Three generations of Stone women have been writers and poets, making one ponder the existence of a literary gene.
I was moving like a monsoon through a forest. I was thinking about where I saw myself in two thousand years . . . And where I saw myself was a tiny subspace ripple sliding through the corridors with a plastic horse in my hand. – Bianca Stone, Poetry Comics from the Book of Hours
Bianca Stone was born and raised in Vermont. She is the granddaughter of American poet, Ruth Stone; the daughter of fiction writer, Abigail Stone; and she herself is a poet, visual artist, and Chair of the Ruth Stone Foundation.
A proud descendent of a strong line of women, it makes sense that Stone would want to work hard to preserve the history and creative vigor of her family. “I moved to New York City for graduate school, and lived there for almost 10 years. I’ve just moved back so that I can work full time on the Ruth Stone Foundation,” said Stone. “My husband and I loved Brooklyn so much, but we knew if we were really going to make our dream happen with the foundation, we would have to be here putting everything into it.”
Being raised by a single mother, Stone spent a lot of time with her grandmother growing up.
“She encouraged me to constantly write, as did my mother,” said Stone.
After her grandmother’s death in 2011, Stone was appointed trustee of her estate along with Poet Laureate of Vermont, Chard deNiord, and Nora Swan. Together they have founded The Ruth Stone Foundation at the site of her home in Goshen, VT.
Page from I am Full of Mythos by Bianca Stone
“We’ve just started a new project called The Ruth Stone House Reader, which features chapbook-length collections of poetry from Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Jennifer Tamayo, Cathy Linh Che, and Carolina Ebeid,” Stone says.
Established in 2013, The Foundation serves to fulfill Ruth Stone’s wish that her physical and literary estate would be used for the furthering of poetry and the creative arts. It was created not only to nurture contemporary poetry and art in its many forms, but also to cultivate and celebrate the works and legacy of the poet herself.
Stone says, “as a yearly anthology, the Reader looks to Ruth Stone’s legacy of supporting her community and offers each author a residency in Vermont. Taking on a range of voices, styles, and subjects, the collection highlights the boldness and complexity of poetry in the early 21st century. This is writing that embraces those who offer care and confronts those who don’t. This is writing that spans narrative meditation, intertextual performance, and lyrical bravado. This is poetry that will challenge and engross you.”
When she’s not working with the Ruth Stone Foundation, Stone is publishing books of poetry and poetry comics on her own. She is the author of the poetry collections Someone Else’s Wedding Vows (Tin House/Octopus Books, 2014), Poetry Comics from the Book of Hours (Pleiades Books, 2016), and multiple chapbooks.
“I’ve always been a visual artist as well as a writer, but it wasn’t until graduate school at NYU that I had to opportunity to work with Anne Carson and Matthew Rohrer that I heard the term ‘poetry comics’ and I leapt on the chance to start experimenting on deliberately combining text and image in the form of poetry,” said Stone.
She is also a contributing artist for a special edition of Anne Carson‘s Antigonick, and along with her husband, the poet Ben Pease, Stone co-edits the small poetry press Monk Books.
“Currently I’m working on my new book of poetry,” shares Stone. “I’m about the have a baby so I’m trying to get the first draft done before she comes!”
With the newest Stone daughter on her way, we can’t help but wonder…will she be a writer too?
For more information on Bianca Stone please visit her Website for a deeper exploration of her work.
