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Northwest Passages: Shaindel Beers

AIR DATE: Thursday, August 27th 2009
Download the mp3 for this show.
Photo credit: Evan Moodie Photography

One of poet Shaindel Beers' early memories involves a 1972 Chevy Nova with no air conditioning and a blind family friend with a Pomeranian dog. She met both the summer her mother "kidnapped" her, long before her mom served time in jail. Beers' first collection of poetry, A Brief History of Time, is largely autobiographical. She told me

"There are people who say they don’t want to visit Europe until they've seen all 50 states. I feel like that about myself. I wanted to explore me before other people's psyches."

She also told me she started writing poetry because "it's faster than fiction."

Here are the opening lines from her book's title poem:

"Now that we each have someone who knows how
we take our coffee, that smallest but most telling of intimacies —
you, black, three sweeteners; me, cream, no sugar —
we’re each eating breakfast with other people who don’t
drink coffee at all. There seems to be a message here, but
I don’t know what it is. I’m no good at this love thing"

The Powell's Books blog highlighted Beers' slim volume as one of three "great Oregon books for the summer." Garrison Keillor put one of her poems on his website. She's also been hitting the blog interview circuit, experiencing first-hand the limits and opportunities in the changing publishing world.

Beers is now working on a collection of poems reflecting on artwork done by children who have lived in war zones. We'll talk with her about what moves her to write, her "pretty tumultuous" childhood, students who inspire her, and falling in love with Eastern Oregon. You can read lots of her poetry online and post questions for her here.

Tagged as: northwest passages · pendleton · poetry · shaindel beers

Photo credit: Evan Moodie Photography

This is the first "Think Out Loud" show that's inspired me to make a comment.  Why?  I am inspired. 

I've written some poetry in the past, and listening to Beers ... I have to write again!  Wow.

She makes it sound so accessible.  Though I know it's not easy ... man, she makes it sound rewarding.

Thanks for having her on the show!

I have become too much a fan of many poets when I read how good they have written what is in thier minds. Due to my college Essay, I had missed her book. I agree with her that Poetry is faster than fiction, I have too felt the same.

She is quite pracitcal and well said. I will try to get her poems quite soon.

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Thank you Shaindel, you taught me how to love again.  


yeah. She is a good teacher? Maybe we need more time to think of lots of thing we did. Thanks for taking the time to discuss this.

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Fascinating conversation. My 4-year-old son loves to create and tell stories, and loves creating and experiencing art.

He was kidnapped by his mom several years ago, but is back with me now.  It was a traumatic experience for him, and I have done what I can to help him recover.

Listening to you, and what you've accomplished, gives me incredible hope for his future.

Thank you...

Please see my post on the subject of Shaindel's childhood and background. I am Shaindel Beers' mother, SheilaSB.

Regardless of viewpoint, I am glad my daughter's writing has helped you.

I never much appreciated poetry while growing up and I hated having to memorize and then recite a portion of Evangeline "This is the forest primeval...", but I have since learned that people once valued memorization of even very long poems and that it is great training for memorization skills for the brain.

It was the way history was passed on verbally long before most people learned to read and write, so it was really the entertainment medium for most people.

I liked stuff like "Fleas, Adam had 'em" , and Carl Sandburg's "Fog", but most poetry just didn't do it for me.

It so happens that I found out about this story a few seconds ago. I wanted to let you know that you reply was the most superb of all. Speed Dating NYC

Thank you for this interview with this talented and lovely young woman.  When she read the part of her poem about the bench warmer being thrown back in the game I laughed so hard I nearly crached my car.  When I shared that part with my 91-year-old mother, she cracked up.  Most of us aren't good at this love thing.  Instead of just focusing on the lonliness and heartbreak the way blues ballads do, it's refreshing to look at the absurdly entertaining aspects of romance and love.

Wonderful interview, thank you Ms. Beers. Ms. Harris, you mentioned a deeply moving piece written by one of the students. Can you post the link please?

Hi Linda,

We may have to wait until it's published in the Los Angeles Review. I'll double check today and post it if we can. Here's an excerpt. From "Moses" by Judy Phillips.

Our families moved into the trailer park around the same time, in early June. Curtis and I met while riding our bikes, and we spent that summer cruising around the dusty gravel roads separating the single and doublewides. Sometimes we ventured outside the park and hiked through the surrounding desert, looking for tarantulas and scorpions. Occasionally, we snuck out after bedtime, to meet behind a carport and smoke discarded cigarette butts. We would stare up at the stars, picking out constellations we convinced ourselves we recognized, and following the milky way path across the night sky. Curtis had a small transistor radio, and he would bring it out if the batteries were working. Curtis liked country music. I liked rock. But we could always agree if we found a station playing an Elvis song.
 
We talked about a lot of things. Curtis had a soft voice, and I loved his accent. Both of our families moved around a lot, and we discovered neither of us enjoyed these moves. We both loved animals, and Curtis had spent years trying to convince his mom to let them have a dog. There wasn’t a certain moment when it happened, but it was soon apparent to all the kids in the park that Curtis and I were boyfriend/girlfriend. We were inseparable.

Thank you, Everyone, for your kind words about the interview. I've had terrific responses and have been emailing back listeners all day so far.

If you're interested in buying a signed copy of my book directly from me or just keeping up with what I'm up to and knowing when I'm giving readings in your area, please find me one of the following ways.

Via email, please email sbeers@bluecc.edu and let me know you'd like to be added to my announcements list.

On Facebook, you can add me as a friend by visiting:

http://www.facebook.com/people/Shaindel-Beers/521563806?_fb_noscript=1

On Twitter, I am at: http://twitter.com/shaindelr

I also have events calendars at the author sites Goodreads.com :

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2798132.Shaindel_Beers

and  RedRoom.com:

http://redroom.com/author/shaindel-rebekah-beers

My next Portland event is a reading and book-signing at Broadway Books, September 14th at 7 p.m.

If you are a writer interested in submitting work, please check out Contrary Magazine, where I'm the Poetry Editor:

http://www.contrarymagazine.com/Contrary/Summer-2009.html

Take care and be well,

Shaindel

Have enjoyed all the NW Pass' interviews but this one was the best of all.    SB's down to earth honesty was very refreshing, and I'm sharing her work with several others who did not have the opportunity to hear the show.    Unfortunately I have a meeting at 7 pm on the 14th or I'd be there.   Many thanks for the series...a refreshing change from the political topics.

Hi, Doris,

Thanks so much for your kind words--and for sharing this episode! If you'd like to find me on Facebook or email me at sbeers@bluecc.edu, I'll add you to my updates list. I do have upcoming readings in Portland in October as well.

Take care,

Shaindel

I have a new poem at the Best American Poetry website. Please make comments if you have time.

http://thebestamericanpoetry.typepad.com/the_best_american_poetry/2009/09/origins-a-poem-by-shaindel-beers.html

Thank you,

Shaindel

one of the best poem from Shaindel Beers is My Love, A Partial Explanation

You ask what was different this time,
and I answer that it was the combination of rocks and water
and make some obscene joke about the sexual escapades
which would have ensued had we been in Maine or Oregon,

but this is because I don’t know how to tell you about your eyes,
which you think are brown, but which I know are gold-flecked
in different lights, and the way they smiled
when we talked our odd talk about relationships
and the stars; not really astrology,
more astrodynamics and Eagles’ lyrics with a bit
of quantum theory thrown in for good measure,

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You ask what was different this time,
and I answer that it was the combination of rocks and water
and make some obscene joke about the sexual escapades
which would have ensued had we been in Maine or Oregon,

but this is because I don’t know how to tell you about your eyes,
which you think are brown, but which I know are gold-flecked

What the heck?

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This comment has been removed by the TOL staff.
This comment has been removed by the TOL staff.

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Thank you Shaindel, you taught me how to love again.

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She seems had a crucial story about her family however I salute on her for he used it as her inpiration towards her success.

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Love those opening lines about the coffee. She is obviously very talented.

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I am Shaindel Beers' mother, and I wish to set the record straight. When Shaindel was five, I took her and her younger sister to Texas to visit friends. Yes, I did have a 1972 Chevy Nova without air conditioning. Yes, my former co-worker Nancy, the owner of a Pomeranian dog, had lost her sight in an automobile accident, and we did visit Nancy.

In June 1996 my family and I were in the process of buying a larger home in the country so that Shaindel and her siblings could have their friends visit on weekends and holidays. I had envisioned some of our children being married there and celebrating other happy events. In preparing to move, we had packed up many of our belongings and had the boxes sitting in the den while waiting for a truck to take them to a storage facility. To make matters worse, my father died unexpectedly, and this, of course, was a major disruption. Some unscrupulous people who knew of our plans capitalized on the situation to burglarize our house. After helping Shaindel turn in her 4H projects, I entered the home and surprised the burglars, who struck me and knocked me down when I tried to call for help. Then, when I tried to hold the burglars and their vehicle until the police arrived, the burglars defied me and drove to the police station, where they claimed they were the cleaners I had hired. This was an outright lie because I had hired other cleaners (reliable, honest people) for the next week. The police, being an inept small town department, believed the thieves in spite of the fact that the stolen goods were on the truck. The police refused to make them return our belongings, and my family and I lost everything we had worked for all our lives. As readers might surmise, the police arrested the wrong person, me.

Shaindel was given many advantages (lessons in dance and music, ten years of 4H, honors programs, and lifelong religious training) and was encouraged to get a college education. She also had loving parents who participated in community and school activities and who supported her academic and creative efforts.

I am happy that Shaindel is a tenured professor and that she has had her works published. However, her childhood was by no means deprived or tumultuous.

This comment has been removed by the TOL staff.

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Shaindel Beers’ poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She is currently a professor of English at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Oregon, in Eastern Oregon’s high desert and also serves as Poetry Editor of Contrary, and as a Poetry Reviewer for Bookslut. 

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Her writings are awesome. I always read her poetry during my break time in my work in a Debt Management company. And I make sure that I always have copies of her future writings.

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