We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Belinda Betker a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Belinda, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
I wish I’d had a belief in myself as a writer and poet in my early adult years, and I wish I’d found strong mentors decades earlier to encourage and support me in my dream of ‘a writing life’, That said, I’m happy to be an example of ‘it’s never too late!’
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am primarily a contemporary poet, although I also write haiku and senyru, and have recently been inspired to explore various ‘form poetry’ styles such as pantoums and villanelles. I also write short memoirs and personal essays. I mentor other poets, and have occasionally edited dissertations and academic papers for others. I have always loved reading, and poetry in particular intrigued me from an early age, but it wasn’t until my retirement from health care that I seriously worked on my own poetry.
My first poetry collection, Phases, was published just before the pandemic, and was short-listed for two 2020 Saskatchewan Book Awards. The second edition was released with thirty-one additional poems by my new publisher. Shadowpaw Press, in late 2022. Phases is a poetic memoir, unique in its progression from a tomboy’s experience of childhood and youth through to coming out in mid-life and becoming involved in the local drag community as a drag king.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Beyond the sheer joy of writing something that just feels completely right for me and says exactly what I want it to say, the other most satisfying aspect of writing is sharing it with others and hearing how and why it connects to the reader or listener.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
My writing journey had a tentative start. After sending out a flurry of submissions to various literary journals, and receiving only rejections, it was challenging to continue the process of attempting to get publications. The saving grace was that it still felt satisfying to write for myself, and even more so as I found a writing community that was inspiring and supportive. The first acceptance of one of my poems for an anthology was life-changing – the fact that an editor enjoyed a poem of mine enough to publish it along with other poets I respected and admired was the spark to keep me writing and submitting.
Contact Info:
- Website: under development
- Instagram: under development
- Facebook: under development
- Linkedin: under development
Image Credits
William McLean, Shadowpaw Press, Heather Brenneman