Today we’d like to introduce you to Katherine Riegel.
Hi Katherine, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I wrote poetry and fiction in college but thought I should be “practical” for a career, so I started law school. I was only in law school for a semester before I dropped out, knowing that writing poems during class was not a good sign. After I got my MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers Workshop, I taught at a variety of colleges and universities, everything from composition to advanced poetry workshops.
So when I left my job at the University of South Florida to move to Memphis and marry in 2015, I knew that I wanted to run poetry workshops in some way. I started with Facebook groups since my potential students were spread out across the country, mostly former students of mine who wanted to keep writing. Eventually, I discovered Wet Ink, an online platform designed for writing classes. Now that Zoom is dominant, I get to have face-to-face discussions about poetry and memoir, true stories about people’s lives.
There’s nothing I love more than to help a writer see what’s working beautifully in their writing and encourage them to do more of that. I also make suggestions that might shape the writing a bit more, but I try to respect the writer’s vision and style. In this way, I helped one poet publish her first book; she wrote nearly all the poems in the book during my classes, and I also made suggestions about the collection as a whole. Another poet published her first chapbook filled with poems I helped her work on, and many students have published poems and essays written in my classes in literary magazines.
I’m so glad I’ve been able to incorporate teaching into my life again, this time without grades (the worst part of teaching). I keep writing my own poems and essays, and reading new work by writers I love so that I can share my experience better with the writers who choose to work with me.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The most difficult time for me professionally was just after I moved to Memphis. I missed teaching very much, and it took me some time to figure out how to do it without being affiliated with a college or university. It was the first time in many years that I wasn’t teaching in higher education, and I felt adrift.
Without a job, I also didn’t meet people locally. I knew people interested in working with me on their writing, but they lived in New York and Florida, the last two places I’d taught in an official capacity. So it took me some time to figure out the technology so I could work with writers online.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
It took me a long time after getting my MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in poetry to publish my first book–around 18 years. I’d been writing poems steadily, but without a full-length book, it’s difficult to advance in academia. So my first book, Castaway, was and still is something I’m very proud of. The title comes from a poem in which I write about being a “castaway” from the rural Midwest where I grew up, on a horse farm with my parents and three siblings in the 1970s.
My writing keeps coming back to that childhood, so even poems and essays that aren’t specifically about that tend to use the imagery of animals, birds, and the natural world. Though I’ve lived in cities, I’ve always been a country person, far more in love with woods and fields than buildings and busy streets. So as a writer, I’m probably known for that yearning for nature. It pops up in nearly everything I write.
As a teacher, editor, and workshop leader, I’m known for being encouraging and supportive. I won’t lie to writers, but I think it’s very important to let a writer know what’s working well and why. For one thing, you don’t want them to remove the best parts in the next draft, and for another, seeing what you’re good at helps you to take risks and try new strategies, to grow as a writer. I try to respond to writers’ work in such a way that they’re excited to write the next poem or essay, and the next. There’s never too much poetry in the world.
What matters most to you?
Some of us poets like to talk about the Church of Poetry. It’s tongue-in-cheek, a bit of a joke, but the idea is that we recognize how important poetry can be to those who read and write it. No, of course, it’s not a religion, but poetry can help us get closer to the mystery of the human condition, the big questions about what we’re here for, and why we matter.
Poetry can embrace contradiction and paradox, and use metaphor to help us see the world afresh. So whatever your faith tradition, poetry can be a place to feel connected to something greater than yourself: the vast, complex, beautiful, mysterious endeavor that is human existence.
Pricing:
- 6-week workshop, Zoom or online: $230
- One-time 2-hour Zoom workshop: $20
- individual conferencing via Zoom or email: $50/hour
Contact Info:
- Website: https://katherineriegel.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katherineriegel
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Katherine.Katie.Riegel/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-riegel-b824b194/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/KatieRpoet
- Other: https://sweetlit.org/workshops/
