Ruth Goring Member Member since 2008

Where do you prefer to do your creative work?

When I lived across the city from my workplace, I set aside a segment of my morning commute for writing. So the location was the number 2 or 6 bus in Chicago!

Now that I'm retired, I do most of my writing & digital painting at the end of my living room. When I need to work on collage art, I go to my little studio, a room full of fabric & canvas surfaces & all kinds of odds & ends. And of course a long table to spread things out on.

Do you read literary journals and magazines regularly? If so, which are your favorites?

I am not in a rhythm of reading anything very regularly! But journals I love include Rhino, Thimble, Calyx, Channel, riverSedge, Naugatuck River Review, Crab Orchard Review.

Who are your literary (or artistic) heroes?

Naomi Shihab Nye, Raul Zurita, Carolyn Forche, Martin Espada

If you could only take one book on a ten-year voyage, what book would you choose?

Annie Dillard's Holy the Firm

How much of a typical day (or week) are you able to dedicate to your creative work?

It varies a LOT. Sometimes I'm very involved in activism or finishing a translation. Planning public actions is a very creative kind of work, & when it's intense writing & visual art have to take a back seat for a while. Other times I'm able to work on poems, art (I've been painting a series of butterflies!), or meditations regularly. Usually just a couple of concentrated hours a day is enough.

How do you celebrate your successes, such as acceptances? How do you handle rejections and other setbacks?

Book celebrations are pretty standard: launch parties & readings! I'm still figuring out when/where to schedule those for The Authority of Hunger, my new collection of poems. Of course I also post on social media--that's my main way to celebrate when poems are accepted in journals.

Rejections are not fun, but I've been writing & submitting poems for decades, so of course I have received many rejections. I remind myself that my accessible voice is not what many journals are seeking, & that's OK because I can only write as Ruth (though I want to keep learning & strengthening my poems). And even if editors like my work, they are often juggling a large number of submissions & can't say yes even to everything that pleases them. Rejection just goes with writing for traditional publication. I don't dwell on it.

Where do you find inspiration?

In paying attention to my life, my body, people I love, the natural world, reports from marginalized communities around the world. Sometimes in visual art or music.

What single creative achievement are you most proud of?

It's hard to single out one, but I am filled with awe at having been able to create Picturing God, the children's picture book that I wrote & illustrated. I made the illustrations with an invented mosaic/collage style, & the brief text is poetic & worshipful. The book as a whole is a kind of visual theology.

What advice would you give to a young, budding writer (or artist) with less experience than yourself?

Write, make art. And take it to a critique group that includes at least some members who are more experienced & skilled than you are. Listen to their comments without defensiveness, & consider how you can best revise. Keep growing as a human being. Do all this regularly. You will stay humble even while your confidence grows & your art/writing is strengthened.

For your first draft (or sketch), do you prefer analog or digital tools, or a mix?

Pen & journal for writing. For the botanical & butterfly art I've been making, digital all the way. But when I make collages, the materials are very physical, with all kinds of textures, & there's so much pleasure in that.