Kathleen Fields

ORP: What inspired you to begin writing or creating? Has that source of inspiration changed throughout your life?

Kathleen Fields: I was inspired to begin writing because I loved making my family/friends laugh. Although this is still true, I do not share my writing with family and friends-this helps my artistic motivation remain as honest as possible.

ORP: What does success as a writer or artist mean to you?

KF: For me, success as a writer means that readers feel moved after finishing a piece of my writing.

ORP: What books have you read many times? 

KF: Woman Hollering Creek, Sandra Cisneros, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hainsberry, Kate Chopin's The Awakening

ORP: What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing or creating? What advice would you give to another writer or artist?

KF: The most valuable piece of advice I received was to create my writing process within the life constraints that I am actually living not what I thought was ideal.

Kathleen Fields lives in Chicago. Her honors include a Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing Poet & Author Fellowship and Midwest Writing Center’s Iron Pen prize for poetry. Fields is a three time National Endowment for the Humanities teacher fellow. Her poems, creative nonfiction and academic writing appear in literary magazines such as Belt Magazine, The Platform Review and The New York Times. She holds an M.A. in Literature from Northwestern University.

Read Kathleen’s Poetry “Summer Motor Pool” FROM ISSUE 8.1 Here.