Priscilla Atkins

Oyster River Pages: How is your art or writing informed by current social and/or political issues?

Priscilla Atkins: I struggle with how to live in this world. I am making choices, conscious and unconscious, every day. My poems are not bardic (and am generally not drawn to reading bardic poems), so when the larger world comes into my work it is through a deeply personal connection.

ORP: We often think of ourselves as writing or making art, but the process often changes or makes us as well. How do you feel like your writing or art makes you?

PA: A wise teacher said to me “We write about our obsessions.” Oy. When I let myself go, I see loud and clear what my obsessions are. Whimsy is a biggie. Here’s to whimsy. In writing I get to embrace my whimsy.

ORP: What do you hope readers or viewers of your piece take from it?

PA: In “Song,” may a reader hear something true.

ORP: Do you believe that hope is a luxury, a responsibility, a danger, or something else? Why?

PA: I believe hope is. Meaning: it is like air. Or grace. Meaning: one does not control hope’s arising. I hate to use this analogy, but: it’s like going to the bathroom. (Is that a luxury, a responsibility, a danger, or something else?)

ORP: If you could choose one writer or artist, living or dead, as a best friend or mentor, who would it be? Why?

PA: This reminds me of the New York Times book review column “By the Book” question: if you had a dinner party, which three writers would you invite. (btw: The question always throws me because I would never have a dinner party.) So, for your question, I am going to pick three. And they aren’t going to be my best friends, for God’s sake. Three writers/artists I would like to spend time with are Emily Brontë, James Baldwin, and Joe Brainard. Emily B. is quiet (love her!). James B. is not (love him!). Joe B. listens to something in himself, follows it. (And, no, when I picked these three writers/artists, I did not realize the whole “parade of B” thing.)

Priscilla Atkins is the author of The Café of Our Departure (Sibling Rivalry Press). Her poems have appeared in Shenandoah, Poetry London, The Los Angeles Review and other journals. Before Covid-19, she was substitute teaching and hopes to be in classrooms, again, some day. Hear her read her poem here.