Local poet’s work gives voice to victims of domestic violence, what it looks like to survive, “realistic hope” & women’s empowerment

by Norah Vawter

Courtney LeBlanc’s debut full-length poetry collection, Beautiful & Full of Monsters was published this March. She’s previously published two poetry chapbooks. Shortly before COVID-19 turned all of our lives upside down, Courtney and I sat down in Idido’s Coffee House in Arlington to drink coffee (the coffee house was crowded and nobody was wearing a mask) and to talk about her journey from farm girl to poet, the themes of domestic violence and female empowerment at play in her collection, how awesome the D.C. lit scene is, and contemporary poets she loves to read.

Courtney grew up on her family’s farm in North Dakota. As a kid she loved to write and says her rural upbringing encouraged her to be creative. “We played in the woods or in the field for hours at a time, and kids don't do that anymore. North Dakota is ... not a place I would live as an adult. That's why I left. But it was great as a child, because we got to play in trees. I think it's one of the reasons I'm so creative, because we had to use our imaginations so much ... Well, sure you're in the trees now, but [in your imagination] you're in a magic forest, and then you're in a fairy land.”

Instead of pursuing writing as a career, Courtney opted to for the practical route, majoring in business and then earning her M.B.A. She now works for the federal government. In her thirties, she became more and more interested in writing poetry. As she began taking workshops and investing more time, she got in deeper and pursued an M.F.A. in creative writing and earned her degree from Queens University of Charlotte.

Beautiful & Full of Monsters hones in on the themes of domestic violence, violence against women, society’s view of women’s bodies, consent, agency, and what it takes to survive trauma. When we talked about why it was so important to write about these topics, Courtney told me, “the Me Too movement is not that far behind us. And I would argue that it's still alive and very important. But I also think that [violence against women] is a topic that is sometimes shied away from, because it's intense and scary. Trying to give voice to that, and find space to express some of that, is important.” While she did not write the poems with a particular political intention, she says, “It ended up being a very timely book with things that are going on in our culture today, and hopefully it gives a voice to people. ... Sometimes people can't talk about their own experiences, and [maybe reading] gives them an avenue of feeling it, or expressing it, that they can't do personally. ... Or feeling seen.”

Elaborating more on her process, she explained that it wasn’t initially obvious to her that she was writing a book about how women are treated in our society. “I didn't write the poems thinking this is going to be a collection one day. I wrote each poem on its own, most during my M.F.A. program. One of the culminating requirements of the program is a thesis, which for me was a full-length manuscript.  I started pulling together all the poems, and this sort of theme made itself very obvious. ... how women are viewed, how we're treated in society at large, how women even internalize a lot of that, too. It's almost impossible to get away from some of it, right?”

But the collection ends on a hopeful note, which Courtney describes as “not all sunshine and rainbows, but a sense of realistic hope, that things can end up okay.” I read this as a book about what it’s like to survive domestic violence, and trauma in general. The violence comes at the beginning of the book. In the later poems, we see the speaker surviving, emerging from the darkness, and then creating a new life. “It is a heavy topic,” Courtney told me. “If you only have the dark, heavy, violent stuff, people can't breathe. My goal was [to convey] that there is a bit of hope ... light at the end of these sometimes very dark tunnels.” (let’s put this in a quote bubble)

Speaking about the power of poetry to address and promote social change, Courtney told me, “I think poetry is more relevant today than, perhaps, it's ever been,” Courtney told me. “We have so much going on in the world. I think it allows people an outlet, a way to express themselves, a way to push back against injustices. … I think poetry is always going to be needed. … It also provides an escape—you don't have to write about things that are politically charged. You can write about the damn moon, us poets we love the moon.”

Elaborating on this idea, she told me, “You need both sides of the spectrum. You need to talk about the heavy, the intensity, maybe the politically charged, and then talk about the moon and I don't know, maybe...”

“Clementines?” I offered, because she’d mentioned she had written a fun poem about the fruit. ”Yeah!” she agreed enthusiastically. “You know, like the world needs both. [El Salvadorian poet Roque Dalton (1935-1975)]“ said, ‘poetry, like bread is for everyone.’ And it's true. You need the nourishment. But you also need the beauty. And I think poetry can do that. I think artists and creative people often use [creative work] as an avenue to address social change or social justice. ... The civil rights movement, there was a huge poetry movement within it. I think [poetry is] a way for people to make a statement, to get the word out and to really express things that maybe they don't have any other way of expressing.”

When I asked Courtney if she could recommend any poets that we should all be reading, she laughed and said, “Oh, my God, how much do you want to dedicate to this?” and then quickly began listing the first poets who came to her mind. “Shaindel Beers. She is a phenomenal poet that I think people should be reading. Jeanann Verlee, I love her too. Megan Falley. She's a queer poet. Those are, just off the top of my head, three poets that are fantastic. And right now I'm reading Todd Dillard's brand new book. He's wonderful. And then Amorak Huey.  Those are poets who, every time a new poem comes out or a new book comes out, I want it. And I own all of their books.”

Courtney reads almost exclusively contemporary poets. She thinks classic poetry scares people off from reading poetry as adults. “They read it in high school literature and hated it. I'm a firm believer in reading and teaching living poets, so anytime I run a workshop, I almost exclusively teach living poets ...”

“[The William Carlos Williams poem “This is Just To Say”] about those damn plums in the icebox! It is a great poem, but it may not capture a younger person in the same way a poem about queer rights does. Or about social justice, or whatever they're talking about. ... Getting living poets in the hands of people who are interested, or maybe nervous about poetry, I think is a better way to introduce them to poetry than [a poem] from the 17th century that has a whole bunch of words that we no longer use in the English language.”

Like a lot of other authors, Courtney has had book events canceled or postponed, but here are some upcoming events. For in-person events, check websites for updates and possible cancellations.

• April 29, 2020. One More Page Books, Arlington. A Virtual Evening with Local Poets. Online!

• May 16, 2020, Charm City Books, Baltimore. Poetry Reading with Michael Tager.

• June 11, 2020, Acme Pie Company, Arlington, Readings on the Pike,

• July 14, 2020, Charmington’s, Baltimore, Writers & Words Reading Series       

• Hear her read a poem from her collection on Twitter as part of the International Poetry Circle, in which poets around the world share poems to combat social isolation during quarantine.                                                                                                                                                  

Courtney loves the local writing scene. Here are her favorite ways to getting connected with other writers and readers in the D.C. area:

• Split This Rock “calls poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets.” They had to postpone their March poetry festival and it’s unclear when in-person readings and events will start up again, but you can check out their online poetry database and sign up to get a poem of provocation and witness in your inbox each week.

• Readings on the Pike, a regular reading series in Arlington, at Acme Pie Company that features great local writers, great pie, and a real sense of community. They’ve had to cancel readings lately, but are hoping to start up again in June, and Courtney is scheduled to read, see above.

• The Writer’s Center, which usually holds writing workshops in Bethesda, D.C., Arlington, and Glen Echo, is now holding workshops online. Courtney has attended workshops at TWC in the past and recommends them as a great resource.

• The Writer’s Passage offers writing workshops and literary events in Northern Virginia. Currently, events are canceled or postponed, but hopefully programming will be able to resume soon.

Courtney LeBlanc is the author of Beautiful & Full of Monsters (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, March 2020), The Violence Within (Flutter Press, 2018, currently out of print), and All in the Family (Bottlecap Press, 2016) , and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She has an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. She loves nail polish, wine, and tattoos.

She blogs at WordPerv. Follow her on Twitter @wordperv, Instagram @wordperv79, and Facebook. Subscribe to her poetry and writing newsletter.

Norah Vawter is DCTRENDING’s Local Authors Editor. She has an M.F.A. in fiction from George Mason and has published in The Washington Post, Memoir Magazine, The Nassau Review, among others. An excerpt of the novel she’s querying was shortlisted for the RopeWalk Press Chapbook Prize. Follow Norah on Twitter as she shares D.C. writers’ work each day of quarantine.

https:/www.onbuy.com/gb/?/extra+dctrending