Joan Thomas said she read about Mary Anning and the events of her life for an entire year before even beginning the writing process of Curiosity.
After stumbling upon Louis Slotin's wikipedia page and becoming fascinated by the story there, Michael Lista must have done a ton of research in order to write his fascinating first collection of poems, Bloom.
Eva Wiseman went back into her childhood to a name her mother used to mention. She underwent the research it took to find out about young Jewish traitor, Morris Scharf, and she wrote Puppetbased around the real life trial of which he was a part.
I think what it is is finding that itch that you have to scratch.
A story that you happen upon or someone tells you about or is somehow connected to your own history that you just can not ignore. It gets under your skin and you have to scratch and pick at it, peel away layers of skin, undergo whatever pain it may cause you for the sake of the story. Whether you like it or not, no matter how hard you try to escape, it's something that must be done...a story that must be told.
But it's probably research that you enjoy doing, and that's the reason you do it.
Joan Thomas talked about Curiosity being almost a 'found novel,' the way that poets talk about found poems. The research fell together in such a perfect way.
Still, writing is hard work. Re-writing history is probably even harder, no matter how well the research fits together.
But sometimes you get an itch
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Brandon James Bertram is a perpetual student. When he's not at the university you might find him going casually about his business in his West Broadway apartment or spending his leftover student loans on beer at Cousins. He sometimes reviews music for the Uniter and his poetry has been published in Rhubarb magazine. He might graduate with a bachelor's degree next year.
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