“Gone Sane”

Georgia College alumna publishes collection of poems written over the span of 16 years 

The imagery of the poem conjures a moving memory of a woman purchasing baby clothes, driving to a cemetery and laying them down on a minute grave branded with the name, “Mark.” The poem is one of 59 published by Georgia College alumna Christal Rice Cooper’s recently published “Gone Sane.”

Within the pages lie works dealing with crime and real events, such as the poem of Mark Gomez, a child who was murdered in 1987.

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“You definitely spend more time editing the poem than writing the poem,” Cooper said. “I would say 80 percent of the time was editing, but I love that part.”

While writing is inherently part of Cooper’s life, that was not the case when it came to her education at GC. Cooper decided to major in criminal justice, rather than print journalism or English.

“I’ve always loved to write and I can’t remember ever wanting to be anything else,” Cooper said. “I wish I could go back, but I was trying to major in something that I could find a career field in.”

Cooper uses her background in criminology to produce many of the themes throughout her book. The poems in the book are considered persona poems, which focus on one specific character throughout the piece. Cooper also drew inspiration from her job as a freelance journalist.

“Most of my other stuff that’s been published has been journalistic,” Cooper said. “I write feature stories and human interest stories.”

Cooper had her share of disappointment as a flourishing writer. She remembers sending her work out to different journals and getting rejection letters in return.

“I did get discouraged but you have to keep writing,” Cooper said. “When you write like that it’s not an issue of can you write it—it’s more like an issue of can you breathe. You have to do it.”

Unfortunately, rejection is a matter that many writers deal with.

“When you get rejected that doesn’t mean your work isn’t publishable,” Coordinator of the Creative Writing Program Martin Lammon said about dealing with rejection. “You have to learn to accept rejection as part of the publishing process.”

Since graduating from GC in 1994, Cooper has consistently written poetry, novels and short stories. It was by fate that she met Donna Biffar, who works with River Kings Press and was nominated for Illinois Poet Laureate in 2003.

“I had a lot of help from Donna Biffar. She helped me critique throughout all of these years. She’s a tough critic, which I love,” Cooper said. “Donna definitely had that red pen in her hand with me.”

Biffar and Cooper initially met due to a story Cooper was working on about Biffar’s poetry.

“When we discovered our mutual interest in poetry we began editing each other’s work,” Biffar said. “’Gone Sane’ is the result.”

Cooper also worked with Biffar when it came to the overall look of the book. The book spans 197 pages and within those pages one will not find a single blank page, which was a specific request from Cooper.

“I didn’t care about cost, I didn’t care about making money,” Cooper said. “I wanted it to be a piece of art and I don’t want any blank pages, that’s why I have quotes there.”

Cooper definitely took risks when it came to “Gone Sane.”

Lammon says that pairing illustrations with poetry is not usually common; most poets rely on the words to do the legwork.

“I believe what she’s done is inventive and exciting,” Lammon said. “It was a risk.”

Cooper has a couple of credits to finish to obtain her master’s at Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville, and is taking some time to focus on her family; however, writing will always be a constant in her life.

“What I’ve come to understand is that a poem is a live thing,” Cooper said. “And you have to live it.”

‘Gone Sane’ can be purchased on Amazon for $15 for those students that are interested in reading more of Christal Rice Cooper’s poems.

Posted by AubrieSofala on Jan 19 2012. Filed under Features, Lead stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.