Q&A With Maria Paz Moreno, Romance Languages & Literatures

Maria Paz Moreno looks at her latest poetry collection, "Invernadero," as her most mature work to date.

She has years' worth of observations and poems on which to base that conclusion – and if her body of work is an indicator, a fascinating workload ahead of her.

"Spanish poetry is not only my field of specialty, but also my passion," said Moreno, an associate professor in the Romance Languages and Literatures department.

Written in Spanish, "Invernadero" ("Greenhouse") is her fifth poetry volume and seventh book. A graduate of the Universidad de Alicante and The Ohio State University who can't remember when she didn't want to be a writer, Moreno got her first tenure-track job at UC in 1999.

"Oh, and in the process, I met somebody wonderful and married him," she added. "Ohio has definitely treated me well!"

Q) Share, please, a little about your roots as a writer and your love for poetry.

A) I still have some poems and short stories that I wrote when I was 10 or 11 years old; one of them even got published in the children's section of the local newspaper … so, I just kept at it. I enjoyed writing very much, and everybody seemed to like what I wrote, too. It is something that I could do on my own, drawing from my own experiences and inspired by the books I was reading. I have always been an avid reader, and as a child had a very active imagination, so writing was the perfect outlet for it.

I started writing poetry more seriously in my 20s, and at age 23 I completed a collection that I called "La semilla bajo el asfalto ("The seed under the asphalt), that I entered into a poetry contest, and to my surprise, the book was a finalist!

Associate professor Maria Paz Moreno, Romance Languages and Literatures, recently completed her fifth poetry volume.

I published it on a small edition, about 150 copies, that I then gave to friends and relatives, and to some of my professors. I was 23 years old, and it was my last year in college. That award meant a lot to a young aspiring poet, and it really gave me great encouragement to continue writing. In a way, it felt to me that my choice of studying literature had been validated, despite the few career opportunities that such degree opens. Nevertheless, I believe that following your true passion is the way to success. When you love something, you put all your energy into it, and amazing things happen then!

Q) When did you realize "Invernadero" was a book in the making and how did its publication come about?

A) The book was in the making for several years, and in that sense it has evolved and changed since I first started to write it. I usually focus on working on a single book and finish it before moving on to another, it helps me to maintain the internal coherence of the work. Not all the poems talk about the same subjects or in he same style, but in the end they all somehow come together thematically or in terms of the tone that articulates them. To write this book, I received a Competitive Research Fellowship from the Taft Fund at UC, which allowed me to devote myself to working exclusively on the book for several months. I sent the finished manuscript to Renacimiento, one of the oldest and most prestigious publishers of poetry in Spain, and they were very interested in publishing it, but also asked about the possibility of a subvention to help with the expenses. Poetry is not a best-selling genre, and publishers are often reluctant to publish books without outside support. A Publication Subvention from the Taft Fund made this possible.

Q) How do you gauge your evolution and how important is it to hear from critics and the public about your work?

A) Writing is like quilting: part art, part craft. In that sense, the more you write, the better you become at it, because you continuously refine your control over its technical aspects. However, it is also a reflection of your maturity as a person, after you take in and process the experiences in your life (the sweet, the bitter and the sour). I believe "Invernadero" is my most mature work. To me, it is important to hear the opinion of critics and readers, because they can show you a side of your work that may be new to you. The great thing about poetry is that the possibilities for interpretations are endless, and each reader will make the poem their own.

Q) It's obvious that memories and fresh observations alike are a huge part of bringing your poems to life. How young a poet were you when you realized that the people you met, your experiences and more were being woven into your body of work?

A) Memory and personal experiences have always been a source of inspiration for me. I have found them to be the best way to express bigger or more abstract concepts. I am a poet, but I am also a regular person who lives in this world and has to deal with reality. I believe that the role of poetry is partly to help us make sense of the world we inhabit. As another Spanish poet, Juan Gil-Albert, said, "Writing makes life a more transparent phenomenon." Poetry helps me understand reality. Many of my poems are about people that I have met or places that I have visited, and that have made an impact on me. For example, I have written about places that have a sort of magic to them: the suffocating sweet smells of Morocco, the blinding blue skies of Africa, the noise and hectic street life of Spain, the bursting of life in the springtime right here in Ohio … every place has its magic, and poetry is an attempt to preserve the beauty of those places and moments. Poetry, like any other art, is really an attempt to preserve an instant of beauty. Writers use words, painters use colors and images, musicians use sounds… .

Q) You compare poems to tender plants in a greenhouse, saying that poems can only come to be with much care and effort. How frustrating are those growing pains, and how do you get through the lean times?

A) Writing poetry is never really frustrating for me. I have periods of great creativity, and others when I don't write much at all. I have learned to wait. Poetry comes to the poet when it is ready, and thus it should not be forced. When I am not writing, I am reading or thinking about the ideas I want to write about. It eventually all takes shape, and one day I find the right impulse or the right mood to write. I get into a very particular mood when I write; it's hard to describe, but it's like turning on a switch that allows you to see things that you couldn't see before. It's a very intense process, but it's wonderful.