Cathryn Essinger is the author of six books of poetry, most recently Telling the Bees, from Sheila-Na-Gig press, and Wings, or Does the Caterpillar Dream of Flight, from Dos Madres press. Her work has appeared in a wide variety of journals including Poetry, The Southern Review, The New England Review, Terrain.org, and Ecotone. Her poems have been nominated for Pushcarts and Best of the Net and anthologized in American Life in Poetry. She lives in Troy, Ohio, where she raises butterflies. Learn more.
What past event do you often reflect upon, and how did that event change you?
Many years ago, I was invited to join a small critique group that was forming in Greenville, Ohio. There were five of us –– Myrna Stone, Miriam Vermilya, Lianne Spidel, Belinda Rismiller, and myself. Although our ages differed, we were all young unpublished poets. None of us had MFA’s or were familiar with the publishing process. Nevertheless, we vowed to meet once a month and to support each others’ work. Forty years later, we are still together. Some of our members have passed on, some new faces have arrived, but we are still meeting monthly. Through the years, we gradually educated ourselves in the workings of the literary world. Today, collectively, we have over 30 books in print, and most importantly still support one another with love and friendship.
How does your work add to the quality of your life?
I am a retired English teacher and a narrative poet. I am grateful to my colleagues and to the students who invited me into their lives, often with their own stories to tell. Today, I meet those students in the grocery store, picking strawberries, or at work in a health care setting. They sometimes say, shyly, “I was in one of your classes; do you remember me?” And I always say –– “Of course, I remember you! But, I don’t remember your name.” This is usually true –– I am not good with names. But often, much to their surprise, I can remember the essays that they wrote and the stories that they told. They have enriched my life.
Tell us a story you would like to share with the world.
One of my favorite (ghost?) stories is about Miriam Vermilya, one of the founding members of the Greenville Poets. Miriam was a remarkable poet and artist. She died very unexpectedly in 1998. In fact, our writer’s group had just met at her house to discuss a book manuscript that she was laying out. We decided, as a group, to try to publish her manuscript. We were still very new to publishing ourselves, but we found a very generous community of editors and publishers who helped us bring Miriam’s book to fruition. Miriam’s book, Heartwood, was the winner of the Walt MacDonald First Book Award from Texas Tech University in 1999. It is still one of my favorite books to reread. Oddly enough, about a year after the book was published, I received a mystery email with no sender or return address. It said only two words –– “Thank You” and it was signed, “Miriam.”
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