Ellie Savidge, Writer

Katie Roberts

As editor of What's Up, one of the aspects I most enjoy about my job is the opportunity to interview new and emerging artists.  To do art is to be courageous, to look inside and take out a piece of it for people to view.  I was thrilled to hear about Ellie Savidge, a local deaf Seattle writer that had just appeared on the scene.  I sat down with her and asked her all about her experience as a writer. I had first viewed one of her poems, “Mother’s Day 2009” which was shared on the website of the Bent Writing Institute.

I liked the poem – she uses simple, plain language, carefully created sentences with purpose. This poem offers us a window of time, of an experience Ellie had, and it touched my heart.  I had the opportunity to discuss this poem with her, and I was delighted to undercover her story.  Her story fascinates me - of her adopted family, of meeting her birth family, and how she felt the need to write down those stories and share.  So much of it sounded interesting – her brother from her birth family is Deaf. Their Deafhood journeys have been so different, simply because of a twist of fate! I look forward to learning more about their separate journeys, and how they’ve crossed paths.

Ellie shared with me about the wonderful support she had gotten through Bent, to the extent that she was able to secure interpreters for her classes.   Ellie had the highest praise for the classes – the people she worked with, the teachers she learned from, and how her ability to write had improved greatly over the course of a year.  It seems that those classes tend to be very small, which creates a more intimate experience – there are only up to ten students per class! The feedback she gets is invaluable, especially the positive comments which inspire her to continue. As it turns out, you can sign up monthly for classes – only 75 dollars, and they will work with you to provide interpreters if possible (they are a very small non-profit organization).  Ellie shares with me how there were some temporary difficulty getting an interpreter during a specific period of time, but the teacher would email her assignments every week and a classmate would work with her, even though she couldn’t attend due to the lack of an interpreter. It behooves us to seek alternatives when finances do not permit the most obvious solution, and more often than not, Deaf persons are left to fend for themselves. Such attention to individual writers and their needs are to be commended. Two thumbs up, Bent! You can check out their website here, and here is the link for their upcoming writing classes.  This previous fall, there was a showcase of poetry and writings for Bent, and Ellie had the opportunity to participate.  I, for one, already have my eye out for the next Bent showcase, which hopefully will have interpreters.

 I asked her what she would like to share with emerging artists about her experience here.  She recommended setting up a regular writing schedule – just to write – just to get in the habit of doing this work.  She feels that doing this has helped her so much since then, now that she is more confident in sharing her work, and she is learning what it means to be a writer.  She told me that I should consider myself a writer – I write for this blog, don’t I? I am unsure.  I desire to create, but am I a writer? An artist? This question remains to be answered.  I would like for you to think for yourself – do you desire to create? Is there something you’d like to create? Are you doing it? Those were the thoughts I had when I finished my interview with Ellie that day.  It was very enjoyable, Ellie, and I hope to see some of your writings here at What’s Up!