Contributor Spotlight: Angela Narciso Torres
Angela Narciso Torres’ poem “Some Uses of Friction” is part of Issue 78 of Bellingham Review. Subscribe or purchase a single issue through our Submittable page here.
What would you like to share with our readers about the work you contributed to the Bellingham Review?
This poem uses the idea of friction in the natural world as a metaphor to explore a mother’s declining memory and how the speaker and her family deal with the devastating effects of dementia, a theme I explore further in a chapbook I just completed about my own mother’s struggles with Alzheimer’s disease.
Tell us about your writing life.
I consider myself a poet of memory. I’ve always loved writing but began seriously writing/publishing poetry when my youngest was 2 years old. As a stay-at-home mother of three boys, poetry became for me a way to carve out a “room of my own” to record and bear witness to life—past, present, and imagined.
Which non-writing aspects of your life most influence your writing?
Music inspires me. My poems aspire towards musicality. And nature. When stuck, I take walks and look closely at everything: trees, plants, leaves, flowers, buds, insects, clouds. Living in Florida (we moved here last year) has been good for this. I’m inspired by dance, which I find both grounding and freeing.
What writing advice has stayed with you?
“Write in white heat; edit in cold blood.”
What is your favorite book (or essay, poem, short story)?
Sharon Olds, Gold Cell
What are you reading right now?
Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby
What project(s) are you working on now, or next?
I just finished a chapbook (see above) and am now pulling together my second full length book of poetry. Stay tuned!
Anything else our readers might want to know about you?
I love to dance and have always been pretty good at it. I’ve danced ballet since childhood and learned hip hop as an adult. I once did a short hip hop video with my son which went viral with his college dance crew (and beyond).
Where can our readers connect with you online?
Facebook: Angela Narciso Torres
Twitter: @angela_n_torres
Instagram: @angelantorres
Website: angelanarcisotorres.com
ANGELA NARCISO TORRES, author of Blood Orange (Willow Books Literature Award for Poetry), has recent or forthcoming work in Poetry, Missouri Review, Quarterly West, and Cortland Review. A graduate of Warren Wilson’s MFA Program and Harvard Graduate School of Education, Angela has received fellowships from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and Ragdale Foundation. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Manila, she’s a senior and reviews editor for RHINO and serves on the editorial panel of New England Review.
Featured Image: “NYC – MoMA: Vasily Kandinsky’s Panel for Edwin R. Campbell No. 3 and No. 4” by Wally Gobetz