Author Spotlight with Sonja Ringo
Sonja Ringo is a Canadian poet and author of two poetry collections, “Where the Beetle Went For Lunch” and “Mortal Atlas”. She focuses on themes of grief & loss, spirituality, mysticism, love for nature, and transcendentalism. She comes from a English & literature familial background, as her father is an English teacher and inspired a love for words in his children. Thus, Sonja has been writing ever since she can remember and works at it every day. She continues to live out her love for nature as she is currently residing in a cabin in the woods of British Columbia with her boyfriend. Featured below is a Q&A with Sonja Ringo by Z.Elliott.
Q. How long have you been writing and what inspired you to start writing?
SR. I’ve been writing my whole life, it’s something I’ve loved since I can remember. I was very inspired by my dad who is an English teacher and he is like a really special human. He has always had poetry and writing in our world as a family. Always reading us poems and sharing poetry, so it’s just something that has always been a part of my life because of him and it’s very special.
Q. What time of the day do you usually write and describe a typical writing day?
SR. It really changes kind of from day to day, I’m at all times trying to connect with the muse, always calling it in or looking for signs. Sometimes that doesn’t happen. Often when I write in the morning, I find things start to sparkle then. I'll wake up and make my coffee and I'm like ok it’s go time then start writing and sometimes nothing happens then it'll be midnight, so I have a journal with bugs on it by my bed. There is no hard fast rule, just always trying to write good poems.
Q. Tell me about your first published book? What was the journey like?
SR. My first book I started writing immediately when covid lockdown happened. I got laid off, so did my boyfriend, and suddenly I had all this time, I had been working full time and immediately I was like I’ve always wanted to write a book. I have stacks of journals in my closet, so I just started pouring through them and typing veery poem up that I thought was good. It took about a year and half before it was actually published from that time I put it together, but I never stopped working on it and wrote more poems too. I didn't want to submit to publishers because I'm impatient and want to do everything myself, kind of thing, so I looked into self publishing. The following summer I published “where the beetle went for lunch”. There was so much learning, every single little step like how to format a book and use adobe. A fire lit up under me and it was the only thing keeping me going during a time when the world was in chaos so it was my rock.
Q. What, in your opinion, are the most important elements of good writing?
SR. I always feel like a good poem for me, reading or writing, I always want to feel surprised at some point. I wanna be like “oh I was not expecting that route or word it took”. Coming at something with a unique angle, there are no unique topics, we’re all writing about love and grief and eternal things. So coming at it from a different perspective is important. Also using unique words, I’m a big fan of the thesaurus and looking at how can I tweak this a little to make it punchy.
Q. How do you handle writer’s block?
SR. I hate it so much. I feel lost. I battle it by allowing myself to write shitty poems. I often have this very high standard for myself, even if I don’t share it then it has to be good. When I have writer's block I try to let the perfectionist in me quiet down so there is then a shift in me. I also allow myself to take a break, go for a hike and allow it to be. Lastly, prompts, those are huge. I love looking for prompts and that often cures it. There are so many good ones out there!
Q. Which of your books were the most enjoyable to write?
SR. That’s a toss up between my first book and my current book. The current one, I’m really loving and I’m in the arranging phase, but first one was also really fun to write because I have such a different voice now. I’m finally stepping into a place or power and where I want to be with my writing. I think the first one was most enjoyable because it was all about nature and I have such an eternal love for nature and writing these love songs for nature was so fun. Mortal Atlas was the least enjoyable because I was in such a place of heavy grief and just needed to write, to move through my grief and handle that phase of life. It was healing, a “tough medicine” sort of thing.
Q. Are you working on anything at the present you would like to share with your readers about?
SR. I will sprinkle a little nugget. This one is like, the vibe is velvet. A deep red velvet and long claws. Basically sultry and sexy and kind of dark, but also huge self love, empowerment with black combat boots. That’s all I can say. It’s exploring love and lust and heartbreak and turning it inward at the end to yourself. It’s kind of vulnerable but I started writing horny poems and here we are. My mom reads them, but whatever this is how I’m feeling.
Q. What advice would you give a new writer, someone just starting out?
SR. What I wish I would have known when I first started, don’t try to be like anyone else. I think it’s good to have people you admire and look up to, but you’re gonna have so much success if you’re authentically yourself. Truly, there are so many layers to peel back before you get to your own core and that’s when the magic happens and that’s when people resonate, when you’re just fully yourself. Second piece of advice, the things you’re most scared to post and write about, do more of that! Lean into the things you're scared of.
For more by Sonja Ringo, check her out on Tik-Tok and instagram @sonjaringo or online at www.sonjaringo.com.
