Ordinary Oracle: A Conversation with Chrissy Stegman
By Melissa Nunez, written July 2024
They’ll let you learn
when they release you
how every pigeon feels
heading into an unknown sky:
You’ll be terrified and alone.
You’ll be Free.
“They’ll Let You Use Kool-Aid to Dye Your Hair When You’re 10 & In the Hospital for Setting Your Childhood on Fire,” Oddball Magazine
Chrissy Stegman is a wife, mother, and poet from Baltimore, Maryland. Her writing is inspired by her love of forests, family, and reviving myths in a modern world. She champions fellow artists on her website at chrissystegman.com where you can also find more information about her latest publications.
Melissa Nunez, Yellow Arrow interviewer, and Chrissy Stegman engaged in conversation through email where they discussed the creative motivations behind her poetic voice.
Who are some women writers who inspire you?
That's such a tough question. I admire so many women writers. It’s difficult to narrow down the list, but I think I’d start with Mary Jo Bang (her translation of Inferno!), Elizabeth Bishop, Anne Carson, Harryette Mullen, Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Marie Howe, and Diane Seuss. Each of these women writers carries a torch for language and craft that I would follow into the dark any day of the week. (Side note: I’m rereading The Life of Poetry by Muriel Rukeyser. So good.)
I love the term “forest dork” included in your bio for some of your publications. Can you expand on the significance of the term for you and how it is reflected in your work?
I’ve always been a forest kid. I spent many summers on my grandparents’ land in Virginia. My grandfather taught me how to recognize flora and fauna. Climbing cherry trees, eating the green inchworm because it was in the cherry and you just didn’t care—it was summer, and the cherries were there, warm from the sun. I spent many summers catching crayfish in a bucket in the stream, too. (I always let them go.) I find a sense of voyeured reverence in the forest, and that’s something I can’t shake because I’m an observer. I’ve shared this love of the forest and natural world with my children. It’s not uncommon for me to make violet syrup, eat some chickweed, and text my kids photos of Dutchman’s breeches. They’re patient and kind people who put up with me. I’m happiest when outside. This comes through in many of my poems and works of fiction, especially my love of observation.
In some of your poetry you do an excellent job of integrating mythology into the modern world. Can you share why you feel these stories still carry such resonance for audiences today? Are there any specific myths you return to again and again?
I think myths provide meaning to inform our modern creation. I believe we look to archetypes to solve problems, to call forth our own hidden vitality, to tap a deep root. Mythology plays out again and again this way, but it is never overplayed. Myths of transformation, change, myths of loss. Oracles, heroes, Icarus, Persephone. I think we tell the stories again and again to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary or to test our strength. They’re universal. I’m particularly interested in creating new myths. The idea that we can create new myths fascinates me.
So, she looked for pomegranates and
Titans. She looked for foes to defeat Earth.
She felt the flowering of every meadow
In her blood. She tasted the sour
Pit of truth in her teeth.
“Persephone Decides to Catch Up on Emails During a Low Self-Esteem Day,” Poetry Breakfast
I admire the way you feature visual artists on your website. What inspired you to platform art and artists in this manner?
I’ve always loved art. Poetry and art are bedfellows. I wanted to create a space on my website that was about immersion into an experience, both poetic and artistic. The idea to feature an artist came to me when I realized I needed artwork for my website and thought, how cool would it be to have a featured artist provide the artwork? My website could be a living art gallery, where the viewing audience would find an experience of art and poetry that was ever-changing, but also offer a platform, for free, for that artist to gain recognition and potentially generate sales of their work or a following. (I'm currently open to a new featured artist and anyone interested should reach out!)
When did you know you were a writer?
I think I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was in 5th or 6th grade. I had those black and white marbled journals, filled with scribbles, stories, bits of (awful) poetry. I remember walking the neighborhood and creating a poem in my head, rushing home to write it down. I walked home from middle school reading Little Women, tripping over the sidewalk. I haunted our local library. I’ve never left the comfort and safety of literature. It feels easier for me to explain the world through stories and poetry, and easier for me to understand it when viewed this way as well.
Do you have a favorite place or set up for writing?
I do have a writing office, and it offers me a small desk, my books, a wall of artwork which I love, and at random times, the kids will run in and out of the space. I find that energy creatively compelling as well. A busy family life trampling through the sanctuary feels transgressive in all the right ways for poetry and storytelling.
My allegiance is to sound and not silence. Loudness is a feeling set free.
“Portrait of the Poet Viewed Through a Blind Spot,” Gargoyle Magazine
Do you have any advice for fellow women writers on creating new work and publishing?
My advice to fellow women writers would be to submit your work everywhere and often. Carve out time for creation no matter how difficult. So much of our lives can be filtered through shame and guilt for taking time for our work but women’s voices are essential. I think the other piece of advice is to write what scares you but also write what you're hiding from. Write the messy parts, write about the quiet parts, too. We sanitize our writing so often to gain access to the publishing world, but the more we press into the underbelly of the work, the more we insist on showing what’s under the skirt of the uninspiring day-to-day grit of living as a woman. We change the landscape of how we embody language and tell our story. This is one space where we need to leave a trace.
Melissa Nunez makes her home in the Rio Grande Valley region of South Texas, where she enjoys exploring and photographing the local wild with her homeschooling family. She writes an anime column at The Daily Drunk Mag and is a prose reader for Moss Puppy Mag. She is also a staff writer for Alebrijes Review and interviewer for Yellow Arrow Publishing. You can find her work on her website and follow her on Instagram @melissa.king.nunez or Twitter @MelissaKNunez.
Chrissy Stegman is a wife, mother, and poet from Baltimore, Maryland. Her writing is inspired by her love of forests, family, and reviving myths in a modern world. She champions fellow artists on her website at chrissystegman.com where you can also find more information about her latest publications.
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