This interview with Catherine Freeling was conducted in 2016 and includes her poem “The Day We Searched for the Road with Our Name” from Vol. 28:1 of CALYX Journal, available here.
Catherine Freeling worked in theatre and as a public school teacher before finding poetry. She has been a finalist in the Rattle, Nimrod, and Bellevue Literary Review poetry contests, and a runner-up in Hunger Mountain’s contest. Her work has also appeared or is forthcoming in The Sun, Paterson Literary Review, New Ohio Review, Women’s Review of Books, and elsewhere. She has received four nominations for a Pushcart Prize.
What piece/pieces are you working on now?
Lately, I’ve been putting together my first collection–a chapbook of poems about my brother, Pete (which includes the two poems published in Calyx). This project has been challenging, and has meant so much to me.
What is your favorite place to write?
I usually write in my small office next to the stairway. I sit in a huge worn leather chair with my orange cat and plenty of blank paper. If I’m lucky, I lose track of time for a few hours.
What are you currently reading?
Right now I’m reading the terrific poetry of Natalie Diaz (When My Brother Was an Aztec) and Charles Simic (New and Selected Poems: 1962-2012). Plus a murder mystery by Fred Vargas, (An Uncertain Place), and a memoir by Alexandra Fuller (Cocktail Hour Under The Tree of Forgetfulness).
