An Interview with Poet Jane Ann Fuller

An Interview with Award-Winning Ohio Poet Jane Ann Fuller

 

Residing in the Hocking Hills of southeastern Ohio, Jane Ann Fuller is the award-winning author of Half-Life, an anthology of poems that revisits the “many years it takes to come to terms with the suicide of a husband and its traumatic effect on the children: drug abuse, rape, unflinching self-analysis, survivor's guilt; the loss here is hardly manageable.” A sincere poet, Fuller delves into “immense grief; how brutal and dark our human natures can be; that healing requires engagement with the physical world.”

Welcome, Jane Ann!

GM: What is the premise for your new book?

JAF: Family stuff. It's always about family and place, for me. 

GM: What are you currently writing?

JAF: I'm working on a new poetry manuscript. 

GM: How do you maintain creative thoughts and ideas?

JAF: Walking as I listen to podcasts keeps me engaged and excited about exploring new ideas and unraveling issues. Reading the most engaging work I can find keeps me working. Sharing ideas with my poetry midwives, Deni, Naff, helps too!

GM: Who is your favorite author?

JAF: Currently, I'm reading the poets - Maggie Smith, Ada Limon, Francesca Bell, Alexis Rhone Fancher, and Joe Millar.

GM: Do you have advice for novice writers?

JAF: Read as much as you can, but read the best you can find. Realize that writing is hard work. A commitment. Not a fly-by-night thing.

 

GM: Authors say that writing is easy, but marketing is difficult. Do you have advice for authors regarding marketing and promotion?

JAF: Self-promotion is the hardest thing for me. I'm trying to follow the lead of friends and poets I admire. There are some folks who are really good at it, so I try to do a little of what they do; join writing groups, take workshops, attend conferences, make new friends, network, network, network. Ask your publisher lots of questions. The best publishers are terrific at networking and marketing. And be kind to editors when you send work. 

GM: When you're not writing, what do you like to do for fun?

JAF: I like to read mystery novels. I love to hike and help my kids with their kids and their dogs. And I make a mean apple pie. :)

GM: List 10 things your fans may not know about you...

JAF: I still dream of living on a goat farm. My favorite breakfast is cinnamon toast. Being a grandmother is my favorite thing! Fall is my favorite season. I love Halloween. That's enough about me!

Connect with Jane Ann…

Amazon

Shelia-NA-Gig, Inc. Publisher

Bio:  Jane Ann Fuller’s poetry has appeared in Aethlon, Atticus Review, B O D Y, Denver Quarterly, Fifth Wednesday, Grist, JMWW, Kamana, Northern Appalachia Review, Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel, Pudding Magazine, Rise Up Review, Shenandoah, Steinbeck Now, Still: the Journal, Sugar House Review, The American Journal of Poetry, The Ekphrastic Review, The MacGuffin, The Pikeville Review, and Waccamaw. Fuller’s work appears in the anthologies All We Know of Pleasure: Poetic Erotica by Women, edited by Enid Shomer, Project Hope: The Center for Victims of Torture, edited by Betsy Brown, and Women of Appalachia Project, edited by Kari Gunter-Seymour. Fuller is a recipient of the James Boatwright III Poetry Prize. She co-authored Revenants: A Story of Many Lives, published with a grant from the Ohio Arts Council. She studied English Literature at Ohio University and earned her MFA from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. She lives in the Hocking Hills of southeastern Ohio.

Fuller will be signing her book at the Hocking Hills Book Fair, Saturday, December 9, 2023, at The Dairy Barn Arts Center, Athens, Ohio.