Susan Elbe (r., with mother circa 1950)
Topics include: the AWP 2010 conference; doing web work for a living instead of teaching; poetry writing as a practice; solitude and introversion; how Eden in the Rearview Mirror came together; writing about light and darkness; being a reader and writer in a working-class family; growing up in Chicago in the 1950s.
Poems read: “Eden in the Rearview Mirror,” “Order Lepidoptera,” “Out of the Splitberry Dark,” “Chicago Union Stockyards Circa 1957,” “Sunflowers.”
Links:
- Susan’s website
- Eden in the Rearview Mirror
- The Health issue of qarrtsiluni, edited by Susan Elbe and Kelly Madigan Erlandson
- Susan’s poems online
Theme music: “Le grand sequoia,” by Innvivo (Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike licence)
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Great interview, you two! You kept me company during my lunch today and I enjoyed every minute of the conversation, and getting to know Susan better – the readings were terrific. Thanks for doing this!
Beth, thanks so much! It was great fun talking with Dave and I think he did a heck of an editing job.
Susan, what a wonderful interview! You absolutely NAILED the changing sensibilities of the AWP conference, and your comments about poets and solitude were totally on the mark. Well done, my friend– and thanks for mentioning me. (And you’re right, I don’t remember the incident, but I’m glad I responded so sensibly!)