One of the best things about being a poet is getting to know other poets. I am honored that Kelli Russell Agodon agreed to this interview.
1. What inspired you to be a poet? It could be someone you know or someone you read.
For a long time, I didn't realize one could "be a poet." I'm not sure what I thought- that poets were dead or in Ireland, or that one may write poetry but didn't call themselves "a poet." At the University of Washington as an undergrad, I took a class from Linda Bierds and realized that one could actually be a poet in the world. She was the first person who suggested I send out a poem. Within the next year, I started to see myself as a poet and change my life over the next six years to follow that path.
2. Where you live appears often in your poems. Have you lived there a long time? Why is place important to you?
I was born and raised in Seattle and have lived my entire life here in the area- in fact, all of my homes are within a 30-mile radius as the crow flies- though now I am separated from Seatlle by a ferry ride and a floating bridge. The Pacific Northwest has always been my backdrop. As a kid, I hated it, Seatlle seemed so boring. I wanted to move to California where there were palm trees and warm beaches. Seattle became a little more interesting in the 90s with the grunge scene and as I've grown older, I appreciate it so much more- our seasons, the clean air, the evergreen, the hiking trails, the bodies of water with their orcas, porpoises, seals, and others. I feel this area knows me and I understand it in a deep way that I know no other place.
3. Copper Canyon sounds like a wonderful publisher. Tell about your experience with them.
They have been a dream to work with- every editor, publicist, intern, everyone on the team has been a joy and acts with kindness. Things are very well organized and I appreciated how much care my book received. I also see how everyone at Copper Canyon Press has a fierce devotion to poetry and making the world a better place with what they publish and with their action in the world. And because they are local and my editor, Michael Wiegers, is also a paddleboarder, I have been able to have meetings with him on our paddleboards, so that was an unexpected treat of being part of the Copper Canyon family!
4. Two Sylvias Press fills a real need. How did it come into existence?
Accidentally. Around 2009i, my friend, Annette Spaulding-Convy and I were coming back from Seattle on a ferry and we decided to publish an eBook anthology of contemporary women's poetry because there wasn't one in the world at the time. We created the anthology, then realized there were no poetry presses that had any idea how to do an eBook and the formatting for poetry was a mess back then. if you remember. So we thought-- we'll just publish it ourselves! And Two Sylvias PRess was born to publish that book.
Once we had a press, we publish The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts for Your Writing Practice and then reprinted some of our friends' poetry books where their press had folded. The next thing we knew, e had several titles and we just didn't stop.
5. You devote a lot of your time to teaching and mentoring. How do you manage to nourish your creativity?
Nature. Devoting time to myself for my own writing. Solitude. MEditation. Hikes and walks. Long hours of paddleboarding and observing the sea and local seabirds. Reading books. Napping. Keeping the kind and supportive people around me. Turning off my phone. Signing offline. Spend less of my time looking at a screen and more of my time looking at sky.
6. Is there anything else you would like to mention?
Just that I am raising money for the Skagit River Poetry Foundation by teaching a generative writing class where we will spend the afternoon writing poetry from fun and surrealist prompts. It's open to all levels of poets and you didn't have to know ANYTHING about surrealism, just come with a sense of adventure, openness, and play and we will write some poems! Also, everyone who signs up receives a copy of my new book, Dialogues with Rising Tides. Here's the link to learn more: https://www.agodon.com/classes.html
BIO
Keli Russell Agodon is the author of four collections of poetry. Her newest book is Dialogues with Rising Tides published by Copper Canyon Press. Kellis is the cofounder of Two Sylvias Press, where she works as an editor and book cover designer. She lives in a sleepy seaside town in Washington State on traditional lands of the Chimacum, Coast Salish, S'Klallam, and Suquamish people where she is an avid paddleboarder and hiker. She teachers at Pacific Lutheran University's low-residency MFA program, the Rainier Writing Workshop. www.agodon.com / www.twosylviaspress.com
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