Alexandria Maxwell — Artist Spotlight
Alexandria Maxwell had written work in our former NCTC Exhibit — elemental. She answered some questions about poetry and her artistic process below.
How long have you been writing poetry – what was your motivation to begin?
I have been writing poetry since I could write. My mom has some pretty funny poems saved from cards that I would make in first grade and up. I really got into writing poetry in late middle school after my grandma passed away. She was a poet and artist and passed away when I was twelve. I tend to express excess emotion through poetry. Writing is very therapeutic for me, and so I processed my grief that way and then writing was a habit.
Do you have favorite themes in your work?
I have noticed that home is a major theme running through my works. My husband and I moved into a camper trailer a month before I graduated college. Graduation day we left on our first cross-country trip. The next three years were spent living primarily out of a camper. I've compiled the poetry written those three years into a chapbook, Already Almost Home. Nature and theology are also threads I see through many of my works. My husband's favorite poems of mine are those that deal with theological topics and issues. I think nature and theology go hand in hand, and I find that I think and write best while out in nature--primarily in the woods.
Would you say that your poems 1) have serious themes, 2) are for fun, 3) are a way of practicing the technical forms of poetry?
A little of all three, I think. I like learning about different forms of poetry and trying them out. The pieces that I am most proud of are my more serious works, but even though I tend to be a more serious person I can't write like that all the time. I have some just for fun poems, too. While I was taking a creative writing class at school, we were assigned different forms to write and one of the best dates my husband and I had was trying to write an ars poetica villanelle about how awful villanelles are to write. They're really not that bad, though.
What inspires your poetry?
I think nature is the biggest inspiration for me, both what's out there in nature and what I'm thinking about. I think the field of psychology is so fascinating, and I write with a psychological bent, both in my poetry and my fiction. I love exploring what makes things the way they are, I love observing and writing what I see and experience.
What’s your process for writing poems? Do you have more than one process?
I carry a notebook with me most of the time. I write down what I'm seeing, what I'm feeling. In a few days or months I come back to a piece and revise it or cannibalize it for another piece. With fiction, these smaller snippets get knitted or woven together to create a longer piece of fiction. With my poetry, the length of the poem doesn't vary much from the original.
Does it matter to you whether or not readers “get” your poetry’s meaning?
Not really. Not usually. Whatever a piece means to me comes from my set of experiences. As soon as I release a piece into the public, it takes on a life of it's own. Everyone has a unique set of experiences that they use as a lens to view art, and I think it's wonderful that multiple meanings can be derived from the same work. The only thing that matters is that the conversation happens respectfully. I love getting asked what I meant and having a conversation with a reader who saw a poem in an entirely different way. Thankfully, I've never had anyone offended by their misunderstanding what I meant. But I'm sure that will happen at some point.
Has your poetry been published? Does it matter?
It has. I was published in my college's art and literature journal while I attended. Right after graduation, I self-published a micro-chapbook, kind of a portfolio of my college work. And then in January of this year I finally published Already Almost Home which has been years in the making. It matters to me, even though it might not matter to every writer and poet. I am a poet and artist to the core of my being, not just a hobbyist. In order to be true to my nature, I have to be as "poet" as possible, which means letting others read my works. It's been really hard to let go of these works, to let people read my poetry, but I think by not publishing I'd be depriving myself of something. It doesn't matter if I am traditionally published, though. I'm at the point where I know my poetry isn't for everyone, and poetry isn't lucrative. If I wait around for one of the big five or even smaller presses to reach out to me and tell me that my writing is worth something, I'd probably be waiting for a long time. I've been building a small readership for a few years now, and that's enough. I enjoy what I write and they do as well, so I'll just keep publishing for us.
Are you okay with people contacting you about your poetic work?
Yes! Please do, I love talking to readers and other writers.
A little about Alexandria:
Alexandria Maxwell is a poet and writer from northern Minnesota. She has been writing since middle school, and has appeared in Colorado Christian University’s art and literary journal, Paragon. In 2017, Alexandria published a micro-chapbook of poetry titled Aesthetic Blindness, a portfolio of her university work. Both Alexandria and her husband graduated in 2017 and left graduation day with their RV to live and work full-time on the road. Their daughter was born in 2018, and in 2020 they welcomed a son into their family.
Life on the road became the subject for Alexandria’s second book, a full-length chapbook of poetry. Published in 2021, Already Almost Home blends poetry, prose, and pictures to give a small glimpse into camper living. Since its publication in January, the family of four have moved a hundred year old farmhouse onto land that they own in Northern Minnesota and are working to restore it as their home-base.
Website: www.alexandriamaxwellwrites.com
FB/IG: @alexmaxwrites
