Susan Baller-shepard
Review of Doe from Kirkus Reviews
A debut collection of verse delivers meditations on nature, womanhood, and a wide range of other topics.
Novelists and poets use words differently. The first group heaps sentence on sentence, paragraph on paragraph, creating a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. In this context, individual words matter less. The same cannot be said for poetry. For the poet, words are precision tools, their internal tension heightened. Small alterations to the diction of, say, a Shakespeare sonnet might alter it entirely—or mar it irreparably. This truth is the motivating force behind Baller-Shepard’s fine verse volume. Accordingly, she quotes Twain, who argues that “the difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.” Throughout, the author plays in the tiny gaps between words, demonstrating just how significant those spaces can be. Her opening poem is an excellent example: “Doe a deer / in her muliebrity, that deer / loses when made plural, / becomes ‘does’—third person singular / present tense of do. / She’s more than what she does.” Here, Baller-Shepard, turns a tiny observation about the distinction between “does” (the plural for the female deer) and “does” (the simple verb) into a larger point about femininity, action, and identity. She pulls a similar trick in “Subtle Cues for the Non-Native Speaker,” which ruminates on the difference between “lay down” and “lie down,” an occasion to discuss much larger themes, like sex, friendship, male power, and sacrifice. Both these poems, and many others in the inspiring book, examine vital questions about gender roles and responsibilities. The author’s decision to take on such questions in verse is both brave and canny, as her conscientious poetry proves an ideal form for tackling these and other compelling themes with care and concision.
Precise, carefully calibrated poetry that explores crucial issues.
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Susan Baller-Shepard writes along a wilderness track, amidst cornfields and big skies in Illinois. Her essays, poetry, photography, and sermons have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post's "On Faith section," Spirituality & Health, Writer’s Digest, Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, Typishly, Patheos, Day One, The Tattooed Buddha, and other publications. Her book Doe, a poetry collection from Finishing Line Press, came out in April 2019. One of her poems was featured on The Writer’s Almanac in August 2019 and featured on WGLT-FM Poetry Radio.
Two of Susan’s poems were included in a new anthology, In the Footsteps of a Shadow: North American Literary Responses to Fernando Pessoa. A 2024 nonfiction essay of Susan’s was a finalist for the Perkoff Prize.
Susan was part of the undergraduate Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, has a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Illinois and a Master of Divinity degree from McCormick Theological Seminary. She has been an ordained Presbyterian minister for thirty-four years. A local activist, Susan has also worked on international development projects in Haiti, China, and Brazil. She's been a keynote speaker nationally and internationally. She presented on expressive writing techniques at the Examined Life Conference for the University of Iowa’s Carver School of Medicine. Susan served on the PC(USA) Council for the Synod of Lincoln Trails and moderates congregations where needed. Susan taught Major World Religions and Literature of the Bible at Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois. Having recently completed a historical fiction novel Forgottonia in Pam Houston’s DRAFT program with Writing by Writers and also completed a new poetry collection Sung: Descants for Living. She's writing the sequel to Forgottonia, set a generation later.
