Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
I have the pleasure of welcoming Ms Castle to Jorie Loves A Story today, of whom, I recently read her new collection of Poetry “Kin Types” – wherein Ms Castle, was directly inspired by her ancestral research into her ancestral lines of heritage to pull forward beautifully convicting biographical sketches of her ancestors! She had a lovely way of fusing you into their lived lives as immediate as they might describe a moment out of their everyday world with you today! She struck an emotional chord within these time capsules of lives through the women of her family who she connected with the most.
This was the first piece in the collection which was what I would consider prose-narrative – where there is a delicate balance between how the story affects the reader through the scope of how it is told. There are other pieces of narrative – of elongated stories crafted together next to the poems – where lists of names and places of origins are mentioned after the stories themselves; a nod I would presume to Ms Castle’s ancestors; of reflecting of whom inspired which story or piece she’s sharing within the collection itself. A marker in a way, of noting what happened to whom and of whom she felt motivated to share insight in regards to their lives through a plausible ‘story’ of one moment where their life and hers felt interconnected to the point in which telling their tale was in effect re-telling a portion of her own.
-how I described her poetic style on my review of Kin Types
Each of them, has a larger story behind how they arrived in America (through immigration) and of how their hopes, dreams and lives were affected by circumstances they couldn’t control. Each finding the courage to overcome what befell them and find the heart of strength to carry on. In this, we too, find a renewal of strength reading their stories and re-alighting into a moment of their lives where their emotions were raw, their fortitude strong and wherein life’s adversities attempted to weaken their resolve.
Two of my favourite pieces in the collection are as follows:
The capstone poem for me in this collection is “When Your Grandfather Shows You Photographs of His Mother” due to the nature of how there are some traces of origins through our appearances which oft-times go unnoticed and unchecked. Have you ever noticed how some families are recognisable for how their features and mannerisms are well-presented throughout their lineage? Of how there are reflective murmurs of personality through each new generation their family expands inside? Others, I find are more independently related – where you cannot find connections within how they ‘appear’ to the outside world. They each are their own canvas. What is interesting here – is one woman took this observational enigma to the next layer of insight – how does what we see of ourselves in the mirror of the past, reflect now against our future?
&
“The First Baby Still Sleeps Long Hours” is an entry into how a woman is captured by inspiration in how sewing clothes can be a mark of a woman’s confidence in herself. She has a keen eye for fabric and notions; of seeing how the patterns of her day’s fashions can be altered or renewed by the choices you make as you sew – a woman ahead of herself and of the time she lived. Whilst she’s toiling long into the night, over the firelight of candles – whose wax is drawing too thin to find solace in the hours left to finish her tasks, here we find the balance of life – between what is expected (ie. motherhood) and what is a personal goal of seeing how far you can push yourself to do something ‘new’ which you’ve not yet done beforehand. I felt this piece in particular could be lengthened – it would make a fitting gateway into a Historical Fiction novel.
-quotes taken from my review of Kin Types
Kin Types
Kin Types is based largely upon genealogy and a fascination with what comes to all of us from the past. A mix of poetry in the traditional sense and highly poetic prose pieces, the collection takes the reader on a journey into the lives of women and somewhat into the lives of men who must carry on alone once the women are gone. The journey of this collection is not a ramble into the past, but a slingshot into the here and now by way of these portrait tales.
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9781635342543
on 14th July, 2017
Published By: Finishing Line Press (@FLPress)
Available Formats: Paperback & Ebook
Read how the author was inspired to create this collection
Converse via: #Ancestry + #Poetry
What was your most extraordinary discovery you’ve uncovered whilst researching your ancestral heritage? Was it something about yourself or about one of your ancestors which made you feel especially moved to have learnt?
Castle responds: While searching old newspaper articles, I discovered the story of how my great-great-grandmother Alice Paak DeKorn rushed into a house fire caused by a faulty stove and was terribly burned (“An Account of a Poor Oil Stove Bought off Dutch Pete”). For some time the newspaper did a death watch on Alice as it was assumed she would not survive, but she did and was able to enjoy her first grandchild before she died. While Alice’s story is not the only “treasure” I’ve unearthed, it is the one that had a dramatic impact on how I viewed my female ancestors. Because my mother’s relatives were quite staid, responsible, quiet types I had grown up thinking that they were somewhat boring and unremarkable. Little did I understand how much strength and bravery it takes to live one’s life with dedication and sacrifice. Suddenly, it was as if my eyes were opened to who my ancestors really were, and I was extremely proud of Alice.
How did you create the portraiture narrative you’ve used within ‘Kin Types’ to directly fuse into the ancestral history of the women in your family? As you’ve given such a wonderful ‘short glimpse’ into their lives?
Castle responds: I love the phrase “portraiture narrative.” Yes, I’ve tried to create little portraits that can be explored for insight into the stories of the individuals depicted. When I started I thought that I would focus on my direct ancestors, but I soon realized that a broader range of people have had an impact on my family and, therefore, on me. For instance, Marijtje Hoogendoorn Leeuwenhoek is not a great-grandmother of mine. In fact, her son Lambertus married my 2nd great aunt Jen (who I knew very well when I was a child). But I became enthralled with the stories of Marijtje’s family and “met” online a descendant of the family who lives in the Netherlands. He shared Leeuwenhoek family history with me, and I felt that their stories were our stories. We may not share the details of life with each other, but share the same hearts and dreams and losses. Also, what affected Aunt Jen’s life was woven into the pattern of my life, as was that which affected her sister Cora, my great-grandmother (who died decades before I was born), who shows up in three poems in Kin Types.
As you’ve pieced together your ancestral tree – have you been able to find ‘missing’ relatives of whom you’ve been able to connect with now? If so, what was your favourite topic of interest you’ve shared?
Castle responds: I’ve found many second and third cousins, as well as those married into the family. My life has been enriched by these connections. One of my favorite “new” cousins is my second cousin Jeane. Our fathers were first cousins, although they never really knew each other. Jeane and I share a passion for animals and animal rescue, as well as a love of writing. I want to meet Jeane in person someday, and I wish we lived closer to each other.
Did you ever uncover the story behind why Frank was used as oft-times as it was in your family’s history? Did any of the ‘Franks’ of either gender, know of their origin story behind why they were named or are those reasons lost to time? I oft have considered this myself when peering into my own Tree.
Castle responds: The “Franks” (“Genealogy”) did know why they were given the name “Frank” (or a derivative) in that they knew the tradition of naming. They were all from my father’s family. One side of his family came from a village near the Rhine in Germany and the other from a village in Alsace, which is now in France. They all spoke German and were Catholic. Babies were given names of their Godparents or their grandparents and of saints. There were patterns that were sometimes followed, such as the first son would be named after the paternal grandfather, the second after the maternal grandfather, and so on. While they didn’t always follow the patterns, it does mean that the same names would show up over and over in a family. The Franks in my family were named, of course, for St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals.
I am most curious which way is the historic truth within “Baptism in the Morning” – could you expand a bit on this piece and perhaps, did things ease a bit for the family in the years after the birth?
For those of my readers who didn’t get the chance to read my review of ‘Kin Types’ ahead of this interview, the poem in question led me to reveal these ruminative thoughts on it’s behalf:
In “Baptism in the Morning”, you gather the insanity of having to explain yourself – of how having a fifth child so late in life after your previous four (three girls, one boy) were well advanced into their adult years is such an unorthodox situation to be presenting to your church going neighbours – however, given the timestamp on this woman’s life, I can understand how the scuttlebutt started! In her defense, I doubt there were many ‘change of life’ babies bourne in their community; however, this is my first reaction to the story. It can in effect be read two different ways – is the shame being felt due to an ‘unexpected’ pregnancy of the mother or is it in effect, one of her three daughters whose been left unwed and withchild? If it is the second way round, what makes it tender-hearted is how much strength the mother had to help shield the hypocrisies of their community and ‘get on’ with life once they were back home on the farm.
Castle responds: The ambiguous meaning of “Baptism in the Morning” arises from the poem’s origins within my mind. One area of genealogy that is very new and fascinating to me is photo genealogy. There are people who specialize in this, and I hired Maureen Taylor, Photo Detective, to help me with a photograph. What she can unravel from a photo is almost magical. In this case, she studied my grandmother and her sisters and told me something astonishing. As soon as she told me, it had such a ring of truth about it. However, I can’t prove the idea as fact, but a poem was a good place to explore the notion.
My grandmother had a sister a year older and another a year younger. Then a brother three years younger. Years later, after the two oldest girls were almost adults, the youngest girl was born. The oldest girls have a similar look to them—you can tell they are sisters. But the youngest looks very different, as if she is from a different genetic composition. Maureen suggested that it was very likely that the youngest daughter was actually the child of one of the other daughters. She said that was very common in those days for parents to pass off an illegitimate grandchild as a change of life baby. We probably will never know the truth.
As I was reading “The First Baby Sleeps Long Hours”, I felt this could become an intuitive narrative within the thralls of Historical Fiction inter-related to Biographical History – is this something you would consider expanding? If not, I am dearly curious – did this young Mum become a seamstress or dressmaker?
Castle responds: “The First Baby Sleeps Long Hours” is the most imaginative piece in the collection, although “More Burials” takes a factual story and slants the viewpoint to one of the dead mother, as if she can see ahead to what becomes of her family. In “First Baby,” Johanna, my 4th great-grandmother is of an earlier generation than all the other women in Kin Types, so less is known about her, and we certainly don’t have any photographs. I had to imagine what it would have been like for her to grow up in a sophisticated city and, while still young and possibly a bit vain, be forced to move to a smaller city in a more provincial area. No documents have surfaced yet that give an occupation for Johanna, and at her death (as an old woman) she was “without” an occupation.
Collectively, as you’ve re-visited the stories of your family’s past – what did you find threading throughout your ancestors stories which staid with you the most? A particular attribute they shared or an affirmation they lived by?
Castle responds: I found them to be generally brave and responsible people. In fact, in “The Nurturing of Nature and its Accumulations,” I theorize that the family genes were embedded with “the courage necessary for it all.”
Do you find as much joy as I do visiting antique emporiums looking over the collections of yesteryear – from china to portraits to estate jewelry – even furniture and knick knacks, wondering what these pieces have to tell us about their original owners? If only those stories could be re-surfaced and heard?
Castle responds: My husband is a collector, so we visit antique malls everywhere we travel. I am particularly drawn to objects which would have had special meaning to someone in the past or objects which remind me of my own past. I am drawn to jewelry, but not to buy, just to imagine stories. And tools and implements, things that people used in their everyday lives, carry some kind of special power. The trays of old photographs are a sad reminder that many people discard family heirlooms without thought to other family members or those who may come after them. I always spend time going through the photos, almost as a ritual of memorial to those captured by the camera.
Recently, I read a memoir called The Secret Life of Objects by Dawn Raffel. In each chapter, Raffel takes an object that belongs to her and tells a story about it. As the chapters pile up they tell a story of Raffel’s life. I was so drawn to that notion that I have started writing about the secret life of objects on my writesite.org blog. The first piece I did was about snack bowls that I grew up with, and the second was about my grandmother’s mailbox marker that I found in my mother’s basement.
Of the women you’ve focused on in “Kin Types” which woman did you feel the most attached to whilst writing her story?
Castle responds: When I first started the project, I felt very close to my grandfather’s mother, Cora. She is the one I most look like, and my grandfather had told me stories of her sensitivity to animals. One day a man was beating his horse in front of her house, and she ran outside, grabbed the whip, and laid it on the man himself. I was charmed by her bravery and felt a kinship with her sympathies. But the more I learned about her mother, Alice (the one who ran into the fire to help others), the closer I felt to her. Cora and Alice are both a part of who I am. Cora is more shadowed, and the light reflects off Alice.
What do you find renews your spirit as a poet and as a writer?
Castle responds: Immersing myself in nature, art, stories, and research keep me buoyant and curious, and my cats comfort me and renew my faith in the world.
About Luanne Castle
Winner of the 2015 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award, Doll God, Luanne Castle‘s first collection of poetry, was published by Aldrich Press. Luanne’s poetry and prose have appeared in Grist, Copper Nickel, River Teeth, Glass Poetry Press, Barnstorm Journal, Six Hens, Lunch Ticket, The Review Review, and many other journals. Published by Finishing Line Press, Kin Types was a semi-finalist in the Concrete Wolf chapbook contest.
Luanne has been a Fellow at the Center for Ideas and Society at the University of California, Riverside. She studied English and creative writing at the University of California, Riverside (Ph.D.); Western Michigan University (MFA); and the Stanford University writing certificate program. Her scholarly work has been published in academic journals, and she contributed to Twice-Told Children’s Tales: The Influence of Childhood Reading on Writers for Adults, edited by Betty Greenway. For fifteen years, she taught college English. She divides her time between California and Arizona, where she shares land with a herd of javelina.
‘Kin Types’ is a repository of memories laced through narrative probabilities stemmed out of a writer’s imagination for re-inserting herself into the foot-falls of her own historic past. If you take the leap forward into these curated stories, you will find echoes and representations of one woman’s ancestral line – stepping forward from the darkness, to re-illuminate only one small slice of how they lived to be viewed against what we understand today. Of how life erupts out of circumstance, of how ingenuity is not a ready-made concept of today and how there is a need for legacy even before it is understood for what it is to everyone in the family. These stitchings of life are threading through the women – of how the feminine experience in one family not only set the course for the descendants but provided a crucial view of how cruel and unexpected life can become whilst living an ordinary life. There are joys along the route, too – but mostly, it is an exploration of the harder emotional truths the spirit of who we are might not always want to re-visit.
-as quoted from my final ruminative thoughts on behalf of Kin Types
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Kindly leave your comments & commentary for the poet, Ms Castle in the comment threads below – especially if your an Ancestry Sleuth like we are – researching your ancestral heritage and/or appreciate portraits of the past through cleverly writ autobiographical narrative. Thank you!
Similar to blog tours where I feature book reviews, as I choose to highlight an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog. I provide the questions for interviews and topics for the guest posts; wherein I receive the responses back from publicists and authors directly. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them; I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers.
{SOURCES: Cover art of “Kin Types”, book synopsis, author biography, author photograph, and the tour badge were all by Poetic Book Tours and used with permission. Tweets embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Book Review Banner using Unsplash.com (Creative Commons Zero) Photography by Frank McKenna and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2017.
Comments via Twitter:
Looking forward to sharing an #interview w/ this #poet! 😊We share a mutual love of #Ancestry + #familyhistory! 😄Will be a wicked convo to share! Til then I am humbled by her kind praise about my ruminations on her #poetry! 🦋💫
— Jorie Story 📖🎧 (@joriestory) November 15, 2017
#Interview w/ #Poet Luanne Castle (@writersitetweet)
feat. on #JLASblog talking about #AncestryGleam insight about what Jorie calls 'portraiture narrative' in #poetry & what inspired this collection of #poems @FLPress @PoeticBookTours https://t.co/mBytboDeNf
— Jorie Story 📖🎧 (@joriestory) December 7, 2017
Interview @joriestory with @writersitetweet #KinTypes @PoeticBookTours #genealogy #poetry https://t.co/StyHdJpXVb
— . (@charles_guil) December 7, 2017
I’m not sure my first comment is here in “awaiting approval section.” . . .
I enjoyed your interview of Luanne Castle who has been quite a special and accessible author friend. You asked deep, fascinating questions, Jorie.
I read and own both “Doll God” and “Kin Types.” The first one I have read more than once, as well as reading her poems to my doll loving mother who was a high school Literature and English teacher. She helped me critique her book.
I read Luanne’s chapbook and found the unique, detailed stories of her family so special. I won’t forget any of them, each has struggles, problems and some losses. It sounds like my great grandparents and other tales found while shaking their family’s tree. I did two posts which included my own personal book reviews on my WordPress blog.
Smiles, Robin
Hallo, Hallo Robin,
Yes, the comments remain in queue until I can go through them – therefore, never fear, I haven’t lost a comment yet! :) I approved both your comments as you altered what you were sharing and saying in each one. I appreciated the thoughtfulness to your commentary and look forward to visiting with you on your lovely blog as well. Thank you for the compliment in regards to the questions themselves – if you peruse my interviews throughout my blog, you’ll find I like to dig into the heart of the stories writers & poets are creating – it helps us connect to them and understand their creative process. Being both a writer & poet myself, I enjoy the research I put into developing the questions I ask. Sometimes it’s due to a specific reading of their works and/or a combination of a reading & researching their writing career. I enjoy making these interviews approachable to both the writers and the readers who follow their journeys.
I have author friends’ like this myself – it is a beautiful circle of joy surrounding stories – writing is a connective pursuit – we are blessed to live in an age where the barriers are nominal and where connections can be made a bit easier than they had been in the past. I oft have wondered about my great-grandparents and even, further back than this – about those first moments and years where the immigrants of my family first settled into their lives in their new country. This is why like you, it was fascinating to read a descendant’s spin on how to pull forward those ‘lost moments’ into descriptive prose.
I truly enjoyed your visit. I hope you’ll drop back sometime – you’ll find I’ve talked in-depth about a variety of poets on Jorie Loves A Story. I have been blessed by finding these poets due to Poetic Book Tours.
Jorie, I have read both “Doll God” and “Kin Types” which have beautiful prose and poetic expressions.
I reviewed many of her entries within both books. Your detailed description of her book, “Kin Types,” shows how well you understand both the history and ancestry aspects of Luanne’s chapbook. It was a fascinating interview, too. Smiles, Robin
Hallo, Hallo Robin!
Thank you for stopping by and sharing your thoughts with me. I appreciated your feedback on behalf of this interview & of my thoughts on behalf of her poems. I aspired to get a bit of a ‘back-story’ on how her ancestral poems were created as I felt they would appeal to everyone who takes up the pursuit of seeking out their ancestral past. The stories are oft-times obscured from our historical perspectives and this was what attracted me to her poems. Thank you for taking a moment to share your thoughts, as I do appreciate it.
I loved this interview with Luanne. It was interesting hearing more about the people and events that influenced her–a sort of behind-the-scenes to the poems.
Hallo, Hallo!
Thank you for leaving me such a lovely comment! I truly wanted to dig into the heart of what went into the poems themselves, as they were uniquely voiced to give such an alarming presence of the women who lived. I am very thankful this resonated with you – of what my intentions were and that you have enjoyed the conversation I shared! Many blessings to you! Have a wonderfully joyous Winter Season! I look forward to your next visit, as I oft feature poets and Small Press authors – there is another interview running featuring Sue Hallgarth who wrote the Willa Cather & Edith Lewis Mysteries today.
Jorie, thank you so much for the beautiful questions. They really made me think deeply about all this and that made it so productive for me!
Hallo Ms Castle,
I truly loved fusing my reading experience of your poems with the purpose of helping my readers & visitors alike get to know how you’ve knitted out the heart of your ancestors’ lives through this distinctive style of prose! I was so happy you loved my questions and took the journey with me to help tell the story ‘behind’ the poems! Again, I felt blessed our paths have crossed. May you have a beautiful Christmas & New Year’s!
Thanks so much for your insightful questions. I hope you have a great holiday season.
Hallo, Ms Cox,
Happy Holidays, to you too! :) I am blessed by hosting for your authors & poets, as the stories you bring to our attention never fail to inspire me! I thoroughly enjoyed working on this interview especially as the poet and I share such a common passion for our ancestors! Here’s a beautiful Season for us both and best wishes for a healthy and happy New Year!