One poet knows that choosing a career can be tough.
Katrina Vandenberg, a writer who came to Winona State University’s Lourdes Hall last Thursday, spoke about her latest publication, “Atlas,” and how she became a poet.
Vandenberg read a variety of poems including “Engine,” which is about her father’s and grandfather’s work in Detroit automobile plants and steel mills.
In her poem, “Jack-o-Lantern,” she discussed her childhood memories of carving pumpkins with her sister.
Vandenberg said much of her work is based on her childhood experiences.
“There are a lot of childhood lessons in my book,” said Vandenberg.
She also explained how she became a writer.
She said that she started writing at a young age using her Mead notebook.
Her mother typed all of her poems.
A single poem can take her from an hour to four or five years to complete, she said.
Vandenberg, however, did not always have a passion for poetry.
“I didn’t want to be a poet,” she said. “I thought poets were crazy!”
Vandenberg’s poems have appeared in The American Scholar, The Iowa Review, Alaska Quarterly and Poetry Northwest.
She also was a 1999-2000 Fulbright Scholar in the Netherlands.
During the fellowship, Vandenberg wrote poems about the beautiful tulips that people sought after during the 17th century.
Unfortunately, people discovered that the tulips had brilliant colors because they were infected with a virus.
Besides writing, Vandenberg also works to raise hemophilia-AIDS awareness.
She said she became an activist in college when she fell in love with Tim, a hemophiliac who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion.
After he died, Vandenberg wrote several poems about his life and death for the “Atlas.”
Vandenberg also was inspired to write after she toured Europe with a friend.
She said she found an alley in Paris where controversial artist Henry Miller had taught his wife to ride a bike.
The discovery was exciting because she said she thought it was endearing that such a harsh man would teach a grown woman a childhood task.
Vandenberg, who grew up in the Detroit area, now resides with her husband, fiction writer John Reimringer, in St. Paul.
English professor James Armstrong said “Atlas,” captures a vast array of themes.
“It’s about beauty, art, coming of age and morality,” he said.
The event was hosted by the English department’s creative writing program and co-sponsored by the Residential College.
Two authors remain in the series: Ken McCullough and Maurya Simon.
McCullough, scheduled to read on Feb. 15, wrote Obsidian Point, Left Hand and Walking Backwards.
He has received a Pablo Neruda Award, a New Millennium Poetry Award and many others.
Left Hand, a collection of stories, was a finalist for the 2005 Minnesota Book Award.
Maurya Simon, author of seven poetry volumes, will speak on April 4.
Simon has received an award from the Poetry Society of America and a Fulbright Fellowship.
Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry and TriQuarterly.
Both authors will read in Lourdes Hall’s North Lounge at 7 p.m.

Reach Stephanie Magnuson at SEMagnus1264@winona.edu.