Claire Wahmanholm, author of Meltwater
Poetry Category, sponsored by Wellington Management, Inc.
Each week leading up to the 36th annual Minnesota Book Awards, we are featuring exclusive interviews with our finalists. You can also watch the authors in conversation with their fellow category finalists here.
What is one detail you wanted to include in this book, but couldn’t find a place for?
I tried – am maybe still trying? – to write a longer poem about the Laysan albatross and the threat that plastic is currently posing to its (and other seabirds’) survival. I was inspired by Chris Jordan’s “Midway” series (if you haven’t encountered it, I would really recommend it, but just be aware that it’s pretty distressing!). Parts of that failed project turned into “P,” which did make it into the book, but I couldn’t make the larger poem work. It may be an essay instead – stay tuned!
Tell us about someone who proved instrumental to the creation of this book.
I did my MFA and PhD with a wonderful poet named Michael Lavers. He and I exchange manuscripts when we have them, and he was the one who suggested “Meltwater” as the book’s title; I had been calling it The Sun, the Ship and he was like, “Heavens no, the title is obviously Meltwater.” He was right, of course.
Tell us about a favorite read from the past year. Why did you find it enjoyable, insightful, or memorable?
Oh my gosh I read so many wonderful books last year but the one I tore through most quickly was Sarah Vap’s Winter: Effulgences and Devotions (recommended to me by Mira Rosenthal, whose translation of Tomasz Różycki’s To the Letter happens to be another one of the many wonderful books I read last year!). Winter captures so many things well, including what it’s like to try to start/work on/finish a poem when you have children; including the ways we might become murderous on behalf of our children; including the ways that children both annihilate and redeem us. It’s an absolutely arresting book.
Please tell us something about yourself that is not widely known.
When I was in college, I harbored a secret dream of being a marine biologist. When I confessed this to my advisor at UW-Madison, she was like, you…realize we’re in Wisconsin, right? This is not in the cards for u! Which, fair. But I keep eyeing those writing residencies that get you onboard an ocean research vessel. The dream!
Share your thoughts about the role and value of libraries.
Libraries have such enormous value as third spaces (which American culture seems so desperate to eliminate), particularly if you have children. Back before the pandemic, we would take the kids to the library multiple times a week – to check out books, sure, but also to do crafts, to do their little scavenger hunts, to play with the toys on offer. We spent hours there at a time. I kept thinking it’s bonkers that this is free! I had absolutely taken it for granted; when the libraries closed during the pandemic, it was such a shock. The relief I felt when things opened back up again was almost comical. When I read about other state leaders restricting/eliminating public library hours and branches etc, I feel that swoop of panic again. I’m beyond grateful to be living in Minnesota, oof!
Claire Wahmanholm is the author of Meltwater, Redmouth, and Wilder, which won the Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry and the Society of Midland Authors Award for Poetry and was a finalist for the 2019 Minnesota Book Award.