Author Spotlight: Amanda Trout

Amanda Trout won 2nd prize in Prose Poetry in the Northwind Writing Award 2024 for her poem “dear entomophobic america.” It is an honor to feature her Q&A here on Raw Earth Ink as part of our promotion of truly exceptional authors.

---

Q & A

Candice: Amanda, thank you so much for your submission a second year in a row. We are so honored to read your work and it always distinguishes itself. What stood out to the judges was the enduring strength of your storytelling and the necessary truth of “dear entomophobic america”. What inspired this story to be written? The timing is fantastic (with the election) but I’d love to hear your process leading up to. 

Amanda: Hi Candice! And thanks to you, tara, and Raw Earth Ink for hosting this competition again! “dear entomophobic america” was initially written as a direct shadow/response to Danez Smith’s “dear white america”. Even though I, being a white female, can’t directly relate to the strong message of racial tensions in Smith’s poem, I wanted to come at the form from a space I could very much relate to: the feeling of being an outcast because of your beliefs, hobbies, obsessions, or anything else the world labels as weird (like, for instance, my adoration of cicadas and other insects).

CD: What stands out in your writing is how you are able to go from one genre to another, one writing style to another. It’s very rare to be able to do this so fluidly. What’s your secret!

Amanda: I’m very grateful to have been in two very good creative writing programs (Pittsburg State University during my undergraduate and the University of Missouri-Kansas City during my Master’s) that really push the idea of interdisciplinary and inter-genre writing. I’ve taken classes in fiction, nonfiction, and experimental forms that inform my poetry, and my poetry experience informs my prose as well. I also tend to think of my work in terms of finding a form that best fits the story, regardless if the form is conventional poetry, prose, or some hybrid of both.

CD: Another stand-out element of your writing is it’s consistently high-level, and “dear entomophobic america” is no exception. Such a tiny piece, and in a genre that’s incredibly hard to hone, I’d say this is as close to perfection in the genre as you can get. What speaks to you about this genre?

Amanda: Prose poetry sits at a very unique intersection where it can be both narrative and lyrical at the same time. I also appreciate just how fine the line is between prose poetry and flash fiction, to the point that, at time, a piece can be both and neither at the same time. “dear entomophobic america”also adds in another element—the epistolary, or letter poem—that makes it a little more interrogative and passionate than a traditional prose poem.

CD: I have to ask about the title, did that just come to you or? Brilliant. And also that last line that floats on its own; asking the big questions. 

Amanda: The title is a direct reference to the Smith poem “dear entomophobic america”is based on, just with the word “entomophobic” replacing “white.” This is a direct relation to the change in problem the speaker is addressing while providing a connection back to Smith’s work. The word “entomophobic” comes from “entomophobia,” or the fear of insects, which connects to the similarity between the speaker and an insect throughout. The last line is right-aligned to indicate a change in tone and a departure from the insect-fueled metaphor the speaker has been speaking in; this line is meant to be a truth, a realization that “entomophobic,” at least in this poem, is a stand-in for something far more sinister.

CD: I like how you utilize lowercase in this, but what was your reason behind doing that? As I know you are intentional about everything you do. 

Amanda: This is actually a technique I’ve been applying a lot to my thesis-in-progress, that this poem is a part of. The thesis also shows a lot of similarities between speaker and cicada. Especially early on in the manuscript, the speaker feels small and insignificant in the grand scheme of society, and this is reflected in the relative smallness and insecurity of the text. The speaker can’t speak in uppercase because they psychologically feel like they can’t do so.

CD: If you were describing your aim in writing this, what would it ultimately be? 

Amanda: When I initially wrote this piece, the aim was to shadow and honor Danez Smith’s poem through the lens of my own experience. In revision, however, I think the aim shifted to being more about fully encapsulating the experience of the social outcast in society through the bug/cicada metaphor that permeates my thesis. I also very much wanted to write a poem more in the realm of outrage than I usually do, a poem where the speaker says what’s on their mind very freely.

CD: How important is being completely original to you as a writer? How do you achieve this? Given that this piece had many moving-parts it felt very original from the start.

Amanda: I would argue that no piece of writing is ever fully original: with so much writing and thinking in the world, inspirations come in a myriad of ways and poke their way through every piece of writing I’ve ever written. “dear entomophobic america”is very much inspired by Danez Smith, so I would say, if anything, they created the originality first, especially formally. I just brought my own insect-y spin to it!

CD: We all thought it was remarkable you could write so much in less than half a page! When did you begin to write in the non-fiction genre? How does it distinguish itself for you as a genre? Given you can write in multi-genres. 

Amanda: I started writing creative non-fiction largely when I was in my undergraduate program at Pittsburg State, since the university literary magazine, Cow Creek Review, used to get barely any non-fiction submissions at all. I figured if anyone could contribute, it might as well be me, so I wrote a minimum of one non-fiction essay each year I was there. Creative non-fiction, out of all the prose genres, feels the most in-tune with poetry to me. It asks you to analyze and perform real facts in an entertaining, engaging way. That’s why, a lot of the time, my poetry will turn out more in the non-fiction space anyway, since the world is weird, and I love taking inspiration from that weirdness.

CD: As a writer, how important are competitions and why? Do they help you hone your art because you are challenging yourself by creating your best work in relation to a specific call? Is there a degree of discipline that comes from entering competitions for this reason? 

Amanda: I absolutely love competitions, especially themed ones. They really motivate me to keep writing, even when I’m not in a class where my peers help motivate me. I would also agree that competitions do indeed help hone my art; every time I enter a poem in a contest, it gets edited (at least slightly), so contests help the poems and other works to keep evolving.

CD: Do you see prose-poetry as being an opportunity to write about our experiences and relate them to bigger experiences and then reflect that back to the reader using both prose and poetic means, or is prose-poetry something else in your opinion? For example, can it posit a political question more indirectly in this form?

Amanda: Prose poetry (and poetry in general honestly) lets you both skirt the edges of a question and directly answer it in the same breath, through image, metaphor, and description.

CD: Is it hard to write a prose poetry story with so many moving parts, how do you decide what to keep, and what to trim? Especially given the shortness of this piece. 

Amanda: I honestly find prose poetry simultaneously easier and harder to write than more traditional, lineated poetry. On one hand, I usually conceptualize and write my prose poems in a loose, almost stream-or-consciousness style that tends to flow a little bit easier (since I don’t have to be as worried about line breaks). On the other, I find it harder to decide what to edit out and harder to keep the poem from becoming muddled or jumbled.

CD: Despite being short – what you write has mega power. It’s quite daring to submit such a short prose-poetry to a competition but your gambit paid off because the quality of your writing is such, that length is irrelevant. Do you tend to think length is irrelevant in all writing genres? 

Amanda: I wouldn’t necessarily say that length is irrelevant (after all, every structure in a work brings some sort of meaning to that work, even if unintentional), but I do think it has heavier weight in some forms than others. For example, the stereotype is generally that poetry is short and prose is long, so a prose poem has to decide which of those two stereotypes to play more into. In the case of “dear entomophobic america,” I leaned more into poetic tradition, so it ended up a shorter work.

CD: The judges were attracted to the way you were able to create an emotional  response almost instantaneously with just a few words. You are a wordsmith, how do you self-edit to ensure you keep yourself sharp? 

Amanda: I very much edit as I write, paying extra close attention to sounds and which words fit the narrative I am trying to tell. “dear entomophobic america” is also benefitted by two different lexicons I was able to pull from: the words and images used by Danez Smith in “dear white america,” and the words I’ve used in the other poems that make up my thesis. So while I’m editing, I make sure to keep any words or themes I want to focus on always in the back of my mind.

CD: Are there some quieter sub-texts here? Share any you want to. 

Amanda: One of the quieter subtexts in this poem (at least in my opinion) is the link to the idea of loudness. I’m the type of person that tends to get really excited about my favorite interests (think poetry, cicadas, anime, etc.), and once I start talking about a topic I love, I tend to slowly increase in speed and volume, to the point that the people around me shut me down. There are a couple fears connected to this: the fear of being too loud and pushing people away and a fear of being overtaken by obsession.

CD: I found myself reading into a lot here, do you think you anticipated people making their own judgement of what you’re saying or did you feel you made it abundantly clear? Or can you be clear and still leave room for individual interpretation? 

Amanda: I tend to write with the idea that people will make their own judgements about what the work is about, and I am perfectly ok with that. I think, especially with the themes that occur in “dear entomophobic america” and my larger thesis project, that it benefits the poem/work for readers to be allowed to imagine, because everyone has different relationships with different people who might fit the “cicadagirl” model, who want to speak about issues in the world but don’t.

CD: Who are your influences in the genre of prose-poetry? If they are not prose-poetry, such as the natural world, or a painter, muse, or other, please explain. 

Amanda: Danez Smith, of course. I’ve also read a lot of Claudia Rankine (Citizen especially does a great job merging prose poems and art) and Victoria Chang (both Obit and Dear Memory are wonderful). On a more general level, I am constantly being inspired by the natural world and the love of animals my younger sisters demonstrate, as well as by the other poets and writers in my MFA program.

CD: Do you think prose-poetry writers are very different to fiction writers in terms of what matters to them? Is their objective different? 

Amanda: I think there are definitely some differences. I have some experience writing in both genres, and have found that, while writing fiction, I tend to pay a lot more attention to character development and dialogue because I am trying to establish a certain setting and plot. Whereas, when I conceptualize a piece as a prose poem, I usually don’t worry about supplementary characters as much and instead focus on building on a particular mood or theme.

CD: Aside from other writers, what else gets your blood pumping when you feel engaged to write on subjects? What are those subjects and why do they appeal to you? 

Amanda: I’ve always been really drawn to nature and music, especially when those two ideas intersect (which I feel like they do, often). I also really like when I make some sort of discovery or epiphany about topics I am interested and engaged in, and will usually write into those. Poetry for me is very much a way of telling a story of discovery, sharing the experience and the joy of discovering between myself and my audience.

CD: Did you find your writing changed over time and if so, how do you see that happening and what were the influencing factors to cause that shift/change? 

Amanda: My writing has definitely changed over time. I first started writing my own creative work in the fourth grade—little songs and some very, very short stories. I also remember, during grade school, countless hours writing in notebooks and envisioning myself as a fiction writer. It was not until after high school that I really took to writing poetry predominately, and even then my poetry writing has evolved immensely, mostly due to shifting interest and my continuing exposure to newer styles, forms, and writers.

CD: What power does writing in the poetry or prose-poetry genre play in the translation of life? 

Amanda: Poetry presents a unique way to engage multiple senses within the same work by emphasizing sound while still providing space for other senses to work. When writing a poem, a poet shares both a artistic rendering of their thoughts and the abstract translation of their emotions through sound. It’s a lot like watching a movie or something else with background music—it adds an ambiance that is hard to recreate in other mediums.

CD: Where do you see the difference lying between straight poetry and prose-poetry and what do you prefer about the latter in this regard? 

Amanda: Prose poetry, in the literal sense, is simply straight poetry that doesn’t concern itself with line breaks. This tends to lead to work that tells some sort of story and/or leans into stream-of-consciousness style, since both the reader and the writer are given no pause. This is perhaps my favorite aspect of the genre, since it helps create a heightened emotional response.

CD: When you write, do you sometimes try to write outside of yourself where there is no personal element and if so, is that why you are drawn to a specific genre? Or do you find you gravitate to genres that enable you to write about personal things? Or are you most comfortable never addressing things that close to home?  

Amanda: Almost all of my work is extremely personal, even when I am pushing that personal component into my thoughts about a fictionalized character. Additionally, I do tend to lean into genres that let me write about personal subjects directly (like poetry and creative nonfiction). Part of this tendency stems from my most major character flaw, pride. I like writing about myself because I like learning new things about myself and the obsessions I care about, so I write hoping that other people in the world might care about some of those same ideas.

CD: As a reader of prose-poetry, what do you like and dislike about the prose-poetry you read, and why? 

Amanda: Most of the prose poetry I read feels impactful and emotional, which is something that doesn’t come as naturally to me as some other aspects of poetry writing do. Danez Smith is a great example of this idea—the form of prose poetry gives you a near-perfect space in which to get angry and emboldened. By extension, I don’t like prose poetry as much (including my own) that doesn’t make use of the particular nuances of the form itself in a tangible way. To me, you have to justify (at least to some extent) why the line breaks aren’t there.

CD: As a writer, was there a time when you were unable to write and how did that affect you? 

Amanda: This might be kind of a cop-out answer, but I really dislike the fact that I can’t physically write in my dreams. I want all those images down on paper, and sometimes the dream journal just doesn’t cut it!

CD: Please share any other aspects to your piece “dear entomophobic america” and what brought you to submit it to Northwind, that you believe readers would benefit from knowing about? 

Amanda: I think I mentioned earlier that “dear entomophobic america” is a part of my thesis for my MFA? I also have some other poems that play on similar themes and forms to it as part of the thesis, and hopefully the day will come when I can share those with you all as well! I also highly encourage those reading to submit to Northwind next year! It is a great contest and one that can see you rewarded for the hard writing work that you do.

---

---

To read The 2024 Northwind Treasury, including Amanda’s winning piece, you can purchase it in paperback on Lulu, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon, or as an eBook on Kindle. To see the list of contents and winners, visit our winner’s page.