Gabrielle Bates
“I have at least one—probably several!—books in me that are all about grappling with this exact question, so I’m overwhelmed by the challenge of answering it with brevity, but I will try. Birmingham, for me, is a place where histories, public and personal, are textured and palpable. They push against me when I walk around; they prickle my skin. I was born and raised all over Birmingham, and my poetic sensibilities were too. When I was eight years old, my mom bought an old, abandoned slaughterhouse downtown on 1st Ave North, and when I stayed with her, we slept there. Exploring that five-story building as a kid, playing among the blood drains in the floor and drawing pictures in the dust on the meat smokers—I felt like an Alice in some bizarre, haunted wonderland. It totally captivated my imagination, and in many ways, I feel like I’m writing my way back into that sort of space every time I write.”
Gabrielle Bates currently lives in Seattle, where she works for Open Books: A Poem Emporium and cohosts the podcast The Poet Salon. Her poems and poetry comics have appeared in the New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, VQR, and the Best of the Net anthology. Someday, she will publish a book. Connect with her on Twitter (@GabrielleBates).