Writing roots take hold in Chicago
by Carrie Trousil

"Writing's in my roots, it's in the family," said poet Cynthia Gallaher of her Celtic heritage. Her roots were transplanted Stateside during the Irish potato famine when great-grandfather James Gallaher departed Castlebar, Co. Mayo, and wound up in Illinois. The Gallaher bloodline has remained in the Chicago area ever since, where she walks in great-gramp's footsteps. "He was an author and a journalist," she said. "He did a bit of everything."

Her stepfather, John, worked for the Chicago Port Authority and tracked down the dye used to tint the Chicago River green each St. Patrick's Day.

This most recent Chicago Gallaher is pretty busy, too. She started her creative career as artist and a musician, but eventually narrowed her focus to writing. "It seemed like it was a good fit. Five hours could pass easily before I knew it," Gallaher said. She is currently working on a screenplay about the Windy City's jazz age, as well as on new volumes of poetry.

Gallaher has already published three books, including the recently released Earth Elegance  (MARCH/Abrazo Press, $10.05), which is a reflection of her involvement with various activist organizations through a collection of animal and environmental poems. "I'd like to reach a broader audience," she said about her latest volume. "There are people who may not sit still for an environmental lecture, but who may read about it," she pointed out.

Earth Elegance  has been well received in the literary community.  Ed Two Rivers, winner of the American Book Award and an Iron Eyes Cody Peace Prize, have prized Gallaher's work.  Her words...flip like coins to skillfully paint images in our minds," observed Two Rivers.

Her other works include a book of Chicago poems called Swimmers Prayer  (Missing Spoke Press, 1999), Night Ribbons  (Polar Bear Press, 1990) and is featured in Boomer Girls: Poems by Women from the Baby Boom Generation  (University of Iowa Press, 1999). In addition, she has had more 100 poems published in small literary magazines.

Although Gallaher has received numerous grants to write, she still lives the 9-to-5 life working in the advertising department of an insurance company. That means she doesn't have a special writing office at her home. "Most of my books are written at the kitchen table," she said. That is, in the kitchen of a thoroughly artistic household. Gallaher lives with her poet husband, Carlos Cumpian, and her son, Julian, a 14-year-old who practices his guitar for three hours a day.

Earth Elegance is available in Milwaukee at Woodland Pattern Book Center, and in Chicago at Barbara's Bookstore or Women and Children First Bookstore.

Interested individuals can also purchase Earth Elegance online at www.geocities.com/swimmer53 .