Art Chowder March | April 2017, Issue 8 | Page 36

Poet Ben C

We were young, and had no idea who Sam was at the time. He taught our poetry workshop that particular year— stepped in because the poet they had scheduled backed out at the last minute. After the workshop, until I moved to Kansas for the first time at age eighteen, I used to drive from Spokane over to Seattle, take the ferry up to Port Townsend and stay at the youth hostel in Ft. Warden. Once, when the hostel was full, I just slept on the grass in the park. I would show up at Copper Canyon and ask if I could talk to Sam. He talked to me! He did this several times- just let me into his office, interrupted his work, gave me free books from the press, and talked to me about poetry. I’ d get back into my parents’ car and drive home. I was so clueless— embarrassingly clueless— but it seemed to work out. I tried to thank Sam for all of this at a recent AWP conference in Seattle. He had absolutely no idea who I was.
I’ m not sharing all this about not receiving funds by way of a complaint, by the way, but to illustrate how much the arts community has changed in Spokane. I can’ t imagine that happening to a young poet in our city today. There are so many talented younger poets here, like Lauren Gilmore, and Ben Read- countless others. Even with the growing, thriving arts community in Spokane, I hope that we don’ t lose our piss and vinegar.
This may be borderline inappropriate to share, but after the high school turned me down when I asked for funds, and I was nervous about going to Centrum, Mary Ann gave me some very particular advice about dealing with the west side poets. She told me:
“ don’ t worry about them— they’ re going to seem like they know what they’ re doing, but being a poet, or an artist, is easy over there. Most of them will quit, because they’ re more interested in being a poet than in making poems. If you’ re a poet over here, you have to defend what you’ re doing all the time. Being a poet here means you’ re stubborn enough to stick with it, because almost everyone you meet is going to turn their nose up at you, and ask you how you make money at it.”
Granted, I think Mary Ann was trying to psyche me up for the trip, but her advice helped me a lot when I was starting out. I think it’ s hard to be a poet anywhere, though, and always has been. Also, I love the west side and the east side of our state, especially after so many years living away from it.
Ben has been very productive since returning to Spokane to teach at Gonzaga. His first book, After Our Departure, was chosen by Nance Van Winckel as the winner of the Powder Horn Prize and was published in October 2016 by Sage Hill Press. He has a flash fiction story in the current issue of Crab Creek Review, and a poem in Prick of the Spindle. He is a collaborator with Spokane poet Emily Gwinn on a poetry manuscript titled Additional Lyrics that incorporates found images, and lyrics from traditional American folk songs.
“ I have focused on poetry the most in my career, but I also have a keen interest in speculative fiction. I write it, and I teach it. I have taught courses in feminist and environmental utopias. I also taught a course on the Science Fiction novel for the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas. This spring, I am teaching a course on Afrofuturism at Gonzaga. So far, I have only written a few speculative poems, but I think the questioning that is at the heart of Science Fiction literature overlaps with my approach to poetics. I also collaborate with Lindsey Merrell. I took a course on print making that Lindsey taught at the Spokane Art School, and I’ ve started experimenting with creating my own block print illustrations for my poetry, and my fiction.”
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