Speaking the Language of Joy with Beate Sigriddaughter
Beate Sigriddaughter is a poet, a writer across genres, a ballroom dancer and someone who makes the effort to “put poetry into practice” on a daily basis. She is an encourager, celebrator and facilitator of other women’s voices through her blog, Writing in a Women’s Voice. She grew up in Nurnberg, Germany reading fairy tales and playing in WWII ruins, learning to read at the age of 6, when she “disappeared” into books.
Her mother (who she honours with her last name) was a “trapped bird” in the conventions of her time, but nevertheless made freedom possible for Beate, encouraging her to go to America at 16 as an exchange student.
Beate recognizes her own daily struggle between gratitude and dissatisfaction, and efforts to create a language of joy that brings beauty to the world, helping us rise above our habitual language of criticism and negativity. She writes “to make real what is most important” ~ joy, love, gratitude. “Poetry is action,” she says, “to take the most sacred pieces of my soul into practice,” and, she adds with a laugh, “to make peace sexy and exciting!!” Yes! Why not?
Meet This Episode's Guest
Beate Sigriddaughter
Beate grew up in Nürnberg, Germany, not far from the castle, reading fairy-tales and playing in World War II ruins. After graduating from a Lutheran girls high school, she studied at Georgetown University College of Arts and Sciences, which had until shortly before been a Catholic boys college. She graduated 10th in my class with a B.A. in English and Philosophy and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
While at Georgetown University she studied with poet Roland Flint, former poet laureate of Maryland, and befriended late science fiction writer Roger Zelazny and his family.
Beate has published short stories and poetry, several books of poems and novels, and some other not easily categorized books. Some of her publications were under former names, Beate Goldman and Beate Murray. Several of her published short stories were nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She won her first poetry prize in 1983 and the latest two poetry prizes in 2018, with a handful of other prizes in between. In 2017 Beate was named poet laureate of Silver City, a position she shares with co-poet laureate Jack Crocker.
Beate has also spent many years teaching ballroom dance and competing professionally in the American Rhythm division. She has taught ballroom dance at the Aurora Community College, Metro State College and The University of Northern Colorado, as well as privately at Have Dance Will Travel in Santa Fe, and at Booth’s Dancesport Ballroom in Denver, Colorado.
She has facilitated one of several critique groups of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers for over two years, and was also a member of the International Women’s Writing Guild. From 2006 to 2009, Beate was the fiction editor of Moondance, a woman’s literary ezine. For a time she orchestrated the Glass Woman Prize to celebrate other women's voices, funding the prize with ten percent of her own income.
Beate also hosts a celebration of other women's voices to the blog Writing In A Woman's Voice where she posts poetry and prose written by women or in a woman's voice.
See a full list of Beate's books here.
Find out more about Beate on her website!
Photo by Cheryl Thornburg