Look and Listen

Biography

I was raised in Philadelphia, NY, a small town in upstate New York near the Lewis County Mennonite community of my birth. I have since lived in Lancaster, PA and Philadelphia, PA before moving to Sarasota, FL where I work in communications and public relations. I completed her undergraduate studies at Eastern Mennonite University and received a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Vermont College. My poems and essays have appeared in The Mochila Review, MARGIE: The American Journal of Poetry, Whiskey Island Magazine, The Writer’s Chronicle and others. My first collection of poems Where We Start was published by Cascadia Publishing House in March 2007. My poems stay true to their complex questioning. With a sense of paradox and wit, a willingness to explore the poem’s surprising turns and defer comfort, I build poems that are urgent and compelling to any reader willing to explore the dark corners and sharp turns of any life’s migration. Find out more about me and my poetry at www.DebraGingerich.com.

Inspiration

My poetry has been strongly influenced by my experiences as a part of a Mennonite community and explores the tensions between individual identity and community loyalty. This tension has been expanded as I also creatively investigate her husband’s unique and difficult Eastern European upbringing, born and raised in the former Yugoslavia where community loyalty turned into war.