We had the good fortune of connecting with Elizabeth Robinson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elizabeth, can you share the most important lesson you’ve learned over the course of your career?

For a long time, I had a “quote-a-day” calendar page taped to my desk that said, “Miracles do happen, but you have to work hard for them.” This is true to my experience. In my six years of working with unhoused people, I would often hear people say, “Why do you bother working with that person? They are never going to change or get better.” But we can never predict who will heal or change.

My ethos is one of perseverance. You just keep trying even when the odds don’t look good. Often something will shift, change, open up. It might not be what you were trying to accomplish or what you expected, but that shift is still real and can lead to good things.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

I have had a wide variety of jobs in order to earn money, but my lifelong artistic practice has been writing poetry. It has brought me into lively communities of writers, and has even gotten me wonderful travel opportunities upon occasion (a one month residency in the south of France!).

“Success” as a poet is always a relative thing, though I have published several books and been awarded some prizes. Even so, publication is a complicated process. In the past five years, I’ve had two books of poems accepted for publication. One fell through when the poetry press collapsed and went out of business. The other fell through when the publisher became so ill he could no longer continue. This is just the way things can go when you work in a medium that is less popular than, say, film or painting.

But I love writing and the intrinsic joy of creating. I have persevered, and some poems from one of the manuscripts that fell through have received awards, including the prestigious Pushcart Prize. This manuscript, which is made up of poems written about working with people experiencing homelessness and trying to tell their stories, has recently been accepted for publication by Northwestern University Press. I am so excited to share it with a wider audience.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?

I no longer live in the Front Range, but I have places that I love to go there!

Firstly, I would start the day at Chautauqua in Boulder, with brunch at the Chautauqua House, and then a hike around the Flatirons.

After a good hike, I would take my friend over to Spruce Confections for coffee/tea and an Old B cookie, and then wander around Mapleton and look at all the gorgeous old houses. Bonus if we happen to be there the weekend when the neighborhood has its big yard sale.

Then I would head over to Mountain View cemetary, which is quite beautiful. I always like to pause and read the poetic headstones of poets Ed Dorn and Anselm Hollo, and the quote on fiction writer Lucia Berlin’s headstone.

If there’s time, it’s great to head over to El Dorado and get a little seasick watching the climbers on the cliffs. At the end of the day, I would head over to Pica’s for fish tacos.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

I have gifts of amazing friends and fellow travellers, but the person who nominated me for this shoutout is someone I met while she was experiencing homelessness. I was in a state of pretty serious depression when I met her and those I met while I was working with people who were chronically unhoused.  Those people were completely welcoming, loving, funny, challenging, and transformative in my life and continue to be so.

So thank you to my friends who are, or were, living outside. Thank you, Jen Livovich, and also Nathan, James, Nessa, Kevin, and so many others.

Website: elizabethrobinsonpoetry.com

Instagram: @thirst_and_surfeit

Facebook: Elizabeth Robinson (but there are many people with that name!)

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qve07TXE6Pc

Image Credits
Elizabeth Robinson

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