Eileen Toomey
Oyster River Pages: Why do you write and/or create?
Eileen Toomey: When I was a kid, I spent quite a bit of time alone for a couple of years—you guessed it, because I didn’t have any friends! I spent hours in the back bedroom pretending, weaving stories so elaborate and simply plotted that I really did have fun. I have the same impulse now, I guess, I’m still not good with being alone so when I am, writing gives me focus and the ability to entertain myself.
ORP: What do you think is the best way to improve writing and/or artistic skills?
ET: Put your bum in the chair every day for x amount of time. When life happens, then at least get your pen to the paper for five or ten or fifteen minutes every day. Habit, practice… If you fail, just start again the next day. It’s like busting on Wordle.
ORP: Who do you consider to be your creative ancestors and contemporaries for your art and/or writing? How does your creative work converse with theirs?
ET: Since I can remember, I've had authors and characters roaming around in my head. In fact, one of my poems you may have rejected is about living in a house with famous poets—Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Sharon Olds, Eileen Myles—always Eileen Myles (I love them). My first inspiration was Laura Ingalls Wilder. I’ll never look at a field the same way again since reading about the turf house in Walnut Grove. Every time I write a successful poem or a story I hope I put my reader as deeply into a place as I was put into that dirt house.
ORP: How do children influence your art and/or writing? If you’re a parent, do your children like your art and/or writing?
ET: I have two grown daughters and I have been employed as a nanny for the last twelve years. Children make me happy and spending time with them relaxes some of my more guarded impulses. When you are deeply immersed in a game, imaginary, toys, sports, board, etc., the rest of the world falls by the wayside. The only thing that matters at that moment is what you’re doing now. That’s how I feel when I cross the writing bridge and my fingers seem to be moving on their own. Because I spend a significant amount of time with children, maybe I get there a little quicker than most people my age.
