Michelle Doege

MY STORY

Creativity in my life came to me oddly and slowly. I often thought I was a "late bloomer," not having my first creative writing class until my late twenties. However, I have been creative my entire life, in ways that are maybe not as noticed, honored or valued as art in the world.

Growing up in my family, we grew something out of nothing every week. We grew most of our food in the cycles of our family garden. We reupholstered furniture, crafted vinyl doors to cover our door-less kitchen cabinets, built a camper and most of our home, my dad even made a car into a "cruck!" I still feel this creativity when I build a bookshelf, cook a beautiful meal, line up salsa and ginger peach jam on our canning shelf for the winter. All of it, infused with the energy of the creative.

When I finally did take my first creative writing class, I was terrified and charged. I have continued to balance these two strong energies for most of my writing life. When I was younger, I struggled more with the fear and anxiety. As I have written more and honed my craft, matured as a writer, I feel freer in my creativity and voice, even my power.

When I started writing and public speaking, I knew that language and using my voice was my path to wholeness. I am most proud I stayed true and committed to this path, that I honored my deepest calling. For everyone, your path, your calling, will be different. In wonder what it is for you. Over the years, I wrote and learned more about the craft, skill and technique of writing. I challenged myself to stay in my seat and practice (even when my seat got hot), to keep my pen or fingers on the keyboard, moving. In doing so over and over again, I have somehow come into my own bold voice.

But also, reading and education (as a student and teacher) has truly and radically changed my life. I grew up in a small working-class community, living within the two states of Minnesota and Wisconsin. The culture and values I grew up with, I treasure so much and so much of it still the foundation from which I live. And yet, as a lesbian woman who would eventually fall in love and marry an Indian woman, my world needed to expand. Eventually, it was books and education that grew my world beyond the boundaries that could have caged me in.

I live and write into my questions, as Rilke encourages. Poetry starts with listening, as Joy Harjo reminds us. Bravery is needed every step of the way, to speak and share our truth as authentically as we are able. We need all our stories, as Richard Wagemese so eloquently expresses, to weave the great web of our human family.

So what do I write about? Connection to ancestors, lineage and family and the natural world. That every living thing is connected. That if we truly know and honor this, less violence and destruction, less harm to ourselves and each other, will exist in our worlds. At this ripening age, I care most about what is possible. What can we imagine? What can we create, together? To truly take care of all humans, all living things. To eliminate the hierarchy of care and question consumption—for humans, animals and the natural world. For me, love weaves through it all. It is only love, really—that sparks me to write.

CREATIVE ANCESTORS

And of course, we never do this alone. To borrow a phrase from Joy Harjo, many of my “Writing & Creative Ancestors” who have been a slow, burning ember in my own creativity, below:

BIO

Michelle Doege’s debut book of poems, Root of Light (Shanti Arts, 2023), explores border crossings and migrations, the weavings of ancestors and trees, and the boldness of living one’s truest life. Her story “End of a Rainbow” appears in Wherever I Find Myself:  Stories of Canadian Immigrant Women (Caitlin Press, 2017) and her “Siva’s Fire” was shortlisted for the Malahat Review’s Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize (2021 & 2022). She holds an MFA in poetry/mixed genre writing from Augsburg College (Minneapolis). Michelle also finds great joy in layering her poems with visual art, in broadsides or video collaborations. In her community—on Syilx territory in what is now Vernon, BC―she is a featured poet in Why We Write: Poets of Vernon (2021) and Co-founder/Organizer of the Valley Voices Reading Series.

Give me a shout — I’d love to hear from you!

Unless otherwise specified, all photo credits: Michelle Doege