Nearly two decades ago, Lisa Underwood started coming to my writing workshop at the Valle
Crucis Conference Center. I listened to her responses to my prompts, surprised and moved by her style—honest, spare, filled with doubt and imagery. Very soon I knew that I was listening to
poetic responses to prompts aimed at narrative writers. Having
Nearly two decades ago, Lisa Underwood started coming to my writing workshop at the Valle
Crucis Conference Center. I listened to her responses to my prompts, surprised and moved by her style—honest, spare, filled with doubt and imagery. Very soon I knew that I was listening to
poetic responses to prompts aimed at narrative writers. Having been a journalist, Lisa thought
that she lacked the creative and literary impulses that lead to good story-telling. Instead, I was
convinced that she possessed the imagery and lyricism of a poet. When she discovered this
reality for herself, she made the commitment to study intensely, to find out if indeed poetry
was her milieu. She returned to us months later having already crafted a concise, powerful style
that carries an emotional punch without any sentimentality. She allows the careful choice of
words and images that hide within them both the quotidian and the metaphysical to convey
meaning and feeling. The fact that I weep when I read her poems over and over again is enough
proof to me that I am listening to a poet.
~ Katerina Katsarka Whitley (Author of
Myth and Memory: My Childhood in WWII Greece)