MN Poet Highlight: Joyce Sutphen
Tilt your head slightly to one side and lift
your eyebrows expectantly. Ask questions.
Delve into the subject at hand or let
things come randomly. Don't expect answers.
Forget everything you've ever done.
Make no comparisons. Simply listen.
Listen with your eyes, as if the story
you are hearing is happening right now.
Listen without blinking, as if a move
might frighten the truth away forever.
Don't attempt to copy anything down.
Don't bring a camera or a recorder.
This is your chance to listen carefully.
Your whole life might depend on what you hear.
(Joyce Sutphen, “How To Listen”)
Growing up in Stearns County, Minnesota’s second poet laureate Joyce Sutphen tends to characterize her early life as idyllic. “Before I went to school, I spent most of my time outdoors, roaming the woods and fields surrounding my parents’ farm,” she told the Writer’s Almanac in 2018. “We played in the hay barn doing circus daredevil tricks; we built lodges and ‘cabins’ in the woods, and we sculpted civilizations in the sand pile. On Sundays, we played softball with my father as the constant pitcher. My mother, who was always baking, canning, cooking, washing clothes, and caring for babies and toddlers, took time to draw and color with us on winter afternoons, but mostly we invented our own games and did as we pleased until we were old enough to help with chores.” This pastoral upbringing saturates all of her work, which is clear, lyrical, and in customary Minnesota fashion, utterly unpretentious. Sutphen returns to her childhood home throughout her collections, which continue to strike a chord with readers who appreciate her gift for solving life’s mysteries through the examination of every living moment.
Sutphen holds multiple degrees from the University of Minnesota, including a Master’s in English with an emphasis in writing and a Ph.D. in Renaissance Drama. Currently, she teaches literature and creative writing at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, and has also taught writing through the Split Rock Arts Program, at Northern Michigan University, and in London and Northern Ireland. She lives in Chaska.
