Member Spotlight: Mary Alice Dixon

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? As Audre Lourde reminds us, “Poetry is not a luxury.” I believe poetry offers community and community offers hope. I believe the divine is incarnate in nature; landscapes hold stories. I find poems when I walk in the shadows of live oaks who tell me of Thomas Merton, sing Amazing Grace, reveal the dreams of dying wildflowers and the prayers of endangered red cedar. I find poems—or rather, I should say, poems find me—when I walk the grounds of cemeteries, hearing the scratchy songs of moss on gravestones. The voices of nature carry our ancestors; by channeling these voices our wounded Mother Earth can be heard, inspiring us to acts of healing her hurts.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Cupping stones in the palms of my hands, laughing, breathing, laughing. Then marching, as my Mama would say, to the beat of my own drum.

What is your favorite time to write? Sunrise to noon and when word dreams wake me at night.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? A poet friend who is 101 recently told me that she observes the world and herself, then writes what she finds “turns her on.” But, me because I’m quite opinionated, I can never stick to giving just one piece of advice. So, first, I’d say ignore the advice you’re given unless it comes from dogwood trees or compost piles or angel trumpet vines. Or me. Or my 101-year old friend. Second, keep an open notebook and a pen by your bed. Scribble fragments that surface in dark. Do not turn on the light. Third, in the morning read what you wrote. Mine is usually illegible gibberish, but every once in a while lightning strikes. Fourth, read, read, read. Read what you love. Read what you hate. Read everything from banned books to plant catalogs to scratch marks in pine bark. Old love letters are good, too.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? Other writers. More than anything, belonging to community of writers I love excites me. Including the great and gifted Irene Honeycutt, Martin Settles, Chris Davis, John Clark, Helen Fowler, Lucinda Trew, Chris Arvidson, Caroline Kane Kenna, Sharon Kugelmas, Sandy Hill, Kathie Collins, AE Hines, Stuart Dischell, Nickole Brown, Kim Blum-Hyclak, Julie Ann Cook, Terry Norton, Evelyn Eickmeyer-Quinones, Ashley Harris, Joan Barasovska. Equally, the hospice staff with whom I conduct grief writing workshops, make paper collages, and eat blueberry scones.

Mary Alice Dixon’s Snakeberry Mamas: Words from the Wild is out now with Charlotte Lit Press.