Artist Profile: Sasha Debevec-McKenney
Sasha Debevec-McKenney is a poet who studies the presidents. She was the 2020-2021 Jay C. and Ruth Halls Poetry Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing and she received her MFA from New York University, where she was a 2018 Rona Jaffe Fellow. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Yale Review, TriQuarterly, Granta, Peach Mag, Underblong and elsewhere. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut and currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin, where she works in restaurants.
1) What words do you feel best describe your artistic pursuits? Are you a writer, a poet, an artist...or are there other different descriptors you prefer to use for yourself as a creative professional?
I’m a poet, even though it sometimes feels scary to state it like that. Even when I write prose, which I love doing, despite how long it takes, I consider myself a poet-writing-prose.
2) Any creative writing hacks you have found to be useful?
Whenever I can’t write, or feel stuck, I either go for a walk or read a book. I also force my friends to sit in a room (or on Zoom!) with me until we both write a poem—a friend whose writing you love and who loves yours too is always the best resource. Plus I find it useful to disappear completely into (very dumb) reality TV shows, thereby forgetting I exist all together. Then when I come back to life, my brain has had a total break and might be ready to write again. I’ve been taught—and have taught—the Edward Hirsch essay “Message in a Bottle” from his book How To Read A Poem, which always reminds me why I love poetry.
3) Any exciting projects on tap for 2022?
Future projects are scary to talk about, but I really want to try to write a cento. A cento is a poem made from 100 lines written by other people. I want my cento to be made from lines from different stand-up routines because I’m interested in the ways writing jokes and writing poems overlaps.
4) What titles are currently in your "to be read" pile?
Right now I’m trying to read memoirs by poets, so Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood is up next! I’m also excited to read James Tate’s Selected Poems and Melissa Lozada-Oliva’s novel in verse Dreaming of You.