Each week we will be connecting with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.
Name: Lesley Wheeler
Title of Pieces Published in Sweet: “Could Have Done Worse” and “White Noise Machine Now With Ten Settings!”
Issues: 12.3
This is Lesley’s second SC because she is just killing it right now. You can read the first one from 2018 here. These days you can find her “managing my anxiety” in Lexington, Virginia. We want the secret. Right? Check out her website for more!
What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?
I just published my fifth poetry collection with Tinderbox Editions (https://www.tinderboxeditions.org/online-store/The-State-Shes-In-p178496074). Diane Seuss says of the book, “Wheeler’s research, her feral witchery, her poems themselves, are an answer, if not the antidote, to the state we’re in.”
Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?
This summer I publish my very first novel, Unbecoming, now available for preorder. I’m so excited to see what that brings.
Who is your favorite author?
It varies, but Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes feel like friends.
What is your favorite poem/essay/book?
I grew up reading and rereading Jane Eyre and pretending I was an orphan, so Charlotte Bronte has a lot to answer for.
What inspires you to write?
I just need to; reading and writing make me feel happier than anything else. When I’m stuck on the writing front, reading amazing books and walking help.
What are you reading right now?
Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the light; Whitman, Dickinson, and Camille Dungy for teaching; and a lot of brand-new poetry collections by Marianne Chan, Tess Taylor, Caroline Cabrera, and others. On the short list: Emily St. John Mandel’s new novel and Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz.
What is your favorite sweet?
I am partial to the Lemon Meringue at Red Hen.
There is something very comforting about Lemon Meringue and this one looks fabulous.
Thank you, Lesley, for taking the time to reconnect with us. We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!
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[…] else old enough to remember those seatbealt-less rides in the “way-back”? Sweet interviewed me here. And I have an essay about teaching in my part of the south in Waxwing (a former colleague calls […]