Jenna van de Ruit
OSGF
Q&A With Jenna van de Ruit
Tell us a little about yourself - whatever you think is important to know!
I’m from and live in Zimbabwe, in a treehouse. I decided that if there’s a constant in my life, it may as well be a treehouse.
How have the events of the past year impacted your writing practice? How have they changed your relationship with the natural world?
I’ve been struck by how much of my interaction with people in this time—and hence effect on others—is through language. It’s encouraged me to explore not just how I write, but how I speak, and to treat language as something with more body.
When COVID hit, I was writing about how to approach the climate crisis with the possibilities of being—generosity, connectedness, presence—that research shows is possible amidst disaster. Like many people, the stillness of this time has allowed me to notice things I wouldn’t have, such as feel the daily rhythms of a kingfisher or legavaan or bagworm.
Historically, what ideas, issues, and subject matter(s) have inspired your work?
I’ve been interested in events that give us glimpses into who we can become. In Zimbabwe, for me, that was the coup in 2017, when people gathered on the streets, and Cyclone Idai in 2019, when civilians across the country mobilised before INGOs. How do we remember those glimpses in ways that are useful? How do we learn to have these moments more often, in smaller times?
I’ve spent the last few years focusing inwards, in meditation and periods of renunciation. I try to draw on experienced truths rather than stories. Recently I’ve attempted to push this further: What does language look like beyond narrative? How do we approach language as experience? When is image enough?
Tell us about the pieces you submitted for the OSGF blog. What inspired you to write this piece, and what do you hope readers take away from it?
When I think of humans’ connection to the natural world, I think first of the meeting point between them. Where is it and what does it look like? How do we create it? I hope the poems invite readers to be playful and permeable.
What creative projects are you currently working on?
A collage of place. I’m exploring the area I left and returned to, from its plants and critters to how people praise in the rocky hills, and questions around how land can be shared and relinquished. I keep finishing a book, Collecting Wings, about learning to give up hope. And I’m drawn to smaller works and experiments in poetry.
What are you reading right now?
Vesper Flights (Helen Macdonald) and Beating the Graves (Tsitsi Ella Jaji).
What is your favorite plant?
I love grasses. If I had to choose one, maybe red-top grass (Melinis nerviglumis), whose seeds are covered in soft maroon.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Just thanks.
Images courtesy of Jenna van de Ruit