Guest Erika Meitner was raised in a household where reformed Judaism revolved around justice and social action. As a first-generation American, her immigrant parents expected her to go into a medical career or something established. Raised with an eye toward social justice and a voice to say something about it, though, she was drawn to both the arts—particularly creative writing—and religious studies in college and spoke up for women's rights and other issues. Upon receiving a fellowship to study in Jerusalem after graduation, she studied Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, and biblical and literary translation and considered rabbinical school.

To pay off her undergraduate loans, however, she worked as a consultant during the run-up to Y2K. When she realized she was spending all of her spare time reading, she knew that wasn't the life for her and went briefly into teaching middle school. The call to both religious studies and creative writing were strong, though, and she applied for master’s programs in each. Just as she was readying herself to return to Israel, she got off the wait list at UVa’s creative writing MFA program.

Knowing the road to established poet and academic would take some time, she kept a strong of Plan Bs going—from writing residencies and another master’s degree in Jewish studies to summer teaching stints and management consulting projects. These and other experiences that relied on her ability to solve problems through her interpersonal communication skills only made her writing richer.

In this episode, find out from Erika how answering the really big questions of our time requires interpersonal skills developed over a lifetime.…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode's Guest

Erika Meitner is a poet, a parent, and a teaching artist in the academy, currently at Virginia Tech where she is Professor of English in the creative writing programs. Her latest collection of poetry, Holy Moly Carry Me, is the winner of the 2018 National Jewish Book Award in poetry, and a finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle award in poetry. In addition to her poetry, she also creates large-scale documentary photo/text projects on urban environments and conducts ethnographic research with coastal communities dealing with the impacts of both development and climate change. Her sixth book of poems, Useful Junk, is forthcoming in Spring 2022. You can find her work at ErikaMeitner.com.

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

Poetic Justice: Erika Meitner on tackling age-old issues and creating new narratives

Roads Taken