S2E11 - The Transformative Power of Poetry and Parenting: How Eugenia Leigh's Creative Process Rewrites the Page Itself
“It's like all of the pressures of everything happening build up inside you, and if you don't write it down or put it somewhere— I just couldn't even handle it. I had no other coping mechanisms left. I came to poetry when I was younger as a coping mechanism, and I think I still do sometimes.
Some poets like to pretend that it's a totally intellectual practice and that there's no therapeutic benefit for them. But for me, it did start out as a therapeutic practice, and I think I still turn to it in that way. In some ways, the pandemic helped me access that primal relationship I have with poetry where I went back to the original reason I go to poems.
It's because I needed a place where I could tell the truth. I needed a place where I could process the most impossible things.”
~ Eugenia Leigh
In this episode, Kaitlin speaks with Eugenia Leigh. Eugenia is a Korean-American poet and the author of two poetry collections, Bianca from Four-Way Books released this year in March, and Blood, Sparrows, and Sparrows from Four-Way Books in 2014.
Eugenia’s poetry received Poetry Magazine's Bess Hokin Prize and has appeared in numerous publications including The Atlantic, The Nation, Poetry, Ploughshares, and the Best of the Net anthology.
Eugenia and Kaitlin talked about:
Eugenia’s latest book, Bianca, and the whirlwind of launching and promoting it while balancing her roles as a mother and a wife.
How she carves out spaces to write and nourish herself alongside all the other roles she juggles.
Eugenia’s poetry writing process
How she came to find writing as a child
…plus some beautiful excerpts read by Eugenia herself.
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More about Eugenia Leigh:
Website: https://www.eugenialeigh.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eugenialeigh/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/eugenialeigh
Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/eugenialeigh
Related Resources:
Bianca by Eugenia Leigh (March 2023): https://bookshop.org/a/86159/9781954245440
Blood, Sparrows, and Sparrows by Eugenia Leigh: https://bookshop.org/a/86159/9781935536499
Episode 10 with Molly Caro May: https://www.postpartumproduction.com/episodes/s2e10
About poet Marie Ponsot: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/marie-ponsot
“Post-traumatic stress disorder with Han”, a poem written and read out by Eugenia Leigh: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/156309/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-with-han-
“Theory and Play Of The Duende” by Federico García Lorca: https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Spanish/LorcaDuende.php
About the poet K. Iver: https://www.kleeiver.com/
“Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco” by K. Iver:
“Motherhood Brought My Buried Rage To The Surface” essay by Eugenia Leigh: https://www.romper.com/parenting/motherhood-rage-retraumatizing
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