writer and a poet. He, on the other hand, was a poet and a pedantic asshole.

[Christina]

Jan, sounds to me like the head of poetry at the college creative writing program saw your work as competition and so didn't want you to publish poetry! One gets told so many things by so many people throughout the years, but truly you should just follow your own instincts, and I'm glad that you did!

[Jan]

Thanks, Christina! Your advice is good, and just as applicable today as it would have been 30 years ago. :)