By Rachael Warecki 鈥�08
For writer Joan Kane, the 2021 Mary Routt Chair in Writing at Scripps, the connection forged between writers and readers is not only vital, but timely. This semester, Kane鈥檚 workshop syllabus is focused on themes of archetype and apocalypse across genres, with particular emphasis on works in translation and by Indigenous writers. Her students are examining how these writers invite audiences to complete a work by bringing their own contexts to what they鈥檙e reading鈥攊n this case, contexts that involves a global pandemic, remote instruction, and political, social, and environmental crises.
鈥淲e鈥檙e finding moments where writers are speaking to different types of crises they confronted in the making of their work, looking at how writers can negotiate the difference between the contemporary culture of our everyday lives and these larger, more universal themes that literatures confront and present,鈥� she says. 鈥淚鈥檓 really inspired by what the students are able to bring to the workshop, reading really closely and taking a lot of risks in their creative work.鈥�
The Mary Routt Chair of Writing is named for journalist and former College trustee Mary Patterson Routt, whose generosity enables the 61传媒 Writing Program to invite a nationally recognized professional writer to serve as visiting faculty each spring. Kane is the author of eight books of poetry and prose, including the Donald Hall Prize in Poetry-winning collection Hyperboreal, which will appear in translation from Editions Caract猫res this summer, and she is the recipient of a 2009 Whiting Writers鈥� Award for her first book, as well as fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, Lannan Foundation, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, and others.
Kane came to poetry as a child in inner city east Anchorage, Alaska, having been raised with stories and songs from her family鈥檚 Inupiaq culture. 鈥淚 found poetry almost by accident,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 spent a lot of my childhood in public libraries, so I had free range to read what interested me.鈥� Much of her work is written against the backdrop of loss, especially the losses incurred by Indigenous people in the Arctic. In collaboration with Sherwin Bitsui, a Din茅 poet, and Santee Frazier, a Cherokee poet, she鈥檚 working on three books on Indigeneity and craft that explores Indigenous aesthetics and values; connects the intersections of Indigenous, Black, and non-White experiences in literature; and examines poetry as a place where writers can have conversations adjacent to political, social, and ecological crises, while centering Indigenous perspectives. In addition, her new poetry collection, Dark Traffic, forthcoming in September 2021, examines her own and her family鈥檚 past, her ancestors, and her Inupiaq community.
Kane describes Dark Traffic as a 鈥渃hallenging, stark book,鈥� but says that even the most apocalyptic moments give voice to a full range of human emotion and experience. As she finalizes the collection and prepares for its launch, she鈥檚 trying to envision moments from the future that can give her 鈥渉ope and perspective鈥� during a time of global crisis. Her writing workshop at 61传媒has offered some of those glimmers of hope.
鈥淪ince we鈥檙e working on this virtual space, with students in much closer proximity to their families than they probably envisioned, we鈥檙e having different types of conversations about self and identity than academia usually gives us the chance to have,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e thinking about an intellectual and cultural ecosystem in which we really are all connected, and when students look back on this semester, maybe they鈥檒l see that that鈥檚 part of the vision and hope of a liberal arts education: that everything really is interdisciplinary, and that what happens in a classroom has the chance to shape our lives outside of that space as well.鈥�