sheila packa
poetry / spoken word
bio
Sheila Packa grew up on the Iron Range, is the granddaughter of Finnish immigrants, and lives in Duluth. She has published poems, short stories, and essays in many literary magazines and anthologies. Most recently, her work has been featured in New Rivers Press book, To Sing Along the Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-Territorial Days to the Present, edited by Joyce Sutphen, Thom Tammaro, and Connie Wanek. She's received two Arrowhead Regional Arts Council fellowships for poetry, two Loft McKnight Awards and, this year, a career opportunity grant from ARAC.
image gallery
click here to view full-size, high-resolution images (photos taken by ryan braski)
resume
click here to view sheila's resume (in rich text format).
poetry / performance samples
see the poetry link to purchase, read, or listen to samples.
upcoming events
see the calendar page for a list of public events.
contact information
sheila packa
(218) 393-4218
email list
send an email to: sheila@sheilapacka.com to be notified of upcoming events.
quotes
"These poems
have wheels. They take a person to unexpected places and I, for one, am
thrilled to go there." Whether the landscape is the tender grittiness
of the Iron Range, the sensuousness of the body, or the complicated
terrains of memory and expression, these poems are something to write
home about. We are very lucky that she has sent them to us."
- Ellie Schoenfeld, author of Difficult Valentines
"These are truly poems grown in the North Country. Sheila Packa's poems
have an understanding of the poverty here, as well as the beauty."
- Louis Jenkins, author of Nice Fish and North of the Cities
"Tonight, with no hurry and no special agenda, I fell back into their
cadence quite easily, and they readily opened the rich contemplative
quality that has impressed me so deeply."
- Cecilia Lieder, publisher, artist
Anyone who has ever visited Northern Minnesota can identify with the expert metaphors and beautiful repetition of sounds of The Mother Tongue. The collection is divided into three sections, The Mother Tongue--narrative poems about her youth; Torrent--erotic love poems clearly influenced by the poet's past and homeland; and Fluency--narrative poems about finding love, both romantic and platonic. Describing herself as a "daughter of love," Sheila Packa transcribes her experiences coming of age and finding love in Minnesota's rural mining community. Packa sees herself as part of her surroundings toiling deep in the heart of an iron mine, professing her love to her Iron Range boyfriend, taking a dip in the rust-colored "Wine Lake." And yet, struggles with her Finnish heritage give her poetry the emotional distance needed for a foreign reader. As she comes to understand the cultural differences wich create a barrier between her and her mother, she writes, "We must go to make new/love and let the past go." At the same time, her poetry celebrates the past, her heritage, and the North, which provides "the iron in our veins." Packa has received two Arrowhead Regional Arts Council fellowships for poetry and two Loft McKnight Awards.
- Elizabeth Bance, Minnesota Literature Newsletter
The Fiction/Poetry/Drama reading group loved this beautiful collection
of poems. This 3-part collection includes 28 erotic poems, which sweep
the reader up by surprise, interspersed with Packa's reflections about
growing up as the daughter of a Finnish mother while living in the
economically stressed region of the Iron Range. While these are
personal explorations of identity and mother/daughter relationships,
the reader travels along easily and willingly for the bumpy ride.
- Reading committee for the Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards (2008 Honorable Mention for The Mother Tongue)
