'Stay Brave' with Donna Vorreyer

‘Stay Brave’ is an interview series by woman-identifying creatives for woman-identifying creatives to inspire bravery in the creative life. [Created and curated by Leah Umansky]

1. How do you interpret the phrase, "Stay Brave?"

   Bravery is a choice, so, to me, "stay brave" as a phrase is an encouragement to keep choosing to believe in yourself. Whether that belief comes in the form of taking public risks or simply trying something outside of your comfort zone, staying brave is a thing we must do to live fully.

2. As a woman-identifying writer, what are the ways that you “stay brave” in your life?

   In my personal life, I think staying brave means continuing to adjust and recalibrate to changes. I've experienced huge shifts over the past few years. I lost my parents, so my identity as daughter changed. I retired from teaching, and friendships disappeared and teacher is no longer a label that applies to me. My body as it ages is losing flexibility, vision, stamina, and visibility in the sense of being noticed in the world. To still enjoy all the things that make life worthwhile required a shifting of mindset, new creative outlets, a new appreciation for a simpler existence in a loud world.

3. Who is someone in your life who models “staying brave” for you?

   I have two close friends with serious medical conditions, women who work and play and create despite their challenges - they have taught me a lot about listening to my body, about rethinking my attitude toward both my personal and creative lives. They are models for me not because they are the first women to do this, but because they are both doing it in ways unique and tailored to their personalities, navigating the bullshit they endure with honesty and grace.

4. What writers, artists, and/or musicians do you look to to foster a sense of “bravery?”

   Any writer sending their work into the world is brave. I admire musicians like Trent Reznor who defies the stereotype of being "just" a heavy rock star and writes gorgeous movie/television scores and has always done things his own way. Let's get the man on Broadway so he can go from EGO to EGOT!

5. What’s a piece of advice you would pass on to your younger self about “staying brave?” What’s something you know now, that you didn’t know in the past?

   Why not me? is a saying I still struggle with when taking a risk. I think my younger self would have liked to be encouraged to take more risks.

6. Can you remember a time in your life where you realized your own bravery? How did you use it to propel you forward?

   The only time I've ever truly felt brave was when I was caretaking my mother and then my father after my mother died. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, and yet I knew it was the right thing. It helped my brothers and I keep going to know that, even if they didn't always seem to appreciate or understand the ways we tried to care for them, our parents had us there, loving them to the end, every day the best we knew how.

7. What do you do when you aren’t feeling brave? What inspires you or motivates you?

   My husband encourages me to try anything I want to try, from sending out a book manuscript to learning to paint to learning how to do a difficult number puzzle (I hate numbers). Having that unwavering support is always an inspiration.

8. In what ways would you like to be more brave in your creative life?

   I still don't think of myself as a writer who anyone really cares about. I'd like to be more confident about my place in the world of words, even though I will never be "poetry famous." I'd like to be braver in thinking that my work matters.

9. What is your proudest moment of bravery?

   Stepping out of my comfort zone with words and starting to paint and make visual art last year. It's been freeing and really fun.

10. What are you currently working on?

    I have two manuscripts out in the world - a poetry manuscript about change and aging as a woman, and one a hybrid/experimental manuscript using surreal fable-like prose poems as text for erasure and extraction. I also will have my first "showing" of paintings at my local library in the new year.

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Thank you, Donna!

DONNA VORREYER is the author of three full-length poetry collections: To Everything There Is (2020), Every Love Story is an Apocalypse Story (2016) and A House of Many Windows (2013), all from Sundress Publications, and eight chapbooks, including The Girl (Porkbelly Press) and Encantado (illustrated by Matt Kish, RedBird Chapbooks). Her poems have appeared widely in journals like Ploughshares, Poet Lore, Rhino, Waxwing, Salamander, Colorado Review, Harpur Palate, and others. A retired public school educator, she is also a visual artist, and her work has been featured in North American Review, Waxwing, About Place, Pithead Chapel, and other journals. Donna currently lives in the western suburbs of Chicago and runs the monthly online reading series A Hundred Pitchers of Honey.

Find her on Twitter and Blue Sky Social @djvorreyer and Instagram @djv50

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Leah Umansky is the author of three books of poems, most recently the forthcoming OF TYRANT, (The Word Works in April, 2024.) She is currently working on a memoir DELICATE MACHINE, an exploration of womanhood, hope, and heart in the face of grief and a global pandemic. She earned her MFA in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and has curated and hosted The COUPLET Reading Series in NYC since 2011. Her creative work can be found in such places as The New York Times, POETRY, The Bennington Review, The Academy of American Poets' Poem-A-Day and others. She can be found at www.leahumansky.com or @leah.umansky on IG.