Donna Hill
Vernon, BC Canada
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Donna Hill lives in British Columbia, Canada with her three sons. She has been seriously writing poetry for a few years now, drawing much of her writing style for realism from life around her, her family, and her work as a child educator. She currently is poetry editor of Erosha, a literary journal of the erotic. Donna's poems have appeared in print issues of One Dog Press, Sex in Public, Poems Niederngrasse and Peshekee River and have also been published online by numerous literary webzines. Her poem, "my hands write when I need them to," took first prize in Comrades first annual poetry contest, while "the moon is a sliver tonight" placed seventh. Both poems are slated to appear in Comrades upcoming anthology, 2001
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• What do you do for a living?
I picked something real easy. Working with children. I honed in on what I was good at, and carried on from there. As a teacher assistant I help kids to read and learn. But then it gets tougher. This varies with each child, maybe they are in a regular classroom and only have minor learning difficulties. Maybe they are in a resource room with down syndrome, autism, fragile x, fetal alcohol, or compulsive behavior disorder. Ah, the joys of being defied, bitten, scratched, having your front teeth knocked loose from the smash of the back of her head, having to ward off sexually intrusive behavior, or having a five year old stamp his foot at you with an emphatic, "No, li'l fucker!" ......Wouldn't trade it for the world.
• Who are your favorite artists?
Favorites? I'm about as much of an eclectic mix as those I read or listen too. Musically, pretty much anything/anyone up to soft rock from the 60's to 90's, and yes, I'll say it, country too, if it's not too whiney. Books, mostly non fiction. And poetry, let's see, the list can get up there. Mostly writing styles the likes of people here in the ho!d, then a wide range. Anne Sexton, Anais Nin, Miller, Bukowski, Ray Carver, Adrienne Rich, Marge Piercy, Bob Kaufman, Paz, Neruda, Charles Olsen. I don't know, whoever else sits on my bookshelf, or is yet to come.
• What influences you to write about/how you do?
I usually can only write about what I remember, see, feel, or have lived through. I'm a realist. Maybe that's the main reason I have found myself with the poet friends I have, the encouragement I started out with. If my life happens to be going through a dry spell, is boring or too stressed for me to feel much or take notice, then my writing falters. When I'm a dud, so is the writing. When I am more able to take notice of where the sun is in the sky, or listen to the rain, then my writing reflects this.
• Where do you see the underground writing scene in 25 years?
This, I'm not too sure about and will leave the predictions to the more experienced ones such as the Nimmos and Androlas of this scene. However I do have some of my own beliefs, that the underground is not necessarily a dark and dingy place, not completely of rebels and "down with corporate america".....even though I'm a canuck, I do have friends, some valuable interests in the US. I think the underground scene is more about the way we write. Uninhibited, truthful to each our own. Sort of a "look out, I've got something to say....You may not like it, but it matters to me, so here goes." approach to writing. Maybe it's a form of healthy selfishness. We write more for ourselves, and less for an audience....as if there really is one?
• from cait - If you believe in the 'next' life...what/who do you think you'll return as, why do you believe this and do you think you were anything/body BEFORE this life? if so, who what when and where did it all take place!?
If I believed? Maybe something dull and non intrusive, but with finesse. Probably a feline. Something a little more picturesque than who I am now. A striking cat would do, one with dependence and security that would knock your socks off. Nine lives of course, for my tenacity, audacity and the challenges I take head on. But with nose and tail held high this time, with an air of self confidence that can't be matched. Not by me in this life time, anyway. Now, something *before this life? I doubt it. I'm having a hell of a time at this one, to even think I was blessed with some sort of practice run through.
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