We rarely meet someone so genuine, radiating, and accomplished as an individual and professional like poet, novelist, and professor Melissa Studdard. I came in contact with Melissa Studdard through social media and read her work for the first time when I published her poems in Life and Legends. I immediately felt a connection with the world of her poetry, where she discovers the beauties and wonders of life lying in vulnerability and hopes. Melissa Studdard’s poetry is the window to her shining spirit. To know the poet, you must read all that she offers in abundance in – I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast (Poetry), the poetry chapbook Like a Bird with a Thousand Wings, and the young adult novel Six Weeks to Yehidah. In addition, her poetry collection, Dear Selection Committee, is forthcoming from JackLeg Press.
Featured by NPR, PBS, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Houston Matters, Melissa Studdrad’s work has appeared in POETRY, Kenyon Review, Psychology Today, New Ohio Review, Harvard Review, New England Review, and Poets & Writers. Her works have been listed in Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts’ Best Books of the Year, January Magazine’s Best Children’s Books of the Year, Bustle’s “8 Feminist Poems To Inspire You When The World Is Just Too Much,” and Amazon’s Most Gifted Books. The title poem from Studdard’s I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast became a short film and premiered at many film festivals.
Her awards and honors include the Forward National Literature Award, the International Book Award, the Kathak Literary Award, the Poiesis Award of Honor International, the Readers’ Favorite Award, and two Pinnacle Book Achievement Awards. She has also received The Penn Review Poetry Prize, Lucille Medwick Memorial Award for a Poem on a Humanitarian Theme from The Poetry Society of America and the Tom Howard Prize from Winning Writers.
A past president of the Associated Writing Program’s Women’s Caucus and former executive producer and host of VIDA Voices & Views for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, Melissa Studdard, received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and is a professor for the Lone Star College System.
In this interview, we explore her life’s journey as a person, poet, and professional.
KSC: Who is Melissa Studdard to you?
MS: Melissa Studdard is a dreamer trying to dream her best self into being. What interests her more is all beyond her, that is eternal, unbound, expansive, and interwoven.
KSC: Take us on your creative journey. How did you become a writer, poet, and novelist?
MS: For as long as I can remember, I’ve been writing in my head. I just didn’t know yet what I was doing. I can remember making up dialogue in my head as a kid when I was getting ready for school in the morning and on the bus on the way to school. Back then, it never really occurred to me that I could become a writer. Fortunately, I ended up going to a college that had a great writing program, and though I was talked out of taking writing classes because it was “impractical,” being around living writers planted the idea that it was something I could do. I had many fits and starts after that. For a while after my daughter was born and I was recently divorced, I had to work so many hours that I was already barely sleeping. I started really writing when I was in my late thirties and finally decided writing was worth prioritizing along with sleep, eating, and other essential activities. That was the only way I could make time for it.
KSC: How do your background and beliefs influence your writings? Tell us about what inspired your novel “Six Weeks to Yehidah.” Are you planning to write any more novels in the future?
MS: As I’m sure you guessed from my first answer, I believe we all have a deep core, a godself that is both ourselves and, at the same time, something more than our individual selves. It’s not just within us; it’s part of the vast expanse of being, too. Some traditions call it the unmanifest. Some call it the soul or spirit. Science calls it nonlocality. In Six Weeks to Yehidah, it’s conceptualized a little more specifically, as a divine Yehidah endowment. Through this world within, I believe, as well, that all of life is interconnected, and we should behave accordingly. Six Weeks to Yehidah is filled with interconnected webs, threads, passageways, stairways, walkways, elevators, paths, tunnels, portals, trails, and other symbolic and literal connectors that act together as a motif to reflect this point. The practices associated with this concept are acted out by the characters who model love, kindness, respect, understanding, and tolerance of ourselves and others.
I do hope to write more novels in the future, but right now I’m focused on poetry, songs, and libretti.
KSC: “My Yehidah” has been adopted for clinical use in adolescent therapy. How did you decide to write this journal, and how was it discovered by the adolescent therapists?
MS: When my daughter was very young, I used to incorporate meditative experience into her play. For instance, if we were coloring together, I might, very casually, say something like, “Let’s not think about anything but pink” and then elaborate past thinking pink to just seeing it without thinking about it. After I wrote Six Weeks to Yehidah, I wanted to do something to create those kinds of positive, peaceful experiences for other kids, so my publishers and I came up with the idea of a companion journal. It was discovered by therapists for a few reasons—the artist who did the illustrations was married to a Jungian therapist at the time the journal came out, we had blurbs from therapists, a therapist I’d met at a writing retreat ended up writing a review of it, and I sent a copy to a therapist friend who also adopted it and shared it with other therapists.
KSC: Your poetry allows us to see through a lens that discovers the beauties and wonders of life lying in vulnerability and assurances. How do you bring all that you encounter within and outside yourself so effortlessly in your writings?
MS: That’s a lovely question. The more I write, the more I see poetry in everything. In a younger, more naïve time, I thought the role of the poet was to bring beauty and understanding to the world, and though I still think those are great ideals, I realize that the role of the poet is much broader—to also raise questions, expand compassion, foster connection, share vulnerability, examine the unjust, cultivate wonder … to do any of these things with even the smallest success, I have to be willing to share my deepest regions of self, regardless of embarrassment or a fear of how the work will be received.
KSC: What do you like to achieve through your work?
MS: In the best of times, as much as possible of what I listed in the answer above.
KSC: You have published your work in celebrated venues, and have received several awards and recognitions for your work. How do you look at them? How important is an award in your opinion to get recognition for one’s work?
MS: Awards are wonderful because they introduce new readers to the recipient’s writing, as well as making the recipient feel great; however, I sometimes wish awards were more like participation trophies for little league sports. I mean, writing is such soul-bearing, heart-giving activity that it feels like anyone who has the courage, generosity of spirit, and dedication to put their best efforts into writing should receive some great recognition for having done so.
KSC: What inspires you the most as an individual and a writer? When you are not teaching or writing, what do you like to do?
MS: I love to dance and listen to music. I almost always do both while writing.
Image: Alexis Rhone Fancher
KSC: You offer yourself generously to the world and embrace the influences of other cultures. Where does this openness in you come from?
MS: Beautiful question. I’ve always loved to read, and reading fosters understanding, curiosity, and connection. In reading, we actively imagine what it’s like to be other human beings. Ta-Nehisi Coates once said, in an interview with Roxane Gay, “Finally I think one has to even abandon the phrase ‘ally’ and understand that you are not helping someone in a particular struggle; the fight is yours.” This is what literature can do: It can help us know, and even more so, feel, that nothing that impacts another human can be truly separate from ourselves. We are all made of the guts of stars. We all breathe and live and long. We are all limbs of the great organism that is humanity. Inhabiting the minds of characters and authors whose experiences are different from our own allows us to expand and grow until we feel ourselves as part of this greater organism, humanity.
KSC: You have been to India, tell us about your purpose of visiting my homeland. How do you find India different from other countries in the world?
I spoke on ecopoetry and read poems at a conference jointly hosted by The Foundation for the Study of Literature and Environment and Sikkim Government College, Tadong. Sikkim is in the northeastern tip of India—part of the Eastern Himalaya bordering China, Bhutan, and Nepal. As stunning as the region is, I was even more compelled by the extraordinary people I met. They have an age-old sense of hospitality akin to, but beyond, what westerners know as the ancient Greek concept of xenia. The Sanskrit saying for it is “Atithi Devo Bhava,” which means “Be one for whom the guest is a God.” Wherever my colleagues and I went, we were treated as honored guests, and that itself was an education. The conference too, bestowed immeasurable gifts—to be among brilliant people sharing their thoughts is powerful enough, but when you are among that many brilliant people who are also so full of heart and the desire to heal the earth—well, that’s a dose of magic. And, to add the icing to the cake, I got to spend a whole day in New Delhi with my good friend, the talented poet, doctor, and translator, Vivek Tailor.
KSC: Do you believe that female writers have unique challenges? If yes, what are those, and how did you overcome them?
MS: In addition to the publishing barriers women have had to contend with, women have often been conditioned to behave in ways that are counter to the assertiveness needed to begin writing and keep writing. I worked for years to free myself from the debilitating constraints of societal conventions. It’s an ongoing process, but the more I’m in touch with my authentic self, the better I do with it. The other thing that helps is making sure the people I spend the most time with are also striving for freedom, courage, and openness.
KSC: “I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast” is a beautiful collection of poems. The title of the book and the poem of your poetry film are inspired by the teachings of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. How did you discover his teachings? Do you follow him?
MS: Thank you. I love his work—his gentle way of speaking, his beautiful thoughts and mind, his lovely writings. I can’t remember exactly how I discovered him, but I studied Buddhism pretty intensely about twenty years ago, and that’s when I first started reading his books.
KSC: What inspired “Like a Bird With A Thousand Wings,” and how did you decide to collaborate with Sholeh Wolpe and composer Christopher Theofanidis?
MS: In 2018, Christopher Theofanidis released a gorgeous musical composition of seven short character pieces that traced the metaphoric journey in Aṭṭār’s Conference of the Birds. In late 2019 and early 2020, the Argus Quartet was performing Theofanidis’ piece in various venues around the country and contacted him to discuss the possibility of reciting poems in performance between the pieces. Since he and I had recently collaborated on another project after having met at a residency, he asked if I’d be interested in writing the poems. I knew that Sholeh had done a wonderful translation, so I contacted her to see if I could quote from it.
KSC: Do you find the influence of any particular writer on you?
MS: There are so very many, but my earliest strong influence as a poet was probably Pablo Neruda.
KSC: Who are your favorite international writers?
MS: It makes me nervous to make a list like this because, inevitably, I miss some of the most important people, so I’m just going to do a short list of living international writers who come to mind quickly. I’m sure I have many other favorites who are not listed here. Kim Hyesoon from South Korea, Mario Vargas Llosa from Peru, Arundhati Roy, Vivek Tailor from India, Zoë Brigley Thompson from Wales, Edwidge Danticat from Haiti, Milan Kundera from Czechoslovakia, Aminur Rahman from Bangladesh, Haruki Murakami from Japan, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley from Liberia, Mario Vargas Llosa from Peru, Jonathan Taylor from Leiscester, Orhan Pamuk from Turkey, Kwame Dawes from Ghana and Jamaica.
KSC: Do you notice the resistance to accept international writers and their literature in the mainstream of English literature in America?
MS: The literary landscape is in a period of great upheaval. We’re participating in and witnessing a dismantling of exclusionary, discriminatory practices, as well as the ousting of many of the arbiters of such limited, myopic scope. Most of the editors and publishers I know personally are, like you, highly conscientious about inclusivity, but such conscientiousness is not universally the case, nor has it traditionally been. We have a long, long road to undo the damage that has been done and to educate people away from the sort of hierarchical belief systems that make people think the way to excel is to outrank or exclude others.
KSC: What would you suggest to overcome this resistance to help the acceptance of international writers by the publishers, academia and the literary community in the West?
MS: Conceptually: A shift to new ways of thinking about literary community that are about cooperation, service, abundance, sharing, giving, and exploring. Practically: People from all backgrounds, races, orientations, abilities, etc. need to work to make their own voices heard and to support the voices of others, particularly others from outside of their inner circles and who do not identify in the ways that they themselves identify. People need to be proactive about what and who they teach in classes and workshops, who they feature at events and in publications, and whose work they share in social media and in other ways. We owe it to ourselves and each other to learn as much as we can about each other through each other’s writings.
KSC: Your book Dear Selection Committee is forthcoming from JackLeg Press. The title is intriguing. Tell us about the book and its expected publication date.
MS: It’s sometimes hard to talk about our own work when it’s brand new, so if I may, I’d like to instead share what Simone Muench, the poetry editor of JackLeg Press says about Dear Selection Committee: “I love its associative leaps and surrealist underpinnings that constantly surprise the reader. I also enjoy the overall framing of the manuscript—via a job applicant (a la Plath’ “The Applicant”). The manuscript is gorgeously strange and emotionally resonant, shifting between registers of loss, desire, and joy. It is filled with the mythical and the biblical, and full of apostrophic power.”
KSC: How do the politics, ideological conflicts, and social injustice in our society impact you as a writer?
MS: At times I’ve felt muted and immobilized by the ills of the world, but I always remember this Audre Lorde quote: “We can learn to work and speak when we are afraid in the same way we have learned to work and speak when we are tired. For we have been socialized to respect fear more than our own needs for language and definition, and while we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us.” We have to be brave. There is no other way forward.
KSC: Do you have any message for America and the world?
MS: I’m currently writing a world anthem (with music by Christopher Theofanidis) that will premiere in the fall 2021 performance season. Rather than answer this question quickly and incompletely in this moment, I would encourage people to seek out a recording (probably 2022 or 2023) or performance of the anthem.
KSC: What do you like to read? What are you reading and writing now?
MS: I like to read everything, and I’m usually into a lot of books at the same time. I leave them all over the house, at stations. At the moment, I’m reading Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes; How To Wash a Heart by Bhanu Kapil, Exploring The Shamanic Gifts Of Power Spots And Sacred Places: Working In Respectful Harmony With Mother Nature by José Luis Stevens; Panic Attack, USA by Nate Slawson; Undersea by Maureen Seaton, and Praise Song for My Children, by Patricia Jabbeh Wesley.
KSC: If you would recommend reading one of your books, which one would that be?
MS: It would depend on the person. I recently sent books to a family, and I sent a different one to each person. For instance, I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast is spiritual, whimsical, playful, lyric, and at times a little sexy. Like a Bird with a Thousand Wings is spiritual, airy, focused, collaborative, lyric, and slightly narrative. Dear Selection Committee is irreverent, playful, sexy, serious, and slightly risqué, with more of an emerging persona than a narrative thread.
KSC: What advice would you give to the new writers and poets?
MS: Persist. Even when you’re getting lots of rejection letters (as writers do), and even if you don’t have the support you feel like you deserve, have faith in yourself and your writing and keep honing your craft and sending your work out.
KSC: Do you have any word for Life and Legends?
MS: I think Life and Legends is wonderful. I’m grateful for all the work you do to connect and feature international poets, and I’m also grateful for how you bring spirituality and environmental concerns to the forefront of your publications.
KSC: Where do you see yourself in years from now?
MS: If you were to catch me at a perfect moment years from now, I’d be walking on the beach at sunset, with someone I love, after a day of fulfilling creativity and service.
To read Melissa Studdard’s poems CLICK HERE
Kalpna Singh-Chitnis is an Indian-American Poet, Filmmaker and Editor-in-Chief of Life and Legends. She is also the founder and president of the Silent River Film and Literary Society (a 501 C 3 Non-Profit), River Paw Press (USA), and a member of the United Nations Association of the USA. Official Website: www.kalpnasinghchitnis.com
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What a gorgeous deep reaching interview. I think this may be the best one yet because Kalpna covers so much ground and so meaningfully. I could quote many lines but I think your response about new ways of looking at the literary community feels most resonate for this exact moment in time. You are one of the divine beings and you bring out the divine in others. You are a blessing.
An excellent interview…the questions were as meaningful as the responses. Loved the part about India…my homeland too! Thank you Kalpna and Melissa.