The nonprofit Kentucky Foundation for Women has recognized one particular artist in the commonwealth with multiple grant awards.
Kentucky writer Savannah Sipple talked about being a three-time grantee and the themes of her work.
In the backyard of her Lexington home, writer Savannah Sipple breaks up clumps of rich dark soil with a gardening hoe in preparation for planting tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, and perhaps some corn. She learned this skill from her grandmother growing up in eastern Kentucky.
Gardening is one thing this Kentucky writer does to relax. She said, lately, there hasn’t been much time for relaxing. Sipple is primarily a poet. She also writes fiction and non-fiction. Her work has been published in places like Salon and Go Magazine and now she’s working on a revision of her first novel.
“I think one of the things that comes through in my work is just writing about an experience that is often overlooked. And so, I’m not just writing from a feminist perspective, I’m also writing from an Appalachian perspective but then also being a queer, Appalachian woman. And so, the work that I do all sort of speaks to that experience,” explained Sipple.
The 39-year-old Sipple has received three artist enrichment grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women. The organization awards the grants to feminist artists working toward positive social change. In 2012, Sipple used the grant money to help publish her book of poetry, WWJD and Other Poems. In 2015, she received support from the foundation to write her memoir, and her recent award is going toward work on her novel.
“One of the things that I hope happens when people read my work is that it creates some sort of understanding. And so that even if my experience is not their exact experience, then they at least have some sort of understanding of what it might be like. I think it’s very validating for other folks, whether they’re artists or not to see their own experience reflected in literature that they read. And that’s not an experience I had very often growing up. Maybe you’re not from a rural place but maybe you grew up queer or closeted or whatever else. For me, it’s just a matter of trying to build understanding and I think that’s where change really starts to happen,” said Sipple.
Sipple said her writing style is influenced by several different places.
“ I read voraciously first of all, and always have, for as long as I can remember. My mom tells a story of me packing around a stack of books as tall as I was around the house, wanting to be read to. That’s a huge part of it but also I think that in my writing practice, one of the things I try to do is just tune out this thought of what is this person going to think or how are people going to react to this and try to tell the truest story that I can,” reported Sipple.
Her first collection, WWJD and Other Poems was published in 2019 and was included on the American Library Association's Over the Rainbow Recommended LGBTQ Reading List. Sipple and I walk to a park that’s close to her home. Sitting on a green picnic bench she reads a poem from her collection called Pork Belly.
The KFW grant she received in 2012 supported this collection.
”This KFW grant was to support that collection of poetry and that collection of poetry was published in 2019, which is seven years but it took on a lot of iterations and went through several revisions at that time,” said Sipple.
Avery Guess is the grant programs manager for the Kentucky Foundation for Women. She said artists from all over the state apply for grants to do work that they hope will transform society. Guess calls Sipple a triple threat because she’s used the grants to write poetry, fiction, and non-fiction.
“She writes about a variety of themes often centered around LGBTQ plus issues as well as intersectional issues such as Christian fundamentalism, body shaming, fatphobia, and also homophobia and what it means to be queer, rural, and feminist,” said Guess.
Savannah Sipple said she plans to work on a revision of her novel this summer. The working title is Three Strikes. It’s about a summer league softball team with two narrators who are best friends. One of them is closeted and coming to terms with being gay.
She said the support provided by the Kentucky Foundation for Women has been pivotal in helping her career as a writer.
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