The Umbrella's poetry team recently chose "History", by American poet K. Rose Dallimore, as our newest featured work.
K. Rose Dallimore (she/her) is a poet, playwright, educator, and advocate living in Washington, D.C., USA. She lives with chronic illness and makes the most of it all. Her work has appeared in Rough Cut Press, Anodyne Magazine, Bossier Magazine, The Bitchin' Kitsch, and Patients Rising, among others. Follow her on Instagram @dose.rallimore and @rosesthingies.
In our ongoing contributor conversation series, Claire Beaver talked to her about her beginnings as a poet, how the new.
Claire Beaver: How did you get started as a poet? When did you start to call yourself a poet?
K. Rose Dallimore: I think I have been a poet for my whole life, although I've resisted the call to art for most of it. I really got started by believing that I have something worth saying.
Claire Beaver: Can you tell me a bit about how 'History' came to you? What inspires your writing?
K. Rose Dallimore: History came to me in snippets, which might be obvious. My approach to writing my poems and plays is based in what an old writing instructor called "wool-gathering." I keep journals of dialogue, phrases, and visuals that stick with me. I turn them over in my mind and hands for a few weeks until I see a pattern between the bits of "wool." I had been thinking on "history" much since graduating college and seeing the differences in academic perspective versus real human living. So twerking, Rembrandts, guns--the combination feels to me like they hint at a reality beyond an academic version of history and thus the poem was born.
Claire Beaver: What is your process like? Are you hit with ideas type or are you a sit down and write type of worker?
K. Rose Dallimore: I am both. Sometimes I spend hours writing, particularly when working on a play or editing a previously written piece. But usually, as I mentioned, the inspirations for my work are random and observational, and I spend a lot of time collecting ideas I may never use.
Claire Beaver: A favorite question for poets, are you a big editor or do you write it and leave it be?
K. Rose Dallimore: I am a big editor. I rarely can leave something be, although I wish I could be better about knowing when to stop toying. I think one strength in my editing process is that I am naturally very wordy, and sometimes it is valuable to condense and specify, which is what I focus on in editing.
Claire Beaver: Who are some of your inspirations? Favorite poems?
K. Rose Dallimore: My favorite poets include Danez Smith, Mary Oliver, Ocean Vuong, and my grandmother, Kitty Forbes, who never ceases to amaze me. Nature inspires me, my experience with chronic illness & disability inspires me, my community inspires me. I have so many inspirations.
K. Rose Dallimore
K. Rose Dallimore (she/her) is a poet, playwright, educator, and advocate living in Washington, D.C., USA. She lives with chronic illness and makes the most of it all. Her work has appeared in Rough Cut Press, Anodyne Magazine, Bossier Magazine, The Bitchin' Kitsch, and Patients Rising, among others. Follow her on Instagram @dose.rallimore and @rosesthingies.
Claire Beaver
Claire Beaver is a multidisciplinary writer living and working in New York. Her work has been featured in Last Leaves Magazine, Outspoken, Victory Lapped, and more. Her first chapbook, bones, ashes, fire, was recently released from Bottlecap Press. She is passionate about the power of art and how we interact with it in our daily lives, whether that be conscious or not. She has an M. Phil in Creative Writing from Trinity College Dublin.
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