Arkana‘s interview with poet and professor Drew S. Cook, discussing neurodivergence, mental illness, and writing.
by A. É. Coleman, Audio and Art Consultant
Arkana was excited to sit down with Drew S. Cook, our former poetry editor, to discuss neurodivergence, mental health, poetry, and writing.
Drew S. Cook is many things: an expert in obsolete operating systems, a student of literature and poetry, a psychiatrically disabled person. He is other things, too, and grew up in the Ouachita Mountains, whose sights and sounds continue to inform his writing. Drew is currently a Co-Executive Editor at Trio House Press. His poems have appeared in Nimrod Journal, Pleiades, and elsewhere.
Here’s what Drew said on some of the challenges when writing through the lens of neurodiversity:
“It’s hard to write about things when your language isn’t tailored to address them. So there are lots of personal challenges in creating the work. I find sometimes, looking out, that there’s sort of a performative expectation with regard to what I would call ‘mental illness writing’. I think people by and large like inspiring stories or stories of triumph over adversity or things that are sympathetic and tragic, and there isn’t always space for the kind of complexity that real life offers us…”
Check out the video for more!
You can find poet Drew S. Cook online at https://www.facebook.com/seriousbidnz
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