Contributor Spotlight: Susan Landgraf

Susan Landgraf’s poem “Reading Lives of the Animals by Robert Wrigley” is featured in Issue 75 of the Bellingham Review.

What would you like to share with our readers about the work you contributed to the Bellingham Review?

I love Robert Wrigley’s work. I was reading the latest, Lives of the Animals, and wanted to respond. I could have written a letter, but this seemed more appropriate. It was a way of prolonging the end of the book! What a wonderful reward—not only having it published in the Bellingham Review, but having him e-mail me a note in response to finding out it would be published in BR.

Tell us about your writing life.

I have been writing most of my life, which is now quite a long time. I truly think books saved me as a child, and then I began to write to make sense of the world. I came to poetry late as a result of Carl Sandburg’s Honey and Salt and Lonny Kaneko, my first poetry teacher. I work on my craft and on noticing the world so I can make better sense of it, especially during the traumatic times and losses. Samuel Green, our state’s inaugural Poet Laureate, wrote this as part of his response to my first full-length book of poems, What We Bury Changes the Ground: “…yet it isn’t just discord that interests this writer but reconciliation, understanding. Even in the darkest poems about family dysfunction, for example, she sees those fragments of light that lead to forgiveness.” That probably sums up what obsesses me in my writing.

Which non-writing aspect(s) of your life most influences your writing?

People and places absolutely. My friends and family keep me grounded and inspired. New ideas, people, places, artwork, literature, teaching…and more.

What writing advice has stayed with you?

William Stafford said something to the effect that it was up to him to write. He left it for the critics to talk about whether it was good or not. I need to remind myself of this occasionally and that publishing is not the same as writing.

What is your favorite book (or essay, poem, short story)? Favorite writer(s)?

Oh my, so many. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck impacted me a great deal. I love Sandburg, Stafford, Naomi Shihab Nye, Terrance Hayes, Sam Green, Patricia Smith and on and on.

What are you reading right now?

One With Others by C. D. Wright; Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith; Illuminated Prayers by Marianne Williamson; A Book of Luminous Things by Czeslaw Milosz; Prairie Schooner‘s latest issue; Tales from the Arabian Nights.

What project(s) are you working on now, or next?

Just finished a writing exercise book that Two Sylvias Press will publish. Working on a poetry manuscript titled Death in the Suburbs and another one Mother Tongue.

Anything else our readers might want to know about you?

I survived a violent, abusive childhood. I had grandparents who gave me stability and normalcy at times. I’ve had loss, including my youngest sister who committed suicide at 17. But I’ve had so many friends, my husband and children, and the opportunity to go to college (took me 10 years to get the AA). Graduated with a master’s in poetry and was lucky to find a home teaching at Highline College when I was 47. And I’m grateful for books, poetry, travel, and beautiful things, as well as for publication. Now I’m retired from teaching full time and writing full time. I was also recently named Poet Laureate of Auburn, and began a month’s residency at Willapa Bay last Sunday.

Where can our readers connect with you online?

I’m in the process of having my website developed. I can be reached at susanlandgraf@q.com or Slandgraf@highline.edu until the website is up.

SUSAN LANDGRAF’S What We Bury Changes the Ground, a full-length poetry collection, was published by Tebot Bach in 2017. She’s published more than 400 poems, essays, and articles in 150 journals, magazines, and newspapers, including Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, Margie, Nimrod, The Laurel Review, and Ploughshares. She’s given more than a hundred workshops, most recently Centrum, the San Miguel Writers’ Conference, and the Marine and Science Technology Center. Finishing Line Press published her chapbook Other Voices; Prentice Hall published Student Reflection Journal for Student Success. She taught at Highline College for 27 years and at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2002, 2008, 2010, and 2012. She was recently named Poet Laureate of Auburn.

Featured Image: “Red Cow” byHailey E. Herrera