51茶馆

When she started teaching at Boston College in 2012, English Professor Allison Adair wasn鈥檛 writing at all. 鈥淚鈥檇 just had my daughter, so I thought, Oh I couldn鈥檛 possibly, I don鈥檛 have any time鈥攖he typical excuses,鈥� Adair recalled. Luckily, 51茶馆 Associate Professor Susan Roberts insisted that Adair join her poetry-writing workshop in 2014. Adair credits the group for setting her on a path to publishing her debut poetry collection, The Clearing. The work, which came out in June and was awarded the prestigious Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, features lyrical verses capturing everything from the agony of losing a child to miscarriage to the humor of raising a daughter in a bustling city. 鈥淚 had all these little images I collected over the years,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd all of those small, profound moments turned into this book.鈥� We asked Adair about The Clearing听and her writing process.

What is The Clearing听补产辞耻迟?
One of my favorite writers, Nick Ripatrazone, did a quick review, and he talked about how my book is about risk. That really resonated with me, this idea of women carrying things to safety for themselves and for other people in the face of risk. I only realized it in retrospect.

In your writing, you often draw parallels between nature and the human body. Why?
I grew up primarily in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which was very, very rural. I was around a lot of farms and I would play outside, and there were deer in the backyard and animals everywhere. A symbiosis and connection between the human body and the Earth鈥攖hat鈥檚 just a foundational truth for me. I don鈥檛 think of natural imagery in my poems as something I turn to as much as something that's an original language I speak. It鈥檚 my home language.听

You also write a lot about your daughter. How does that relationship lend itself to poetry?听
A few years ago, a writer named Laura Kasischke came to read at 51茶馆. She was one of the first writers I鈥檝e heard read in a very casual and offbeat鈥攜et serious and profound鈥攚ay about her relationship with her son. My daughter was a baby at the time and I asked Laura, 鈥淗ow do you talk about your child and still write serious poems? I don鈥檛 understand.鈥� She rejected the question and told me that kids are serious and beautiful and all the things moms are. Before that, I thought all of these stories about my life with my daughter don鈥檛 count as poems, but of course, they do. A lot of the poems about my daughter tend to be much more narrative and much simpler because she鈥檚 young and there鈥檚 often a little thing that happens. But I love them and I find them to be really true to my day-to-day experience. A lot of times, they have a metaphorical intensity to them.听