2019 Jack Straw writer Christianne Balk spoke with curator Kathleen Flenniken about her series of poems of early 20th century voices inspired by her grandmother’s life as a young nurse serving in France during WWI. They discuss the importance of research in her writing, her background as a biology major, and inspiration taken from naturalists like John Muir. “I said, ‘You know, I don’t want to write papers. I want to enter these people’s lives and write poems.’ . . . And, so, I just started writing . . . inspired by their writings, and touching, perhaps, on things they never touched on in their writings but were autobiographical or emotional journeys that they took.”

Music by The Bird Tribe Orchestra, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.