Interview With Rowena Carenen
Rowena (Rowe) Carenen is the author of the collections In the Meantime, First Drafts from the Brewery, and her latest, Body of Work,
We’re delighted to feature this interview with her!
Tell us about your beginning, where are you from?
I was born in Morganton, NC, but have moved all over the South. My home is my 22nd address.
How did your childhood impact the writer you’ve become?
My father is a multi-award-winning novelist and used to be a professor of English. My mother is a retired high school English teacher and literacy coach. To an extent, it was inevitable. And I also had a pretty idyllic childhood. I grew up in a stone house in a small town in North Carolina, where we lived until first grade. We moved from there to Virginia, then to Georgia, and from there I went to college in North Carolina and to grad school in Mississippi. I’m now settled into life in Upstate South Carolina. But all of that to stay, I’ve spent my life observing and almost always being somewhat of an outsider, which leads to introspection and a need to be seen and understood.
When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?
Ninth grade. I had played with writing songs (who didn’t?) in middle school, but poetry has always felt like my native language.
How has writing changed you as a person?
I think it has made me even more sensitive and more observant. And definitely more empathetic. It has also taught me patience.
What was the main inspiration behind your poetry collection Body of Work?
Being a 40-something woman in America right now. It gets into the definition of woman, health issues, politics, and, of course, love and friendship.
What was your road to publication like?
This is my third collection, and it went much more smoothly this time. Fewer rejections, but not none. I think all poets, and writers in general, have to develop the preverbial thick skin. But as poets, we need our skin to be thin so we can feel it all. A forever conundrum. I had a three-inch three-ring binder full of rejections of my first and second books. Now it is all digital, but I track it. I think it is important to remember that the right book with find the right publisher at the right time, but the entire process can feel so very soul-sucking.
What is the best writing advice you’ve ever had, and the worst?
Best: Write it anyway. If it doesn’t feel exactly right and you aren’t entirely sure what you’re doing, write it anyway. You’ll figure it out.
Worst: Write every day.
What is your writing process like?
I’m a percolator. I have a line or an image, and I usually put it down in my Notes app, but the poems are all percolating in the back of my mind. When they’re ready, or nearly so, it all just spills out of me. Then I go in and clean up. Sometimes. Sometimes I take them to my writing group just as they are and get them to help me make the pieces better.
Are you part of a writing community or a writing group?
I am! I have a wonderful writing group, called Write Minds, that was started by my father and a poet friend of ours. We meet the first Saturday of the month at my parents’ cottage. I am a MUCH better writer because of them, and I will forever be grateful for their insights, suggestions, and support.
What is your experience with social media as a writer? Do you find it distracts you or does it provide inspiration?
An absolute distraction and daily I think of giving it all up.
Who are your favorite authors?
Oh man! That is a really long list. So I’ll just name a few, if that’s ok. John Carenen, Bob Strother, Justin Thoby (yet to be published but just y’all wait), John Eells (find him on Substack), Gwendolyn Brooks, Ross Gay, Penelope Niven, Jennifer Niven, Sylvia Plath, Edna St. Vincent Milay, Sarah Beth Durst.
What are you reading currently?
I just finished When Women Were Dragons and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It was extraordinary. I just started Yesteryear. And every day I read an essay from Ross Gay’s Book of Delights and a poem or two from Sarah K. Carey’s Bloodroot.
What are you working on currently?
My fourth collection, tentatively entitled Love: An Autopsy.
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Rowena (Rowe) Carenen is the author of the collections In the Meantime and First Drafts from the Brewery. A graduate of Salem College and the University of Southern Mississippi, her poems have appeared in various literary journals and magazines, including Oyster River Pages, Womanly Mag, The Revenant Culture, GERM, Terrible Orange Review, and the anthology Running with Water. She lives in Greenville, SC, with her husband, a turtle, a menagerie of cats, and
Neville Jameson, their rescue boxer/pittie mix. She writes about life, illness, joy, books, animals, and more at Rowe Writes on Substack. Her website is rowecarenen.com.
A BODY OF WORK
Body of Work is an examination of the contrast of joy and grief, laughter and loss, disease and marriage. Carenen struggles to find her place in a post-divorce, post- and present-Trump administration, while finding love and fortifying friendships. She examines what is a body really, and what you do when you (or someone you love) gets the scariest diagnosis. How do you find joy and peace in the midst of destruction? You take a minute to appreciate the daffodils, then get back into the fight. And if you are inordinately blessed, you share a bowl of curry with your friend and laugh yourself silly with someone you love.
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Category: Interviews, On Writing
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