Rebecca Ruth Gould

Oyster River Pages: How does writing or making art change you?

Rebecca Ruth Gould: I associate my beginning as a writer with coming to think of myself as a mortal creature. This became a preoccupation of mine from age 13 onwards. Ever since then, writing has given me a means of coming to terms with the inevitability of death.  

ORP: How has your writing or art changed over time?

RRG: Producing the first draft has always been exciting for me, but there is a particular pleasure that comes from being able to revise older work. I have been spending a lot of time lately revising things that I wrote decades ago, and discovering new things about myself in the process.

ORP: Name three artists or writers have impacted your work.

RRG: Most recently: Kafka, Richard Yates, and Robert Duncan, each for very different reasons.

ORP: Who do you hope reads your work and why?

RRG: I think I am more interested in duration over time than in reach over space. I would like to be read by someone a long time in the future. Even if it is just one person, that is fine.

ORP: What’s next for you artistically?

RRG: I have a number of co-translation projects forthcoming with Kayvan Tahmasebian. I also look forward to publishing my monograph on Persian prison poetry.

Rebecca Ruth Gould's poems and translations have appeared in Nimrod, Kenyon Review, Tin House, The Hudson Review, Salt Hill, and The Atlantic Review. She translates from Persian, Russian, and Georgian, and has translated books such as After Tomorrow the Days Disappear: Ghazals and Other Poems of Hasan Sijzi of Delhi (Northwestern University Press, 2016) and The Death of Bagrat Zakharych and other Stories by Vazha-Pshavela (Paper & Ink, 2019). Her poem “Grocery Shopping” was a finalist for the Luminaire Award for Best Poetry in 2017, and she is a Pushcart Prize nominee. She can be found on twitter (@rrgould) and Instragam (r.r.gould) and her website is https://rrgould.hcommons.org. Listen to Ruth read her poetry here.