American writer a journalistic poet

Press, 2 September 1977, Page 7

American writer a journalistic poet

“And what do you do that’s serious ?” an acquaintance once asked Elisavietta Ritchie, an American writer whose poetry has won several awards.

Because so many people seem to regard composing poems as something ephemeral, Lisa Ritchie always describes herself as a writer. She says she is really a journalist whose writing usually “comes out” in poetry form. In fact, she has also had published short stories, articles, reviews, and translations, which have appeared in the major American newspapers and in literary publications.

In New Zealand on a visit sponsored by the United States Information Service, she has been reading her poems to “marvellously-re-ceptive” audiences. Last evening she gave a reading in Christchurch.

A professional translator —mostly the works of Rus- | sian dissidents — editor,: teacher, broadcaster, mother; of three children . . . Lisa Ritchie’s life would seem to leave little time for contemplative writing. Yet already she regards i “Moving to Larger Quarters,” her latest anthology! i just published by a group of : Filipino writers and artists ! in Manila in the past tense. What interests her most now — “my baby” - is her current collection, “On the Road to Sungai Karang,” which she carries with her, clipped together in a green folder. Yes, of course she would have liked to have been able to devote more time to writing. Journalism, she believes, is the most exciting job of all. But marriage and child-: ren, she found, were in- 1

’ compatible with journalistic I life. 1 So she has been doing i what she calls her appren- i ' ticeship of poetry, an exer- i . cise which has given her:] ■ great freedom of expression [while teaching a strict liter- . 'ary discipline which has < benefited her prose. Now she i often finds it easier to con- I vey her thoughts and feelj ings in poetry than in prose, i [“lt’s made me lazy in a way, ' i because now when I write : prose I have to challenge every word,” she said. Sometimes her poetry is,' [purely sensual, sometimes it! : has a strong ring of social [conscience, though it is I' seldom overtly political. Too busy working to become a militant feminist, Lisa Rit-[| chie feels largely untouched; by the women’s movement. “I adore men,” she said. 1 | “Most of my best, friends, i are men who have treated!* me as an individual. I grew|i up reading only male* authors, but in the last few I • years women writers have it [very much come into their I c own.” Some of the movement’s it thinking relates to her, how-i i ever, in a very personal: s way. Since “Tightening the J Circle Over Eel Country,” I i 1 won the New Writer’s!( Award from the Great Lakesit Colleges Association, for the, < best first book of poetry I 1 1975-76, life has changed for It her .n many ways. I 1 “Now I am getting some I press clippings, which my j son reads and my husband j won’t. Men do feel a sense I of competition if their wives i achieve recognition,” she I said. KINDRED SPIRITS c After years of very t solitary writing, slotted in t between domestic and other c responsibilities, Lisa Ritchie t has found much joy in 1 finding and collaborating e with kindred spirits among c other writers, musicians, s painters. Her friends have t

been supporters, cruel but kindly critics whose judgments often help while sne revises a poem again and again, paring it down to a polished gem. “The awards have not affected me personally, except that they do show that I haven't been wasting my time,” she said. Of Russian descent on her father’s side, Lisa Ritchie writes free verse in which she infusts the music of language so many people find missing in modern poetry. “My father used to read tre poetry in Russian before I was old enough to know what it meant. That has been a strong influence, as well as the Slavic background of warmth.” This last year has been spent with her family in Malaysia, where her husband has been working. Both she and her oldest son, who is now working on a farm in Opotiki and staying with relatives of a Maori family met in Malaysia have become proficient in Malay. French is the foreign language in which Lisa Ritchie is most at home, but while she was coaching her son in French they both found the Malay words came more easily. Living Malay style, they also adapted to the diet. And having 14 chickens. one dog, four kittens, and two turtle doves around had become as much part of life as follow ing the village gossip. After sight-seeing in New' Zealand when her lecture tour is over, they will return home to Washington D.C. Able to write in any circumstances — “usually cucked away' in a corner of :he bedroom” — she has become attuned to a special »nd Oriental influences in ter work. From the Japan-' cse and Chinese she has become atuned to a special sparseness, a distillation ofchought. “But the influences!

■ on my soul are Malaysian ■ and Indonesian, all the i warmth and lushness of 'South-East Asia,” she said. The US.IS. has sponsored {her readings-and lectures in I cities of the Philippines. Indonesia. Malaysia. Thailand. iHong Kong, Singapore. Japan, Korea. Brazil, and ; now New Zealand. Lisa Ritchie believes the growing popularity of poetry readlings, of taking poetry to the

people, has brought the literature alive. She gains great satisfaction from her work in schools. particularly among the young children, and the disadvantaged “It's one of the real rewards ot writing — getting a reaction from children who have never responded to literature in that way befote.” she said.