Interview with
nicole tallman By: Clifford Brooks
Who is Nicole Tallman? What is it about your life that created the author today? I am an only child and my mother taught me to read and write when I was very young. Some of my earliest memories are of her reading to me and teaching me to recite poems from an early age. It’s kind of funny how she was visibly horrified when I told her in my teen years that I wanted to be a writer. She tried to talk me out of it. In fact, I pursued an undergraduate degree in public relations instead of creative writing at her insistence. I managed to squeeze in a double major in French because I loved the language so much. Later in life, I went back to school for a Master of Arts in English. I just can’t stay away from language. Every job that I have had since I was 21 has involved writing. If you’re into personality types, I’m an INFJ, which seems to be pretty common among writers, and a 33/6 Life Path in numerology. I could also get into my astrological chart, which I find fascinating as well, but let’s just say I have a lot of feelings and I love the moon. Don’t most writers love the moon?
What is your chosen genre and why does it still speak to you? Genre is something I struggle with a bit. Professionally, I write a ton of correspondence, speeches and opinion pieces. Personally, I mostly write poetry. I have dabbled in memoir and short fiction, but it doesn’t come as naturally to me as poetry. I definitely
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like shorter pieces. I get flashes of inspiration and like to capture my thoughts quickly, before they evaporate. It may sound corny, but poetry literally speaks to me. I hear it when I first wake up, and often have to silence it throughout the day so that I can be productive at work.
You are an editor for South Florida Poetry Journal. Tell us about that and how that fits into your life. I submitted a series of poems to South Florida Poetry Journal last year – my first-ever poetry submission in fact -- and was asked by the Journal’s founder and co-publisher (Lenny DellaRocca) if I would be interested in becoming an associate editor for the journal. I jumped at the opportunity to build a local poetry community, to have an additional creative outlet, and to be part of a publication that gives a voice to poets at all stages of their writing journey. It’s a dream come true.