“ My hope is that the photographs lend the caption-poem an unexpected context and physicality and that together the pieces may reinvigorate the act of reading .”
although I feel I still have much more to learn in that arena , but the ‘ learning ’ itself has been such a joy-filled enterprise .”
Add joyful student to her list of excellent attributes and we are getting closer to understanding Van Winckel ’ s need to push boundaries and expand not only her understanding of the world but others as well . She does not shy away from hard work , or difficult topics as proven by her latest offerings .
“ I just published my 15th book . Yikes ! It ’ s a memoir entitled ‘ Sister Zero .’ It focuses on my younger sister ’ s death from a drug overdose and how my husband and I then became parents to her nine-year-old son who later died in the same awful way . It ’ s a sad story , yes , but I try to let some upbeat moments counterpoint the sadness . The book also contains some of my photo collages , and my altered pages of the guidebook to the 1964 New York World ’ s Fair , a place my sister and I visited as kids with our parents .
“ My hope is that the photographs lend the caption-poem an unexpected context and physicality and that together the pieces may reinvigorate the act of reading .”
“ My current project is a series of what I call ‘ caption-poems .’ Writing photo captions and cutlines for a newspaper was an early job of mine , and I ’ ve been revisiting that work on my own photos , but with a different sort of torque on what ’ s usually expected of a caption . As a newspaper person , I had to use words with a specific mission : to describe exactly the facts the photograph presented . Now I allow my text to do what was not allowed back then : reflect , suggest a peripheral narrative , and press against the edges of the purely visual . My hope is that the photographs lend the captionpoem an unexpected context and physicality and that together the pieces may reinvigorate the act of reading , allowing the text to be bolstered but not overpowered by images .
FIND OUT MORE
If you ’ d like to learn more about Nance Van Winckel and her books , you can find her at the following websites :
Literary works and links to Nance ’ s books : www . nancevanwinckel . com
Nance ’ s PhoToem work : www . photoemsbynancevanwinckel . zenfolio . com
Nance ’ s newest book , “ Sister Zero ,” along with excerpts and an interview : www . slantbooks . org / books / sister-zero /
Examples of the new “ caption-poems ” may be found by scanning the QR Code
“ Images ! I love to dance between them , to belong to them , to torque , freeze , nibble , and blast ‘ em to smithereens .”
And that she does with words as well . May | June 2023 53