Cynthia Belmont
Oyster River Pages: What inspired you to begin writing or creating? Has that source of inspiration changed throughout your life?
Cynthia Belmont: I began writing poetry as a way of channeling the intense emotions that I was experiencing as a teenager into something outside of myself, using imagery to externalize and illustrate my obsessions as a profoundly sensual being. It was definitely expressive writing, but I also wanted to make the beauty that I loved into something that could live on paper. I write for various reasons now, especially having moved from poetry into creative essays, but the desire to craft powerful images remains, and the imperative to record, to translate complex feelings and moments into language.
ORP: What does success as a writer or artist mean to you?
CB: To have written even one piece that genuinely moves another person, so that you have communicated a feeling or a way of seeing that is important to you, is to be successful.
ORP: What books have you read many times?
CB: Richard Hugo's book The Triggering Town is the most valuable text on writing that I know of. I carry a lot of his wisdom with me, and every time I teach this book, I continue to learn from it. I also love David Citino's The Eye of the Poet: Six Views of the Art and Craft of Poetry, which is chock full of wonderful advice coming from several experienced writers. These books are excellent guides for any creative writer. I've read Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek many times, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, and Margaret Atwood's Surfacing. These are all examples of highly charged, lyrical prose that is endlessly exciting to me, and all three are fundamentally about a profound love of the world and being alive--that's the stuff!
ORP: What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing or creating? What advice would you give to another writer or artist?
CB: Perhaps the most important lesson a writer can learn is that you have to trust your voice and your worldview enough to say whatever needs to be said without hesitation, without questioning yourself. Richard Hugo says, it belongs there because you put it there. But then you also have to be ruthless enough to eliminate absolutely anything you've written if it isn't working. So, you put it there confidently, and you also have the power and the responsibility to be honest with yourself and take it out if it needs to go. You are writing in service of the writing, the art, not anything else. Just the art.
ORP: How does writing/art influence your worldview, and how does your worldview shape your writing/art?
CB: My worldview is organized around the idea that our calling as creatures on Earth is to be attentive to and appreciate the world, its unfathomable complexity, and our fellow travelers. Obviously, attentiveness and appreciation are also principal attitudes of writers, who practice observation as a way of living. So my worldview and my writing are highly complementary, and I feel fortunate to be able to share my observations with others so that they too can see what I see and hopefully feel that love for the world.
