Poetry Lives In The In-Between Places

The News Tribune:

A dozen years ago, Kathleen Flenniken was an engineer turned stay-at-home-mom who took a night class in poetry to occupy her thoughts while she was home with her children.
“I just caught fire,” Flenniken said. “I didn’t have time to sit down and write a novel, or even short stories. But I could write poems.”

These days, the 46-year-old Seattle woman is a poet whose first book was just nationally recognized by librarians and she’s part of a growing trend in college creative writing programs.

She’s a student who rarely gets to campus.

In August, she and 18 other poets and fiction and nonfiction writers will be the first graduating class with a Master of Fine Arts degree from Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writing Workshop.