Q&A with Shirley J. Brewer

  

 

Shirley J. Brewer is the author of the new poetry collection Goddess of Swizzle. Her other books include the poetry collection Wild Girls. She is poet-in-residence at the Carver Center for the Arts in Baltimore. 

 

Q: Over how long a period did you write the poems in your new collection?

 

A: I worked on Goddess of Swizzle for at least eight years! That is, putting the manuscript together and allowing it to evolve.

 

A few of the poems are older – I wrote “Poem Beginning with a Line from Richard Hugo” in my Lyric Spirit class at the University of Baltimore in 2003. But some poems are much more recent, written in the last several years. So, there is quite a span!

 

Q: How was the book’s title (also the title of one of the poems) chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: I knew intuitively when I wrote the poem “Goddess of Swizzle,” that the poem title would make a great book title. The poem is about my bartending experiences in the ‘80s, although I wrote it much after that.

 

The word “goddess” has special significance for me. At the University of Baltimore in graduate school in the spring of 2003, I took a class called Gifts of the Goddess with Dr. Carol Peirce. A glorious class, originated and taught only by Dr. Peirce. We studied a bevy of Greek goddesses – including Aphrodite, Athena, Hera – and found in ourselves characteristics of each goddess.

 

I did a class project where I repainted the living room in my Pasadena townhouse (right before I moved into Baltimore) and then decorated it with objects befitting each of the goddesses we studied. I really lived that class!

 

Dr. Peirce became ill and retired that year from teaching. I was in the last class she ever taught. I feel like I became a goddess in her class. The Goddess in my title is a tribute to her. 

 

“Swizzle” is a noun, a verb, and also an adjective. As a verb, it means “to stir.” In the poems in this collection, I stir a variety of memories, experiences, and reflections. So, Goddess of Swizzle is the most perfect title for this collection.

 

Q: The poet Sue Ellen Thompson said of the book, “Brimming with life and replete with colors, scents, flavors, and textures, the poems in Shirley J. Brewer's Goddess of Swizzle personify joie de vivre.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love Sue Ellen’s description. I think she captures the essence of my book. She also mentions in her blurb that the poems in Goddess of Swizzle “explore every corner of human experience, from vivid childhood memories to sobering adult losses.”

 

There is a balance in this book of light and dark, “but joy is never far off.”

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m getting back in sync with my writing practice after all the energy and effort it takes to put a book of poetry into the world! I’ve spent 10 years or so working on Wild Girls (my fourth book of poetry, published in 2023) and Goddess of Swizzle. The act of writing a new poem brings me so much creative joy. I’ve written two new poems this week!!

 

For now, I’m gathering all my new work – plus older poems not included in a manuscript – together in a folder. I don’t have an exact idea yet what my next project will be – but I can hear it – all those bubbling, exuberant sounds that signify a new concept, a new theme. Something’s in the air! Stay tuned.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: The excitement of bringing five books of poetry into the world has been electric! My first book – A Little Breast Music - was published by Passager Books in 2008 when I was 61. The editors took all my poems and chose which ones to include. They decided on the title and the order. So, when I first saw my book, the final product was a delicious surprise.

 

The rest of my books have been more hands on. After Words (2013) is an elegy to a young man murdered in my neighborhood. Bistro in Another Realm (2017) focuses on place, family, love, art, and loss. Wild Girls (2023) includes strong females from my family, history, the arts, the news, and my imagination.

 

And now, Goddess of Swizzle! I can’t wait for the next book, the next chapter. Creativity is Ongoing, Magical, Effervescent.

 

I also want to express gratitude to the three small, independent presses that have published my books: Passager, Main Street Rag, Apprentice House. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Shirley J. Brewer.