Interview by Jessica Colleen McDermott
Line Rider: Can you tell us more about your background and how you first started writing poetry?
Shanan Ballam: I grew up in Nordic Valley, Utah, an isolated area north of Ogden, Utah. We had very few neighbors. Other children lived quite far away, so my siblings and I became very close. Our lives were difficult because we were some of the few non-Mormons who lived in the valley. Also, our father was an alcoholic. Later in my childhood, my mother also became an alcoholic. We were both physically and emotionally isolated. Poetry became an outlet for me, though when I was young I was afraid to write most of my true feelings on paper for fear of being discovered. When I got older and was able to have distance from my parents, I developed courage and have been able to write about the complexities and pain of my childhood. My first full-length book Pretty Marrow explores my parents’ alcoholism and its effect on me and my siblings.
I remember writing my first poem when I was about 5 years old, and I have been writing poetry ever since. I remember writing a poem in third grade about a pink rose being torn apart in a rainstorm. My teacher, Mrs. Higgs, read it in front of the whole grade because she thought it was very good. My grandparents praised my poetry, and I used to write poems for them that they hung on their walls. My grandparents and my teachers were very supportive to me and my writing, and their encouragement helped me to continue to have the courage to write.
LR: How has teaching poetry changed your own writing?
SB: Teaching poetry has strengthened my writing in many ways. I am constantly searching for new poetry exercises to share with my students which allows me to continually explore new ideas and angles for poetry. I enjoy writing my own poetry exercises that I share with my students. The exercises often reveal my writing process and ask students to imitate it. Also, many of my students write amazing poems, and their work has influenced some of my poetry.
LR: What advice would you give to young writers/poets, especially during this difficult social/economic time?
SB: Try to write every day if possible, even if the writing is just free-writing (writing whatever comes to mind without worrying about grammar or anything else that could impede you). Get all your thoughts down on paper. For me, the act of free-writing is therapeutic. I always feel better after I have written 3 pages of my thoughts. And if you write 3 pages, often the writing begins to take shape. Many of my best poems have come from free-writing.
LR: What is your role as Logan City Poet Laureate and in your opinion what is the role of poetry in your community?
SB: As Logan City Poet Laureate, my duty is to promote literature to the community, and to do that, I teach free poetry workshops for the community. Because of COVID, the majority of those workshops have been through Zoom, and although teaching through Zoom is not ideal for a workshop, I am able to reach more Utah residents. For instance, participants in my workshop include Logan City residents as well as residents from across Utah and from out-of-state.
The role of poetry in Utah is to connect, to heal, and to celebrate. I am always surprised and delighted by the beautiful work that the workshop participants create. I have created a page on my website entitled “A Celebration of Cache Valley Voices” so I can publish and share Cache Valley residents’ poetry. The poets on the website include current residents and past residents of Cache Valley.
LR: Your poetry has strong rhythm and striking images that often come from the natural world. How do you see nature and the environment functioning in your writing?
SB: I grew up in a beautiful, isolated area in Northern Utah and have now lived in Cache Valley Utah for 25 years. All through my life I have spent a lot of time outdoors hiking, skiing, and exploring. My great love is wildflowers, and I spend spring, summer, and fall seeking out wildflowers and photographing them. To me, poetry and nature are intertwined. I write about what I love about nature and try to capture, with as much accuracy as possible, natural images, and depending on the subject matter of the poem I’m writing, I try to match the pacing of the poem to the subject. For instance, I have recently written a poem about a waterfall, and the poem is fast-paced, never dwelling on any one image for very long.
LR: What writers/mentors do you feel shaped you the most as a writer?
SB: When I was an undergrad at Utah State University studying writing, I was lucky to have several great teachers: Ken Brewer, my first poetry teacher; Bobbie Stearman, my first fiction writing teacher; and Helen Cannon, my first creative nonfiction teacher. In 2005 I was accepted into The University of Nebraska, Omaha’s low-residency MFA program. I worked with two amazing female poets, Catie Rosemurgy and Teri Grimm. But the most important teacher of my life has been William Trowbridge, former poet laureate of Missouri. Bill taught me to scan poetry, a skill that has helped me to recognize and understand rhythm in a more sophisticated way. Under his mentorship, I also studied musicality: assonance, consonance, alliteration, partial consonance, and rich consonance. I strive to make my poems as musical as possible, rearranging syntax and finding the precise words to fabricate imagistic, musical poetry.
LR: Do you have a favorite poetry book from 2020? What made it one of your favorites?
SB: Although it’s not from 2020, nor is it a poetry book, the book that was important to me and my work this year is The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. The book encourages daily writing and exploration. It also asks readers to expand and enrich their lives by asking them to consider alternate lives for themselves—what would it be like if I were a psychologist? A singer? A florist? Cameron then encourages readers to pick one of those lives and try to incorporate some aspect of it into your current life. One of my greatest joys is arranging flowers from my garden. Because of The Artist’s Way, I decided to pursue my love for floral arranging, and I am now working as a floral design clerk at a small grocery store in Hyrum, Utah.