Sandra Ridley Writers in Residence Archives

On the Idea of a Secret—a Conversation with Rhonda Douglas

Part 2: Q&A with Rhonda DouglasSandra Ridley: How do you integrate the direct and personal ‘I’ into your poetry? Or does the ‘I’ tend to be an ‘other’?Rhonda Douglas: I have used “I” ...

On the Idea of a Secret (Part 1)

“The idea of a secret that will be revealed always results in one of two scenarios: death and destruction, or self-discovery and recovery beyond our wildest dreams of unification. And in the greatest ...

On Silence in Poems

“To reveal all is to end the story. To conceal all is to fail to begin the story." Robert Kroetsch, The Lovely Treachery of Words.Where is there silence within the poem? Where on the page? Emptiness? ...

On Silence

I grew up in a silent house, aside from the times when the silence was punctured with yelling. The crying was always quiet. The children did stay quiet—even when not crying—as best they could, to ...

On the Handmade (Part 3): Q&A with Jennifer Still

(Part 3 of 3. I'm reposting the introductory text from Post 1 to set up the context for Jennifer Still's response.)It’s been said that the hand-written letter is becoming lost to us, or that for many ...

On the Handmade (Part 2): Q&A with Christine Mcnair

(Part 2 of 3. I'm reposting the introductory text from Post 1 to set up the context for Christine McNair's response.)It’s been said that the hand-written letter is becoming lost to us, or that for many ...

On the Handmade (Part 1): Qs and a Response by Phil Hall

It’s been said that the hand-written letter is becoming lost to us, or that for many of us, it has already disappeared. I’ve heard too that longhand itself is no longer being taught in our schools. ...

Resurrecting past Seasons

A note written for a Pedlar Press panel held last fall in St. John’s, NFLD, and in tardy response to a query from Robert Kroetsch:I have a crush on Robert Kroetsch. I’ve had this crush for a very ...

Hello, My Name Is Diane! (Part 2)

Some say that exposure helps dissipate the stress for people with performance anxiety—that old adage which claims the more you do the one thing that provokes fear in you, the easier it gets to manage ...

Hello, My Name Is Diane!

Well, no. It’s not. But this is what happens when I get nervous—the wrong words leave my mouth. I blurt statements I don’t believe. I say things that are incredibly, obviously erroneous and false. ...