Deborah Bacharach – Poet, Teacher, and More

As part of her stay as an artist-in-residence on January 4, Deborah Bacharach presented “Opening the Gates to Poetry: Writing Workshop”.  The suggestion that anyone who attended this 90-minute workshop was likely to leave having created a poem drew me in.  I loved the workshop.

Deborah Bacharach generously agreed to a Q & A with Splash Magazines Worldwide about her approach to teaching poetry and more. 

When did you begin to write poetry? What training did you have as you began?

I started writing poetry as a child, but I had no training until I graduated from college. I wish I had! After college, I started to take classes with Barbara Helfgott Hyett. She always said, “What question did the poet ask themself in order to write this line?” So, I started to learn how to think like a poet. Being in peer groups helped me learn how to think like a reader: what did I forget to tell them? what moves them? I also learned that poetry, like any writing, takes a ton of revision. I learned revision strategies and loved them so much that I am currently writing a book on revising poetry.

I found your workshop instructive and compelling.  It was as though you reached into the experiences of the attendees and brought out a poem.  How were the techniques you used developed?

Oh, thank you. I’m so glad it was a good experience. This is going to sound crazy, but some of this I learned from an early job doing market research. I was one of those people who called you and asked, “What other flavors did you notice in that burger?” When I am working with someone on a poem and ask, “What else did you hear in your garden?” I am tapping into those same skills. 

I was also lucky enough to take a graduate class on teaching writing where I learned the importance of showing someone where their work touches you. This type of feedback helps writers build on success. 

And then, as a writing instructor for thirty years, I read a ton of books on how to teach writing. Some of my favorites are Poetry: Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages by Lucy Calkins and Stephanie Parsons (for working with children) and The Poet’s Companion by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux (for adults).

I noticed that you are available to help with an array of items that involve writing such as college applications, obituaries and more.  How do you divide your time for teaching, writing, other interests and responsibilities?

Aggh, I struggle with this all the time. For most of my career, it was work 60%, family responsibilities and other interests 30%, and poetry got a measly 10%. Now I’ve flipped that, and I try to give writing 60% of my time. Try being the operative word. I’ll let almost anything—tutoring, solving a bank problem for my son, the dishes—get in the way of poetry. I handle this by creating accountability dates. In person or over Zoom, I meet regularly with other writers. We check-in and tell each other what we plan to work on. Then I work. 

What kind of writing is most rewarding to you personally?

I write book reviews, personal essays, articles on poetic craft, and poetry. Poetry is by far the hardest for me, and the most rewarding. I like communicating clearly and directly as the other forms require, but poetry is about being surprised. I love discovering what I didn’t know I needed to say.

You work with individuals of many ages.  Is there an age range where you observe individuals to have greater output?

I’ve got to say seven to nine-years-olds. They have no fear. They aren’t ashamed or embarrassed by anything they write. And, they don’t stop themselves from being wildly imaginative. Here’s something my young students wrote, “When I write poetry, I burst with happiness like a pinata that has been whacked, and words fall on my head into a poem. I feel warmth spread through my body as if someone is hugging me. I feel as if the big bang happened in my heart and subatomic particles fly with joy. My hands shiver and my teeth chatter. I just want to be a poem that I wrote.”  I want that too!

Deborah Bacharach is the author of two full length poetry collections Shake & Tremor (Grayson Books, 2021) and After I Stop Lying (Cherry Grove Collections, 2015). Her poems, book reviews and essays have been published in journals nationally and internationally including Poetry Ireland Review, New Letters, Poet Lore, and The Writer’s Chronicle among many others. Educated at Swarthmore College and the University of Minnesota, she is a teacher, editor, and tutor in Seattle. Find out more about her at her website.

Photos were provided by Deborah Bacherach