Kristina Marie Darling is the author of over twenty books, which include Melancholia (An Essay) (Ravenna Press, 2012), Petrarchan (BlazeVOX Books, 2013), and Scorched Altar: Selected Poems and Stories 2007-2014 (BlazeVOX Books, 2014). Her awards include fellowships from Yaddo, the Ucross Foundation, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers, as well as grants from the Kittredge Fund and the Elizabeth George Foundation. She was recently selected as a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome.
An excerpt from her book, "The Arctic Circle," appeared in Issue Sixty-Five of The Collagist.
Here, she answers questions in the form of excerpts from The Artic Circle.
What is writing like?
I hold out the smallest parcel, show him its frozen worlds.
What isn’t writing like?
His last wife.
When you do it, why?
I did it because he told me not to.
When you don’t, why?
I have trouble controlling the shaking in both my hands.