Sheila Packa, author of Surface Displacements
Poetry Category, sponsored by Wellington Management, Inc.
Each week leading up to the 35th 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.
Would you tell us one or two things about your finalist book that you are particularly proud of, and why?
Surface Displacements arose from my experience at Arteles, a month-long retreat for writers and artists in Hameenkyro, Finland. While I was there, I was acutely aware of the undocumented immigrants flowing in Europe, and thought of my own grandparents who migrated from Finland with literally nothing but a suitcase. The title was also apt for my childhood home the Iron Range and its landscape of mine pits and mine dumps. I learned that in the early 1900s, the small city of Biwabik had eleven underground mines. In addition, the title refers to the displacement of water and concern about contamination from mining operations. The Iron Range has high water tables. I grew up between the St. Louis River and three lakes: Silver, Esquagama and Bass. I love to spend time in a kayak. Hibbing is the point of a three way continental divide with watersheds going to the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay, and the Mississippi River. This continental divide has been altered by mining excavation.
What advice would you give to an aspiring writer with an interest in your category?
One’s poetry should arise from the body, the intimate physical body of a person and the body of earth. One’s landscape is inscribed into one’s psyche, as Barry Lopez has said. Poetry is a pattern language.
Tell us about a favorite book. Why did you find it moving, influential, or otherwise memorable?
My favorite book is Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson and Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. My favorite poets are Lorine Niedecker, Elizabeth Bishop, Tomas Tranströmer, and Finnish poet Helvi Juvonen.
Tell us something about yourself that is not widely known.
I love studying the Finnish language because it is so metaphoric.
The Minnesota Book Awards is a celebration of writers, readers – and libraries. We’d love if you would share thoughts about the role and value of libraries.
My father was a catskinner with a 7th grade education, and my mother spoke English as a second language even though she was born in Minnesota. She loved to dance. I grew up on a subsistence farm with big gardens, two cows, two horses, a bunch of chicken and a hutch of rabbits. We had few books at home but my parents brought me to the library where I always checked out as many books as I was allowed. I worshipped the library and chose the thickest books I could find. I read constantly and because of my love of books, I started writing when I was in 4th grade.
Sheila Packa is a poet, writer, and teacher with Minnesota and Finnish roots. She has five books of poetry and has taught creative writing and composition at Lake Superior College. She leads poetry and writing workshops and often performs her work in music and media installations with her creative partner Kathy McTavish.