The Places from which We Write

Peace Wall that separates Belfast: photo and blog post by Lisa Houlihan Stice

Over the course of this year, I have come to a realization of how much my writing is shaped by where I have lived the majority of my life. I came to this realization through noticing influences of place in the poets I read over these two semesters. It was with Ciaran Carson, a Belfast poet and novelist, that I fully saw how our eyes follow the grid of neighborhood streets, how our thoughts are shaped by the architecture of buildings, how or our perceptions of life events contour with elements of the natural landscape. Below is a link to Carson talking a bit about place and reading some of his poems that highlight how deeply his writing is shaped by the turbulent and constantly changing city in which he lives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k38rdOEA4M