Nicky Beer, a graduate of Northport High School, has made her mark in the literary world as an acclaimed poet. She is the author of The Octopus Game and Real Phonies and Genuine Fakes. Her work has earned prestigious honors, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and the Colorado Book Award. Currently a professor at the University of Colorado Denver, she spoke with us about her high school experience, her path into academia, and the evolution of her creative process.
If you were teleported to Northport High School right now, where would be the first place you would go and why?
I’d go to the little theater. I took theater classes from sophomore to senior year with Fran McGarry. I was even allowed to be in one of the theater productions as a freshman. They needed a big cast, and so I was allowed to do that. I just absolutely loved being in those shows. I loved theater. I loved doing the plays. We did a Shakespeare production every year. I got an opportunity to act, and I even got to direct a show once, and I got to assistant direct another show. I made so many good friends and just had such a wonderful experience. And I think one of the things I really loved about it was that Fran McGarry, who taught the class, really gave us a lot of responsibility. We all felt a really strong sense of ownership for the productions that we put on. It was just really fantastic. It was probably my favorite place to be, and I just had so many good friends there and had so many good experiences.
Were there any other teachers who made a big impact on you?
Absolutely. William Sequin, who just passed this past spring. I took AP English with him, and it was a very serious class. He had really high expectations for us, but you felt good about being able to rise to his expectations. If he praised you, it really, really meant something. He had really high standards, and he was really hard on us, and we completely benefited from it. He was incredibly supportive of my writing. He just encouraged me to take risks and was really interested in the weird things I was writing. That definitely gave me a lot of confidence. I think he just took us all very seriously as students in terms of whatever we were interested in. That really makes an impression on a group of students.
How were you engaged in writing in high school?
A lot of the writing that I was doing, I was either just kind of doing on my own, or I was doing in classes. In Huntington, there was this place called the Paris Cafe, and there was a poetry slam there. I would go there and I would usually read stuff. It wasn’t formally structured through the high school, but it was still kind of a local community
What is your writing process like? Has it changed over the years?
I think it’s different now. In high school, it was very uninhibited and very angsty, of course. When you’re in high school and you’re gonna be writing, that is the time to be writing angsty stuff. And there’s nothing wrong with it. As the years went by, I was becoming more engaged with the larger world. I was reading so much more. I think as I’ve gotten older as a human being and more experienced as a writer, I’ve come to realize that the thing that now inspires my writing the most is the things that I’m reading. My writing process now is very dependent on my always reading something. That’s something that’s changed over the years.
Do you have any advice to those students who would want to go into a creative profession in the future?
If you’re looking to get involved with a more creative career, then make other people’s creativity completely embedded in your life. That means reading a whole lot. That means getting interested in, for example, what kind of visual art interests you. When you go into a museum or step into a gallery, there’s always some piece that you wind up walking towards first. Trust your own instincts about the things that you like in terms of what you read, in terms of the music that you like, in terms of the art that you’re attracted to, you know, going to live performances, things like that. Just make that a normal part of your life.
Also, think about what success means in a creative field. Creative people, even the great ones, deal with failure and know it doesn’t mean they’re bad, or wrong, or talentless. It’s just kind of the price of admission.
What would you say to your high school self if you were able to have a face-to-face conversation with her now?
Everybody is going through something. Everybody is wildly insecure. Even the people who seem like they totally have it together and have completely popular, untroubled, uncomplicated lives. Everyone is going through something. Try to be as kind to people as you possibly can, and even the people who seem like they’re being shady to other people, try and forgive them. Try and be grateful for what you’ve got and live in the moment.
