Many of us bereaved by suicide find ourselves as Frank Campbell describes in a “Canyon of Why”. Our world assumptions are shattered.

What happens to a family with multiple losses by suicide?

In this interview I speak to Juliet Patterson, a poet and the author of the book “Sinkhole: A Legacy of Suicide.” Juliet grew up in the shadows of multiple family members deaths by suicide and wondered too — “Will I die this way?” Instead, she has come to find poetry and other forms of storytelling are helping her make meaning.

About Juliet Patterson

Juliet Patterson is the author of Sinkhole: A Legacy of Suicide (Milkweed Editions, September 2022) and two full-length poetry collections, Threnody, (Nightboat Books 2016), a finalist for the 2017 Audre Lorde Poetry Award, and The Truant Lover, (Nightboat Books, 2006), winner of the Nightboat Poetry Prize and a finalist for the 2006 Lambda Literary Award. A recipient of a Arts & Letters Susan Atefat Prize in non-fiction, and a Lynda Hull Memorial Poetry Prize, she has also been awarded fellowships from the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Minneapolis-based Creative Community Leadership Institute (formerly the Institute for Community and Creative Development). She teaches creative writing and literature at St. Olaf College and is also a faculty member of the college’s Environmental Conversations program.