Leanne Grabel is the author of ‘Millionth Crow Poem’ featured in Issue 01 Beginning, which can be purchased from our shop. Grabel is a writer IN LOVE with mixing literary genres. Her most recent book is Gold Shoes, a collection of illustrated prose poems. Grabel was a monthly columnist for Another Chicago Magazine.
Where do you find Inspiration?
Primarily my inspiration comes from within. I am a very confessional writer. This piece, however, was inspired by an external vision. Thousands and thousands of crows descending upon my neighborhood. I realized my first response was fear. This caused me to consider the fear, and try to turn it into something more positive–to consider the beauty of the blackness. And the beauty of the Hitchcockian numbers. And this piece is also about trusting nature instead of expecting it to be a bully.
Why do you write creative non-fiction?
I am a life-long self-examiner. I suppose we all are. But I feel that revealing the quirks of my humanity is my purpose as a writer. Robert Stone, the writer, said writers write to make others feel less lonely. I agree with this. My goal is to normalize human quirks and oddities and fears—with a bit of humor, perhaps—and a bit of lyricism. Just to tell the truth, peel off the layers of secrecy. Human quirks are my fodder.
Plus, in these horrible, critical times, I can’t write about anything except what is going on NOW. Everything else seems peripheral and beside the point.
What are you reading?
I am reading magazines—The Atlantic, The Nation, The New Yorker, The New York Times. I have numerous books by my bedside—The Art of Losing, an Anthology of Jewish writers, the new book by Billy Collins, a novel by Joanna Rose—BUT I am having a hard time reading anything but essays and op-eds about current events.
Where can we find more of your work?
I am also illustrating a woman’s novel. I am on the 200th drawing and have 32 more to go. This has taken months.
My website has most of the new publications, especially from my latest collection My Husband’s Eyebrows. I also just finished in December a year of essays for Another Chicago Magazine. Most of those are on my website.
I also am addicted to Facebook and Twitter. Post every Saturday morning on Facebook–an historical look at the date. I have been doing this Saturday Morning Post for at least 10 years.
Facebook tag is Leanne Grabel.
Twitter is @poetryleanne.
Instagram is @poetryleanne.
Epoch Press is an independent press dedicated to publishing exceptional creative nonfiction.
We publish truth in ink.
