Diane Glancy Transcript

November 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome to Sound Authors radio. Today is the Centennial of Oklahoma state. Established as the 46th state in the union on November 16, 1907. Native Americans were already there long before 1541, when Vasquez de Coronado, Spanish Conquistador happened through.

Oklahoma was the dust bowl state of the 1930’s and the end of the tragic and deadly “Trail of Tears” in the 1830’s. The birthplace of Woody Guthrie and the birthplace of Mickey Mantle. Happy birthday Oklahoma.

On the show today, our writers Diane Glancy, Francine Ringold, and Joyce Carol Thomas and special guest musician Tom Paxton. We are celebrating some of Oklahoma’s rich heritage.

My first guest is Diane Glancy. Welcome Diane.

Diane Glancy: Thank you.

Dr. Kent: She was an artist in residence for the State Arts Council of Oklahoma for a decade. Her poetry, her scripts, essays, and fiction have gotten her many prizes including the Oklahoma Book Award, the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, the Minnesota Book Award for Poetry, the American Book Award, the Emily Dickinson Poetry Prize and the list goes on.

She’s a professor at Macalester College in St. Paul, thought she’s on a sabbatical. Can you tell me a little bit more about yourself?

Diane: What would you like to know? I spent my adult years in Oklahoma and I started traveling the state for the state Arts Council and I’ve always found that the land has voices. The land has a voice. There are stories to be told.

One important thing I do as I write, is to travel to different places and there I get ideas for my stories. I have been a writer for many years. I was born in Kansas City, Missouri. My father went north to work during the depression. I was born in 1941. I spent my life teaching and writing.

Dr. Kent: You have quite a story attached to your Cherokee Great‑Grandfather.

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Posted by admin | Filed Under TRANSCRIPTS, Oklahoma, Fiction, Poetry, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST 

Dr. Francine Ringgold Transcript

November 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent Gustavson: [music fades] Welcome back to Authors Sound Off Radio. Today is the Oklahoma Centennial Special, and my next guest has contributed immensely to the state’s cultural heritage. Welcome to Dr. Francine Ringgold.

Dr. Francine Ringgold: Hi!

Dr. Gustavson: She’s the former Poet Laureate of Oklahoma, and longtime editor‑in‑chief of “Nimrod, ” the international journal of prose and poetry. How’s the weather down in Oklahoma on this centennial‑‑

Dr. Ringgold: Actually it’s gorgeous today! It’s sunny, it’s very gusty and about 60 degrees.

Dr. Gustavson: It’s often gusty down there in Oklahoma.

Dr. Ringgold: [laughs] Right.

Dr. Gustavson: Can you tell me a little bit first off about your Poet Laureate position?

Dr. Ringgold: Well, I was appointed, I think it was 2003, and it’s usually a two‑year appointment and I was reappointed in 2005. And the task, really, of the Poet Laureate is what you make it, as long as you in some way promote poetry and the love of poetry and writing poetry. So that’s what I try to do.

Dr. Gustavson: Now are you first a poet, or are you first an editor?

Dr. Ringgold: [joking] Ah, what a nasty question! Well‑‑

Dr. Gustavson: [laughs]

Dr. Ringgold: I think probably I’m… first an editor, in the sense that I spend more time doing that. But in some ways it’s simultaneous ‑‑ not that I write at the same time as I edit ‑‑ but I keep being nurtured by what I read, and developing new ideas as to what I want to do, but it’s sort of submerged when I’m working with other people, because when I’m working with other people or other work, I’m really trying to help it emerge.

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Posted by admin | Filed Under Oklahoma, TRANSCRIPTS, Poetry, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST 

Cynthia Blomquist Gustavson Transcript

October 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors Radio. This is Dr. Kent, and I’ve been speaking to authors from around the country.

My next author guest is Cynthia Blomquist Gustavson, and she’s the author of the “In-versing Your Life” series that’s been out on Blooming Twig Books for almost a year now. It’s done very well across the country. She’s putting together a collection of poetry that will be out in the spring of 2008, and it’s all about “coming home” poems. Cynthia, are you there?

Cynthia Blomquist Gustavson: I am. Hello, Dr. Kent.

Dr. Kent: Can you tell me a little bit about your “In-versing Your Life” series?

Cynthia: Oh, I’d love to. I have two kind of separate lives. One life is as a poet and that’s my first life. It started when I was very, very young. My other life is as a psychotherapist. I have integrated the two of them, and I use poetry in psychotherapy.

Since I do that in my practice and I also do it for myself as a person, I decided to write some workbooks that would teach others how to do the same thing. It’s not only for therapists but for anybody who picks up the book and can do that.

My first poetry therapy workbook, called “In-versing Your Life”, came out in 1995. That was reprinted and came out again last year; five others came out at the same time.

Those other five are more specialized. One is for children. One is for teens. One is especially for eating disorders. One is for chronic pain, and then the last one is called “Con-versing With God”, which is about spiritual direction and pastoral counseling.

Dr. Kent: And all of those books are available anywhere books are sold: any local bookstore, amazon.com, or on Cynthia’s website, www.cynthiagustavson.com. Let’s chat a little bit about your upcoming work. You’re putting together a book of poetry?

Cynthia: Yes, I am. I think most authors have bursts of creativity, and then other times in their life when it quiets down a bit. I had one of those bursts of creativity this last June when I was asked to be the poet-in-residence at a wonderful arts festival in Minnesota called The White Pine Arts Festival in Stillwater, Minnesota.

The thing that was so incredible about it for me was that, that is my hometown, and I was asked to come back and be the poet-in-residence at this wonderful festival in my hometown. As I did that, my mind was open to all these memories–all the five senses: the smells, the sights, the taste, all of those things that surrounded me when I was a child. There I was, back in that setting, the beautiful, beautiful setting of the St. Croix Valley, again.

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Posted by admin | Filed Under Oklahoma, TRANSCRIPTS, Poetry, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST 

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