From Our Soundbooth | September 19, 2017

We’re delighted to share with you our 2017 Miller Audio Contest Runner-Up, Ingrid Wendt, whose “Ingrid Wendt Selections” was selected as this year’s runner-up in our Poetry category! You can find a few words about Ingrid and her audio project below.

Years before she acknowledged her love of words, Ingrid Wendt’s first artform was music. Having begun classical piano studies at the age of 6 and organ at 11, her high school years were spent practicing, accompanying choirs, winning piano competitions, and employed as a salaried church organist.

Starting college as a music major, however, was another story. The pressures of performance grew ever more intense; her mind wouldn’t stop wandering during long hours of daily practice; and the limited number of electives wouldn’t allow for indulging her passions for reading, for acquiring the broadest possible knowledge of the world, and for writing. She never dreamed that writing could be a way of life. And then, sophomore year, she took her first poetry writing class. What was a liability for an instrumentalist–not being able to get words out of her head –suddenly became an asset. Though she wasn’t yet able to say exactly why (and it took a long time to stop feeling guilty), she changed her major to English.

Today, Ingrid Wendt is the author of five books of poems (two of them titled Singing the Mozart Requiem, which received the Oregon Book Award, and, most recently, Evensong). Her first book of poems, Moving the House, was chosen by William Stafford for BOA Editions’ New Poets of America Series. Her third and fourth books received the Yellowglen Award and the Editions Prize, and several of her poems have been read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac. Co-editor of the Oregon poetry anthology From Here We Speak and the teaching anthology In Her Own Image: Women Working in the Arts, Ingrid has been a visiting writer at all educational levels, including the MFA program of Antioch, L.A, and as a Fulbright Professor in Germany. She lives in Eugene, Oregon, with her husband, poet and writer Ralph Salisbury. A long-time member of The Motet Singers, a 12-voice, semi-professional, women’s a cappella ensemble, music has never ceased to inform and infuse her life and her work. You can read more about Ingrid and her passions at http://motetsingers-eugene.org/ and www.ingridwendt.com.

Listen to “Ingrid Wendt Selections” by Ingrid Wendt here: