calming corners

When Ruth Forman was asked what she was going to be when she grew up, she would always answer, “a children’s book writer. As a child I always loved to read books. So I guess my love for reading and words and then understanding how to craft words and ideas in a way that could move people influenced me to write,” she says.

Her journey started as a child. “My mother used to put my poems and pictures on her wall. I wrote my first book, Poems for Kids, in third grade.” In high school, Forman became disenchanted with poetry. When she attended college at UC Berkley, her passion for poetry was restored. “At Berkley I had the chance to work with great poets such as June Jordan, Yusef Komunyakaa, Paula Gunn Allen and Ishmael Reed. It was Paula Gunn Allen who inspired me to be a writer freshman year. I took a writing class every semester after that. I knew I wanted to leave Berkeley with a book under my belt.”

Her mission was accomplished. She completed the book and won the Barnard Prize for poetry in 1992 at age 23. Forman has won awards for her books: Poetry collections, We Are the Young Magicians (1992) and Renaissance (1997) and Children’s book, Young Cornrows Calling Out the Moon (2007). When Forman begins a poetry project she will write longhand in a journal, then transfer her work to a computer and edit. “I like to have ideas flow freely and I find if I write longhand, there’s less initial editing and more pure thought,” she explains. The art of writing is “her clearest voice. I tend to be the person that listens in a group. It takes me a while to put my words together, but I express myself best though writing. I’ve found it allows a power of expression that I don’t experience anywhere else.”

Forman feels proud to have published her first book out of college, she is honored to teach creative writing and see her students move forward in their lives as writers. She also loves being committed as a teacher and writer. For Ruth Forman, writing is not a choice. “I have to (write), if I don’t I don’t feel right. It is an accomplishment to stay committed to your calling. I know this is my calling and I try to answer. I know sometimes I fail but I also succeed.”

For more information on Forman’s latest collection of poems Prayers Like Shoes visit www.whitpress.org.