Kathryn Gahl Releases “Messengers of the Gods”
Originally published in The Pointer
Kathryn Gahl released her fourth poetry anthology April 21 titled “Messengers of the Gods” through UWSP’s Cornerstone Press.
Gahl’s experience as a writer is heavily storied in both prose and poetry, earning her over a dozen awards and the achievement of being published in more than 50 journals.
Gahl earned an undergraduate degree in English at UWSP over fifty years ago, and later went on to obtain an undergraduate degree in Nursing from Syracuse University.
Gahl initially found an outlet in journalism, writing for underground newspapers from college through her nursing career.
When Gahl retired from her role as a nursing manager, she invested heavily in creative writing, first by way of writing short stories before she discovered poetry to push her limits as a prose writer.
“My poetry informs my prose, and my prose informs my poetry,” Gahl said.
Gahl found a niche in poetry, and in 2009, Gahl released her first anthology “Life Drawing Class.”
“I write to hit hearts and to put into words the emotions that other people are feeling but that they don’t know how to express,” Gahl said.
Gahl also took her poetry to the stage in a performance at UntitledTown, a book and author festival hosted annually in Green Bay.
The show starred herself, a sound engineer, a musician and a dancer. She danced tango to the musical performance of her poetry.
“When you work with someone else, you make it bigger,” Gahl said.
After winning the Lorine Niedecker Poetry Award in 2018, Gahl read her poetry for an event with the Dwight Foster Public Library in April 2020 and was contacted by Laura Gehrman Rottier, the Director of Alumni Affairs at UWSP.
Representatives from Cornerstone Press reached out to her to discuss a manuscript and a potential publishing contract in a moment Gahl described as “pure serendipity.”
She expressed elation that she had the opportunity to work with Cornerstone Press as it is one of the oldest undergraduate publishing houses and teaching presses in the United States.
When she was a student at UWSP, opportunities to get involved with creative writing through extracurricular activities were nonexistent.
Gahl wrote “Messengers of the Gods” with inspiration from her own time ballroom dancing.
“My parents were ballroom dancers, and out of eight kids, I’m the only one who dances,” Gahl said.
Gahl explained that the title was inspired by a quote from one of the many epigraphs referenced in the anthology.
Writing is a creative practice that Gahl said she finds to be a freeing outlet from the trauma she has endured.
“I knew a long time ago that because I’ve suffered a lot of trauma in my life that I could be bitter, or I can try and put truth and beauty and justice into the world,” Gahl said.
Gahl’s poetry is largely free verse, although she has written in over a dozen different types of poetic form.
“I bleed onto the paper, I pour my heart out, and sometimes I cry when I write,” Gahl said.