Writing with Your Heart Open, with Lynne Reeder
Interview by Katie Lynn Johnston
Today we’re publishing an interview with the writer and teacher, Lynne Reeder (“Visitation,” “Washing Away,” and “Dirges of Dust”). Below, Reeder talks about how her students inspire her, how her perspective on writing has changed, and the writers she always finds herself going back to.
How did you get started writing? Was there a moment you realized you just had to be a writer?
In second grade, I wrote a poem about my father called “The Fix-It Man” and remember my teacher exclaiming over it and hanging it on the hallway bulletin board. In fourth and fifth grade, I wrote stories with my friend, exchanging chapters at a time with one another, usually with a very Christopher Pike teenage-horror-story angle to them. By sophomore year, I had turned to angsty teen poetry and confessional journal-style pieces, but the love for what the written word is capable of has always been alive in me. Long before I could write, I was drawn to books, making my mother sit for hours to read to me as a small child. I’m a literature teacher because I believe in the power of language to make us better and fuller. It’s a special kind of communication, that between writer and reader, and embracing both sides of that experience has opened me up to many of the most rewarding moments in my life. I tell my students that I write for the same reason I breathe: it keeps me alive. It makes me feel alive, and so it’s never been a question of realizing I had to be a writer. It’s just a natural part of who I am.
As a writer and reader of many literary genres, what draws you to poetry, fiction, and nonfiction? Is there one in particular you enjoy writing, reading, and teaching most?
The bend of language in poetry fascinates me and I love nothing more than a poem that captures something untranslatable. You know, that feeling that has no word to define it accurately, but it has that poem right there in your hands capturing it. I’m a huge fan of Button Poetry poets for this reason. When it comes to fiction, I’m drawn to realistic YA novels, probably because I teach high schoolers and enjoy the connection that these books open up in conversation with them. I’ve really started to read more and more nonfiction the older I’ve gotten, and admire the courage of memoir.
In terms of teaching, I live for teaching The Great Gatsby and also the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. Langston Hughes’ “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” echoes in my soul. Sections of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” are also incredibly beautiful for teaching a sense of individuality and a celebration of being true to oneself.
At this point in my life, poetry is my go-to form for writing, since I am able to draft a full poem in small pockets of time and have a sense of completion, something that’s hard to find while being a full-time working mother of two.
What keeps you inspired to keep writing? Are there subjects you always find yourself coming back to?
I draw so much of my inspiration from my students. I love to be part of their stories and to get to experience who they’ve been and who they are becoming, and channeling my understanding of them into pieces. I also write very often of my own experiences and emotions, trying to make sense of all the overlapping strings, and trying to practice vulnerability and honesty through my writing.
Which authors and books would you say have most influenced your writing and style? Which authors do you always find yourself recommending to others?
As a high school American literature teacher, I’m immersed in the classics and draw so much of my current philosophy and technique from Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson, that idealism of American Romanticism and the universality of nature and connectivity of humanity. Maya Angelou has been my mother muse since I was young, and most recently, my favorite author is Benjamin Alire Saenz. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is a novel everyone should read and cherish. I strive to write like he does, of that core in each of us that stems from fear and a desire for love, doubt and daring, and to be able to tell stories but in a way that is poetic.
What advice would you give to young writers? Is there something you wish you had been told?
Write with your heart wide open, scary as it is. Too often, we get tied up in trying to create a perfect plot arc or prove our worth through some artificial literary constructs, but the best writing, in my experience as a writer, teacher, and reader, is honest and raw. Gets its hands dirty with the stuff that we bury deepest. You can do that even through a sci-fi piece or in a world inhabited by dragons; I don’t mean that everything needs to be nonfiction and adhere to only the narrow lens of your own life, but I do mean that you have to draw from that which lives in you in order to make your work live. You cannot be timid or shy or ashamed. You have to move right through all of it and let it attach to the words.
“Dirges of Dust” is such a memorable piece. With so few words you captured so many feelings and such a perfect glimpse into life. What inspired you to write “Dirges of Dust?” Did you know from the get-go you wanted it to be a flash piece?
That piece actually came from a writing assignment in a novel writing course I was taking through my local council of the arts program, so it was always designed to be a flash piece. I went into it very aware that my words needed to be limited and extremely packed with meaning. Flash fiction is not something I’ve done much of, but in writing this piece I realized that as a poet, this type of fiction writing is extremely useful and lends itself well since the use of language has to be tight and purposeful just as it does in poem writing. At the time, I was working with a student on a memoir piece of his own about his brother’s suicide (which went on to win a national gold medal in the 2019 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards) and, with his permission, I based the character of Levi on him. As a mother, I thought very often about her perspective and experience and so channeled the story through a mother figure, wanting to try and capture the way she suffered and yet bore the burden of continuing and trying to patch up what’s unfixable.
Where would you like to take your writing for the future? Do you have any exciting projects in the works that you would like to share?
Honestly, I used to dream of having a New York Times’ bestseller but lately, my focus has turned to curating the writing efforts and projects of students and former students. I’ve found that my definition of what makes me a writer has shifted, and now relies much less on the validation of publication and more on the sense of accomplishment with helping a young writer bring a project to fruition. Seeing that passion and fire ignite and tending to its embers breathes a life into my own writing that I’d never trade.
Lynne Reeder lives through words. She writes them, reads them, teaches them, and believes in them always. A four-time Perry County Poet Laureate, her work has been featured in multiple online journals and print anthologies, including Recenter Press, The Soapbox Volume I and II, and Strange Magic. When not writing, Lynne finds meaning in mentoring student writers and playing a small part in fueling their futures. Learn more about Lynne and her works at www.lynnereeder.com.
You can follow her writing journey at @thepoemreeder on Instagram and Facebook.