Private Mentorship with Amie Whittemore

BIO

Amie Whittemore (she/her) is the author of the poetry collections Glass Harvest (Autumn House Press), Star-tent: A Triptych (Tolsun Books) and Nest of Matches (Autumn House Press, 2024). She was the 2020-2021 Poet Laureate of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. She teaches creative writing at Eastern Illinois University and directs MTSU Write, a from-home creative writing mentorship program.

ARTIST & TEACHING STATEMENT

My writing desk faces a wall with my favorite poems taped to it; two first lines from this assortment say a lot about me: “The art of losing isn’t hard to master,” from Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art,” and “Small and watchful as a lighthouse,” from Irish poet Medbh McGuckian’s “Marconi’s Cottage.” I memorized both these poems during one of the most difficult years of my life: Bishop’s poem served as harbor and McGuckian’s poem as life raft.

Poems like these, that are beautiful and smart, motivate me, as a writer, a mentor, and instructor. Helping others write poems that make them happy, that teach and surprise them, makes me happy. As for what makes me angry, first on my list would be leaf blowers and plastic bags. I’d banish both if I had the power to.

When not contemplating poems and the destruction of leaf blowers, I’m scouting for good pizza (not always easy to find in my current home of Murfreesboro, Tennessee) and trying to get better at identifying birds and trees. My dream job would be to run a multifaceted nonprofit organization that was one part community center (featuring yoga, gardening, cooking, and writing classes), one part organic farm/berry-picking, one part event space, one part writing residency, and one part where I build my off-the-grid straw-bale dream house; alas, I have zero parts the finances to make any of this happen.

My personality is the color green. I call the college students I teach “my team,” even though I’ve never participated in a team sport. I am passionate about LGBTQ and women’s reproductive rights, as well as environmental justice. I would argue these issues are facets of the same thing: I am passionate about helping make this world a joyous, flourishing, and just place.

SPECIAL INTERESTS

Image/metaphor, narrative, lyricism, bewilderment, reading series curator, reading recommendations, lineation, syntax.

INFLUENCES

Elizabeth Bishop, Octavia Butler, Louise Gluck, Robert Hass, Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf