Interview with Tracy Youngblom

1. What made you start writing? 2. What influenced you to start teaching a creative writing class? 3. What is your favorite part about writing and why? 4. Who has influenced you, and your writing the most? 5. Who is your favorite author and what readings by them would you suggest for others? 6. Why is writing/teaching important to you? 7. What kind of writing is your favorite and why? (ex. Poetry) 8. When did you start writing? 9. Have you ever tried to get anything of yours published, and if so what? 10. How often do you get rejected/accepted when trying to publish something of yours? 11. If you could meet any author of any time who would it be and why? 12. Any additional comments you may have about writing/reading that you would like to point out.

1) I became interested in writing for two reasons: I was interested in reading, and I had a great5th grade teacher. Since I read so much, and the books got under my skin so much, that I wanted totry to write something that could effect someone. Then, in 5th grade, we did a poetry unit wherewe created a little booklet and illustrated it--published poems that we had to find, and thensome original poems. My teacher just RAVED about my work, and I was hooked because she hadrecognized something in me and praised it. 2) Teaching creative writing rose naturally out of my life as a writer. Writing offers me so manydiscoveries because I learn something from each thing I write, whether it's a poem or an essay.And I think that creative writing requires discipline, attention to detail, andperseverance--and I think those qualities are important to students in any class. So it'sexciting to be able to share my love of writing and help students to see what's good in their ownwork. 3) My absolute favorite part about writing is finishing something and feeling like it'sdone--knowing that I've used words in a specific way to make a point, to effect a feeling, thatnot even a single word should be changed. It takes a long time and a lot of frustration to getthere, but there's nothing like the feeling of having MADE something. I'm not saying I don'tenjoy the process--I do, and I love drafting because I can just write anything I think of--butthe fine-tuning and the sense of completion are the best. 4) Teachers have been my main influence. As an undergrad, I had a teacher for Creative Writingwho was just so good about praising students in class when parts of their poems or stories reallystood out. His praise was limited--he was not the kind of teacher who praised everything, orpraised each student every time, so when he did, we knew that the student had really achievedsomething. I had him for a Fiction Writing course in grad school, too, and he continues to be amentor to me. His name is Lon Otto, at the University of St. Thomas. I also had an advisor in gradschool, David Baker, who was just so tough on me. One time I wrote a critical paper (which was partof the creative writing program) and it really didn't have a strong argument or thesis. He saidhe thought I should write it over--so I did. And he was right, it was better with revision. As forpoems, he was also tough, but I knew that he was no harder on me than on himself. He would say he wasworking on the 40th draft of a poem, or something like that, and he read everything I read thatsemester so we could have good discussions. The greatest compliments he gave me were sending mea poem he was working on, and saying in my evaluation that I was "teachable." But writers have influenced me as well. Shakespeare for the rhythms and images of his language.His phrasing is so powerful and memorable to me: thus the native hue of resolution is sickliedo'er with the pale cast of thought; and thus conscience doth make cowards of us all. As for morecontemporary poets, I have been influenced by the rhythms and syntax of Sylvia Plath and JohnBerryman, and for the overall quality in the many poems of Ellen Bryant Voigt. 5) Favorite author. . .I have to list Shakespeare, and I have to say that the tragedies,especially Hamlet and Othello, should be required reading. Not just the language but theissues are still so moving and contemporary. I'd include John Berryman's Dream Songs and poemsby Sylvia Plath (Mushrooms, Lazy Lazarus); one of my favorite books of poetry is Ellen Voigt'sThe Shadow of Heaven. She also has a book called Kyrie which is a series of linked poems that ismarvelous. And Louise Gluck's book The Wild Iris. 6) Teaching and Writing are important for me because they keep me in touch with other people in acommunity. The interchange of ideas, the chance to talk about important issues and how we cancommunicate well in a world that's chaotic and fast-paced is exciting. And I get a sense ofpurpose from sharing what I know with students--I don't see writing as some mysterious force,but as a way to communicate our experience. It's the connection. 7) This is a great question, because though I'm a poet and am becoming an essayist, I read a lot offiction. I love a good novel, though I don't have any desire to write one. Poems, though, aresomething I read daily, either on-line (Poetry Daily or Verse Daily) or in my side-gig as apoetry editor for an online journal. So I am continually exposed to it--I get through fewerwhole books of poetry than fiction, but I am more exposed to poetry in a continual way. 8) I started writing seriously in 8th grade, when I began what I thought was going to be a hit crimenovel (I was reading a lot of John D. MacDonald in those days). I hand wrote a whole bunch of pages,but I lost it! I never restarted it, but by the time I was a senior in HS I was writing a lot of poemsand getting a lot of encouragement from my English teacher. 9) Yes, publishing is important to me. I send out work pretty regularly, and my firstpublication was in 1993. I have a number of individual poems published in magazines, and I have achapbook of poetry coming out in a year or so. 10) Well, I'm also an editor, so I know that rejection is a more common occurrence for writersthan acceptance. Sometimes the work is not high enough quality, and sometimes it just doesn'tfit with our mission or goals (too long, too informal). I also know that the general acceptancerate for any journal is around 1%--that's because so many people submit poems. So, I have had alot of rejections! But, some acceptances to keep me going. Even if poems are returned with a"No," if there's a handwritten note or a simple comment that shows there's a human being on theother side of the transaction, I feel happy. 11) I would like to meet Virginia Woolf and John Berryman. Both were known for experimenting intheir work, but getting some recognition. Both also struggled with their own personaldemons--and I'd be curious to ask about that struggle, what their interior lives were like. 12) My final word on that topic to anyone who wants to write anything is that you have to READ. Readeverything you can get your hands on. Read voraciously. Read with abandon. If you read, you willbe filled with ideas, which is important, but you will also absorb the subtle ways that languagecan be formed, used, manipulated for effect. You will drink in the language, you will love thewords, you will remember certain phrases that haunt you--and you will become a better thinker,which is essential for becoming a better writer.