Introduction to the Poet

Kim Jacobs-Beck is a poet and a professor of English at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College. Born and raised just outside Detroit, she now lives in Hamilton Ohio, somewhere between Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio.  She studied English literature and creative writing at Beloit College, has an MA in literature from the University of Delaware, and an MFA in Poetry and a PhD in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British literature from Miami University (Ohio). She also runs her own small press, Milk & Cake.

An Interview with Dr. Kim Jacobs-Beck

​By: Katelyn Moore

Interview 

What is your background?

​I am from metro Detroit originally. I grew up in a working class, Catholic, Polish/German family and was the first one to go to college in my generation. As an adult, I have lived in Wisconsin, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and of course, Ohio. All of those moves except Illinois were because I was in college or grad school. I am a lifelong student too, and when I retire, I plan to take more college classes.

When and why did you start writing?

​I started writing because I was assigned to in school. I remember making a book in third grade—writing it, illustrating, putting a contact paper and cardboard cover on it. That was the coolest thing, honestly. Then when I was a bit older, I discovered writing poetry and loved the challenge of fitting an idea into what I’d now call a constraint. I wrote because it was fun, and my teachers encouraged me to do it because they said I was good at it.

What are you reading right now?

​Molly Spencer’s Hinge, (poetry), and because I teach, student papers and Elizabeth Wardle’s Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies, which is a book about a theory of teaching.

​What is your writing process like?

​I am a messy writer. I don’t have a linear, step-by-step process, though I do move in a general start-to-finish direction. I draft, revise while I’m drafting, walk away from a poem, come back and rewrite, etc. Sometimes I start over with the same idea. Sometimes, I’ll blend two poems on the same topic. I try to write a new poem on a few days each week, and then set aside a whole morning or afternoon every week for revision or research. I use the thesaurus heavily when I’m revising, looking for a better word. Sometimes I take a long weekend as a writing retreat in a cabin or hotel, though I’ve only done that a few times. I take a lot of virtual writing workshops.

How does teaching writing to your students impact your own writing?

​Mostly it means I have less time to write and have to stay focused to keep at it. Sometimes if I’m teaching a lit course, going back to a favorite poem will inspire new work from me. I’m sure that years of teaching composition have made me more comfortable with revising and with the idea that writing is recursive. I am happy to keep going back to the draft to improve it when I need to. I trust my sense that it’s not quite right.

In the inverse how does being a writer impact being a professor?

It definitely gives me an understanding of what it feels like to be faced with a writing task, what is involved in developing a writing process that works for an individual. I believe developing that process is unique to every person and needs to be respected.

How has the pandemic impacted your writing?

​I didn’t write about the pandemic at all; I wanted to escape from it. I wrote pretty steadily, though I took a break from submitting to journals until recently. That felt like too much to deal with. Submitting creative work is a lot of work that I didn’t feel like I had the extra energy for.

You're a professor, a writer, and you run a press; how do you find balance?

​Though I am a messy writer, I am pretty organized otherwise and religiously use a planner and to-do lists to keep me on track. I also am learning to take some time off. It’s true that to be a writer, you need “down time” when you’re doing “nothing,” so you can replenish the creative part of yourself. I love to do tangible creative-ish things like coloring or other craft-y things that allow my mind to wander a little bit while my hands are busy.

What do you to combat writers block?

​I write a lot of trash poems that I know aren’t going anywhere, just to keep the pen moving. I trust that the block will ease up, as all writer’s block does eventually.

You manage your own press; how does that impact your own writing?

​It definitely takes a lot of time and energy. I think of my own writing as separate from my work with the press. It’s exciting to read work by other people that isn’t published yet, and I think it shows me what I like and what I don’t, which reminds me of what my own creative goals are.

How does being behind the camera (so to speak) in the publishing world impact publishing your own writing?

I think it helps me understand how a publisher and writer need to be partners in getting a book out into the world. It also makes me truly understand what editors always say about acceptances and rejections: so much of that is based on personal taste and preferences, not necessarily on the quality of the work. It’s made it a bit easier to accept rejections of my own work.

What was getting your MFA while already having a doctorate like?

​It was great. I know it made the MFA easier in some ways, because I already know how to read carefully and write about texts. In other ways, it was entirely new to me, because my doctorate is in 18th and 19th century British literature, and I didn’t know much about contemporary American lit. Now I do, and it’s great to discover a lot of living authors I was unfamiliar with. In one way, it was completely different to be working on an MFA, because it was focused on my own creative work, while my doctorate (obviously) was not. I’m very glad I went back and did the MFA.

During your reading you said you were writing a lot about growing up in Detroit and coming to terms with the racism in the area. How has writing about that challenged you or opened your eyes to things you hadn't seen before?

​Yes, I’ve learned a lot working on this manuscript. I’ve done a lot of research in the local newspapers of that period, and it’s just stunning to see how open people were about saying racist things, on the record, to a reporter—they weren’t even a little ashamed of themselves. I already knew/know that white people can be pretty openly racist among their own communities, but when you grow up in it, that feels “normal.” To look back at it as an adult, it’s hard to take that this was my community. When I was old enough, I definitely questioned and (mildly) objected to it, and now I just straight up call it out when I need to.

 Are there things you find hard to share because those poems may involve your family?

​​This is something I’m trying to be sensitive to. Before this specific project, I have written a good deal about my family, and I have to measure calling it like I see against how they might feel about my perspective on the situation I’m writing about. That said, I do subscribe deeply to the Anne Lamott idea that “you own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” I think this is something most writers must grapple with at some point unless they write genre fiction or something similar.

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