WHAT?
Poetry, some hybrid forms, a little prose
WHY?
It springs naturally from a source that is beyond my comprehension, almost like a meditation or prayer, or a consciousness thinking aloud in something like an interior monologue. When something starts up in my mind— a bubbling, a rumbling, an itch, an ache, a desperation, anger, compassion, a vision or an unexpected insight or maybe all of those things combined—that’s the moment I know I have to express it because it needs a voice.
HOW?
Teaching, walking, witnessing, listening. It could be a reaction to something that I’ve gone through or something I’ve heard or read—and reading poetry is a fabulous inspiration for me, both poetry that appeals to me as well as what doesn’t, (I’m curious and careful not to shut down something I don’t understand at first reading or what I may not be naturally drawn to), or something that has caused me tremendous joy or pain, or just a question that is brewing subconsciously. I have to write it down without questioning it, or thinking about the why or how of it, and remain completely non judgmental, and stay in the “zone”.
I work alone, am quite private and reclusive. I stay very quiet and focused even through all the next stages—editing and honing and creating what I hope will be a beautiful and meaningful work of art that I can one day send out into the world. I study, think, learn, and write slowly, and try and shield myself from the noise of the competitive world. I keep my head down and write, (and sometimes I can’t write for periods of time but I keep reading) and keep working toward getting my poems published. My ultimate goal is to create beauty, and perhaps, if I am lucky, something I create will be of lasting beauty, and move readers somewhere, sometime, in some deep way.
BIO
Zilka Joseph has been nominated twice for a Pushcart prize and her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry, Mantis, Kenyon Review Online, Quiddity, Review Americana, Gatronomica, Cutthroat, Rattle, The MacGuffin, The Paterson Literary Review, pacificREVIEW, Cheers To Muses: An Anthology of Contemporary Works by Asian American Women, and Uncommon Core: Poems for Living and Learning, a Neutral Zone Anthology. She has won several honors including a Hopwood award, the Elsie Choy Lee Scholarship from the Center for Education of Women, and a Zell Fellowship from the University of Michigan. Her poems have won contests, or been finalists, and received honorable mentions.
Her first chapbook Lands I Live In (Mayapple Press, 2007) was nominated for a PEN America Beyond Margins award, and her second chapbook What Dread (2011) which was a semi finalist in Finishing Line Press’ New Women’s Voices contest, was nominated for a Pushcart. Her full-length collection of poems Sharp Blue Search of Flame was published by Wayne State University Press in April 2016.
Her 27 years of teaching experience cover higher education to elementary levels, and a wide range of populations. Currently, she teaches workshops in Ann Arbor, Metro-Detroit, and in other cities in the US, works as a manuscript coach and editor, and mentors writers in the Ann Arbor community.
LINKS