“When we're writing anything, we're bearing witness to the time we live in and how it's different from any other time in history.” WritingDifferentWitnessBearing Witness Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“I think I started writing as a young person because I felt a lot of psychic confusion and emotional confusion, and writing was a way to sort it out. You know, to externalize it, sort it out, put it down, look at it, and hopefully it would become clearer.” WayWritingLooksPersonsYoungFeltEmotionalConfusionHopefullyPsychics Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“I'm always writing towards a discovery. When I'm writing poems in particular, I'm often writing because a few images coalesced in my mind and I thought, "I wonder why these images are abrading against each other. I wonder what happens if put them in a poem and explore them." I'm trying to learn something every time I write a poem.” IfsWritingTryingMindHappensWonderParticularDiscoveryWriting Poems Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“I'm trying to learn something about making a balance between the inner life and the outer life. I wouldn't write if I didn't need to be making those discoveries, if I didn't feel the perpetual ignorance of being a human being.” IfsNeedsFeelsWritingTryingHumansHuman BeingsIgnoranceBalanceDiscoveryPerpetualInner Life Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“A lot of times students will come up to me and say, "Well, I can't write because I don't know what I think about such-and-such." And I say, "That's why you have to write." You don't wait until you know, because then who cares - it's static.” ThinkingKnowsWritingWellsI CanCareWaitingStudentsCome UpWho CaresStatic Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“I had real concerns about the relationship between nature and culture and places I wanted to write about... I thought, well, maybe I should try prose. It was a real struggle to begin because, first of all, there were so many words on the page - it was terrifying... Beginning was awful.” ShouldWritingTryingFirstsWellsRealWantedCultureStrugglePagesConcernAwfulProse Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“I'm interested in thinking about how are we contributing to the culture, what we can write that might help us deepen the culture, make us more reflective, make us more empathetic, make us feel our connectedness in other ways.” ThinkingWayFeelsWritingHelpingMightCultureContributingConnectednessEmpathetic Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“Sometimes it gets talked about as if life is all about the individual, and I don't think it is. I'm really interested in what writing can contribute to a kind of cultural intelligence.” IfsThinkingWritingKindSometimesLife IsIndividual Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“I don't want people to write programmatic environmental poems, but I think sustainability should become deeply a part of the consciousness of poetry - an impulse toward compassion, empathy, and social justice.” PeopleThinkingWantShouldWritingSocialJusticeConsciousnessCompassionEmpathySocial JusticeEnvironmentalImpulseSustainability Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“What I like about teaching is the discipline of finding words to unpack the artistic process. And I admire the drive in students who want to write, the mystery of how artistic talent unfolds.” WantWritingProcessMysteryTeachingTalentStudentsDisciplineFindingsAdmireArtisticArtistic ProcessArtistic Talent Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“I had wanted for so many years to feel that writing really was at the center of my life, not something I did in my spare time. So the writing and teaching feel in some way to be one thing - the personal engagement and the social engagement good partners.” WayFeelsWritingYearsWantedSocialOne ThingTeachingPartnersEngagementSparesSpare Time Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
“I like to joke that I started writing long poems out the anxiety over ending and starting poems. It just seemed easier to keep going.” WritingLongEasierAnxietyJokesStartingKeep Going Author:Alison Hawthorne Deming
