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Interview: Kate Gregoire
Five questions with poet Kate Gregoire, published in our most recent issue.
Kate Gregoire’s “Einhorn” is one of the poems that will appear in the inaugural issue of 3Decker. Here is a little interview with Kate speaking in their capacity as a poet living and working in Worcester County. The inaugural 3Decker issue will be arriving on September 10th!
Tell us about your accepted poem(s). What inspired it/them?
I was working with Beth Sweeney on her brilliant project to collect poems from the community about Worcester, “Poems in and out of Places”, when I drove past the Einhorn Street sign off of Highland St. in Worcester. The poem pretty much wrote itself from there. Worcester can be a rough place to live, especially if you’re moving here alone as a young professional, and yet there is a pulsing vein of hope coursing through the city. You can see it in the art that is nourished here. I wanted to commit to memory this hope and the places I’ve found it, like Luis and Birgit’s White Room, and Bruja’s Poet’s Cauldron.
What is your writing process?
For me, a poem usually starts with a ‘bid’ for my attention. Maybe it’s a word or an image, maybe it’s an experience. In this case, it was seeing the German word for unicorn on a street sign. Suddenly, my eyes were alert for other hints of magic hidden beneath the surface. After chewing around on this bid for a bit, I’ll work in pencil to write it out, to see what shape it wants, where the next stanza will lead me. If I don’t like the first draft, I’ll try a second or a third. My goal is to get everything down about it that’s flowing through my head. I know I can cut it later, but I like to see it on paper first. I usually like some time to pass before typing, sometimes days, sometimes months, or sometimes years. The most serious edit happens here, as I’m deciding which words to transcribe and which to leave behind as part of the process. I’ve been meeting with an incredible group of poet friends once a month since 2021. We met in an online course offered by Driftwood magazine on chapbooks. We workshop two poems a piece together each month, and this is my favorite space to bring a poem. I use our meetings as deadlines to get typing and to put some serious thought into edits.
Where can we find more of your work?
This is my first publication! I am so grateful to the Three Decker team for selecting this poem. I consider Worcester my poetry birthplace, and to be included in this publication dedicated to Worcester County poets is a true honor and hopefully a fitting start!
What makes Worcester feel like home to you? What’s your favorite thing about Worcester County?
What makes Worcester feel like home to me is the people and their love of art. I’m thinking of Birgit Straehle and the Sprinkler Factory, of Jo Truesdell at Tidepool Books, or Nicole DiCello of Bedlam Books. I’m thinking of Irena Kaçi and her fierce dedication to poetry. I’m thinking of Beth Sweeney and her vision with Mapping Worcester in Poetry. I’m thinking of our local radio stations, WICN and WCUW. And I’m thinking of the incredible poets I’ve met through Rain Poetry since 2021. They inspire me, they make me want to be a better poet and person, and they give me hope.
Tell us an unusual fact about who you are.
I have red hair, blue eyes, and am left-handed. I suppose that makes me a bit of a unicorn as well, to bring this around full circle. (But aren’t we all, in some way or other?)
Interview: Nic Jean Turner
Nicole ‘Nic’ Jean Turner’s “Memory Lane is a Cul de Sac” is one of the poems that will appear in the inaugural issue of 3Decker. Here is a little interview with Nic speaking in their capacity as a poet living and working in Worcester County. The inaugural 3Decker issue will be arriving very soon!
Tell us about your accepted poem(s). What inspired it/them?
I wrote this poem while attending Almonds, Pistachios, Cheese and a Dash of Bitters during the National Association for Poetry Therapy’s 2025 conference in Oregon. The workshop focused on gratitude, resentment, and anger. My thanks to Sherry Reiter, Ph.D., LCSW & Elizabeth Rose, LICSW, MFA, for leading the session.
What is your writing process?
I can’t say I have a specific process beyond seeking out as many opportunities to learn as I can, and surrounding myself with other writers who are also dedicated to their craft. I write nearly every first draft in cursive.
Where can we find more of your work?
What makes Worcester feel like home to you? What’s your favorite thing about Worcester County?
Worcester is where I first fell in love with artists supporting artists. You can always ask a punk, and there’s kindness behind every cigarette cloud outside Ralph’s on a Monday night.
Tell us an unusual fact about who you are.
I’m an ADA SME that builds C# web apps & Drupal/WordPress websites with AAA-level accessibility.