CR 031: Kindall Gant on Poetry, Creativity, and the Joy of Experimentation

The poet discusses her creative process and her passion for the arts.

Kindall Gant

In her haunting poem “time capsule,” Kindall Gant’s childhood memories of Hurricane Katrina are brought to life in vivid detail. Only seven at the time of the event, Gant writes of “traversing lake pontchartrain / for hours” as a “genocide masquerading as natural / disaster” ravages her hometown. Nominated for a prestigious Pushcart Prize, the piece was inspired by artist Howardena Pindell’s collage Autobiography: Oval Memory #1 and is just one example of Gant’s deft ability to take a favorite work of art—a painting, a photograph, a song lyric, a TV show quote, even another poem—and transform it into something entirely her own.

Gant’s poems have been published in numerous outlets, including Torch Magazine and 1619 Speaks: An Anthology of African American Poetry. When she’s not writing, she’s working full-time as a book publicist, pursuing an MFA from the New School, and serving as Editor in Chief of Arcanum, a literary journal she founded in 2020.

I recently spoke with Gant …