Stephen Page : part five

How does your work first enter the world? Do you have a social group or writers’ group that you work ideas and poems with?

No groups at the moment. I attended workshops at Palomar College, Columbia University, Bennington College, Vermont Studio Center, and Cleveland State University.  For many years, I conducted workshops and poetry readings in Argentina. But, from those experiences, I found that almost all of my writings that I have had published were those that were never workshopped, or those that were not changed from advice from workshoppers. I learned to trust my own instincts.  Now, I just listen to my muse, write, rewrite, edit, polish, then submit the piece to a publisher.

Stephen Page : part four

Has your consideration of poetry changed since you began?

No.  I love it more than ever. All forms.

Stephen Page : part three

How do you know when a poem is finished?

When the poem tells you it is finished.

Stephen Page : part two

How did you first engage with poetry?

Probably while reading all of the Dr. Seuss books alone in my room as a child. Later, in 2nd grade, I wrote poems to the girl who sat in the desk in front of me. I did not think of myself as a poet then, but later, while I was in the Marines, I penned marching and running chants. Still, I did not consider myself a poet. Near the end of my time in the Marines, while on a photo safari in Africa, I met a green-eyed goddess who was on the same tour bus. I think she was my inspiration to become a poet and to consider myself a writer because, when we separated after the tour, I wrote her long letters in poetic form.

Stephen Page : part one

Stephen Page is part Apache and Shawnee. He was born in Detroit. He is the author of three other books of poetry – A Ranch Bordering the Salty River, The Timbre of Sand, and Still Dandelions. He holds two AA’s from Palomar College, a BA from Columbia University, and an MFA from Bennington College. He also attended Broward College. His literary criticisms have appeared regularly in the Buenos Aires Herald, How Journal, Gently Read Literature, North of Oxford, and the Fox Chase Review. His fiction has been published in Quarto, The Whistling Fire, and Amphibi. His haiku and senryu has appeared in Frogpond, Hedgerow, brass bell, Black Bough, Bravura, Brussels Sprout, Cicada, Haiku Headlines, Heron Quarterly, Japanophile, Our Reader’s Quarterly, Piedmont Literary Review, and Point Judith Light. He is the recipient of The Jess Cloud Memorial Prize, a Writer-in-Residence from the Montana Artists Refuge, a Full Fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center, an Imagination Grant from Cleveland State University, and an Arvon Foundation Ltd. Grant. He loves his wife, family, friends, long walks through woodlands, communing with nature, reading, spontaneous road trips, throwing cellphones into lakes, and making noise with his electric bass.

What are you working on?

I am currently editing and adding stories to two collections of fiction. One is an assemblage of fictional happening that could have occurred near places where I grew up in Michigan, lived as a U.S. Marine overseas, and lived in New York while I was a student at Columbia University. The other collection is a compilation of fictional accounts that might have occurred on a ranch in Argentina where I was working after I left New York. I am also polishing the final galleys and promoting a collection of poems (about ecoRanching in Argentina) that will be published in a couple of months. The name of the new book is, “The Salty River Bleeds,” and is being published by Finishing Line Press.