About Libby VanBuskirk

Writing, my forever - friend

Writing has long been central to my life, a forever-friend. I began writing seriously in college. On graduating from Wheaton, I won a national contest from Mademoiselle magazine. To my great joy, I was awarded an interview with T.S. Eliot. Later, Mademoiselle chose me to serve for a month as guest managing editor of the magazine in New York, the position held by Sylvia Plath two years earlier. To have such experiences when young, gave me the confidence to follow my passion for writing. I attended groups and took courses that encouraged experiments in writing stories, then the use of forms in poetry—ekphrasis poems, the sonnet, haibun, ghazal.

My writing has always been closely entwined with the natural world. Though I lived in the city, Boston before Vermont, summers meant vacations with family at a remote northern lake in New England. This served as my special look-out where poems emerged, a number of which have been published in journals; many are now central to my poetry book, Living with Time, ready to send out. I love living close to the wild world, always looking for new ways to interact with nature. When my husband suddenly died several years ago, my life, my time, seemed shattered. But I opened a new life. I could exist full time as a poet. Some of my strongest recent poems may be those letting loose reactions to loss, the dire reaction of feeling halved.

I plunged into intense weekly seminars with the Vermont poet, Rebecca Starks—which has felt like a mini-master’s program. Otter Creek Poets, my weekly critique group with David Weinstock as leader, gives time to experiment and share with other poets, along with Line Tamers, my other writing group; these groups, with talented writers, have brought inspiration for some twenty years. I’ve been connecting, via the internet, with poets in my state, out of state and out of the country. Such is the depth and reach of poetry.

I’m often asked about my favorite poets. Long ago I was invited to the poet Richard Eberhart’s for dinner and sat next to the poet Edith Sitwell. She asked me, the young writer, Who is your favorite poet? In terror, I answered, …Shakespeare. She came back fast, He doesn’t count. She looked away. Now I would say that I do have favorite poets—Many of them modern greats like W.S. Merwin, Wallace Stevens, T. S. Eliot and notable poet-friends like the late Henry Braun with whom I shared poetry at our home and theirs. Wherever he went, Henry trailed poetry.

I like to read current journals, follow leads from friends and roam the net discovering poems I absolutely love by poets newly encountered. I highly recommend Rattle magazine’s podcasts, weekly interviews and insightful weekly Critiques of the Week both with the editor, Tim Green. He is followed weekly by a cadre of poets; in readings a number share excellent work.

I used to focus on free verse but am now drawn to experiments of any kind that deftly use surprise, the turn of phrase, musical sounds that forms can create. I’ve always been drawn to magic realism and the surreal, folk tales, and wild dramas from dream land. It’s not surprising that my late husband was a psychiatrist and psychoanalys

Short biography

Libby VanBuskirk’s poetry has appeared in journals including the Beloit Poetry Journal, Orchards Poetry Journal, Passager, The Aurorean, Blueline, others, and assorted anthologies. She published a book of short stories, Beyond the Stones of Machu Picchu. She won the Barbara Carlin grant-award from the Society of Children’s Book Writers for a picture book story, a national award from Mademoiselle Magazine, and a poetry prize from Writers’ Digest. After college at Wheaton (Mass.), she studied writing at the University of Vermont, Vassar summer course, and Radcliffe Seminars. For a year and a half, she recently attended weekly classes with Vermont poet Rebecca Starks.