Q&A with Dr. Jeanne Powell
Please welcome Dr. Jeanne Powell to our Featured Author Q&A series at Writer’s Fun Zone. Enjoy!
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About Dr. Jeanne Powell
Dr. Jeanne Powell is a published poet and essayist. Four collections of her poetry from Taurean Horn Press and a book of essays from Regent Press are in print. She has taught in the OLLI, CS and UB programs on college campuses.
On to Our Interview!
Q: Tell us who you are and what inspires you to write.
A: In addition to poetry, I write flash fiction, essays and very short stage plays, with five books in print from Taurean Horn Press and Regent Press.
I am the facilitator for a weekly writers group at Mechanics Institute Library. My reviews of films and cultural events appear at StarkInsider.
And I’m a budding nature photographer.
Q: How did you get to this place in your life? Share your story!
A: I wandered lonely as a cloud for years, but eventually heard the Muse yelling at me and began writing, after several brilliant careers too numerous to mention.
Q: What are you most passionate about?
A: Passionate about individual healing — both spiritual and emotional — so that together we may save our planet from ourselves. There is still time.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about your writing process, routine, and/or rituals around your writing?
A: Being alert to what is around me, what people say and do as I wander about the city, is important.
I take mental note and sometimes physical notes. From those inspirations I create.
Sometimes I see a documentary or read an article which sets ideas into motion.
Q: What are a few challenges you faced in creating, marketing, or publishing your creative work? And your solutions to them.
A: So many challenges when one does not know what one does not know. I struck out on my own 20+ years ago and learned as I went. How to get into print and how to market involved a lot of research.
Today there is so much info available including workshops and consultants and books.
Creating involved attending a hundred open mics and listening with an open mind and asking questions and sharing my work.
Q: What do you wish you had known before you started writing fiction?
A: Wish I had known not to limit my imagination, and not to worry about form.
Start with an idea, then an outline, then character development.
The sky is the limit from there.
Q: What’s next for you in your creative work?
A: Finding time to create another hybrid, like my book Word Dancing.
This book involves poems, essays and my photographs.
The hard part always is choosing a title.
Q: Is there anything else you wished I’d asked? Please share!
A: There is so much joy in allowing oneself to create, and in finding out one’s work resonates with others.
Life becomes less impossible.
And laughter flows.
Two Seasons by Dr. Jeanne Powell
“Jeanne Powell’s TWO SEASONS must rank among her best work, either poems or essays. These poems are inspiring and inspired because of their uncanny ability to transmit genuine feelings of rage and love, justice and injustice, with an eloquence and power that few contemporary American writers can match.”—Dennis Dalton, professor emeritus
Connect with Dr. Jeanne Powell
Website: starkinsider.com/author/jeannep
