University of Indianapolis alumna and Records and Curriculum Coordinator Carol Hatfield wrote and published “Diary of the Soft World,” a collection of poems. During her time as a student at UIndy, Hatfield wrote poetry as a side hobby while obtaining a degree in music. While a student, Alice Friman, an award winning poet, taught Hatfield as her professor. Without her knowing, one of Hatfield’s friends slid her poems under Friman’s door for her to read and critique. When Hatfield was called into Friman’s office, she was shocked at what Friman told her.
“I’ll never forget when I first met her [Friman],” Hatfield said. “She called me to her office and she sat me down and she said ‘Who are you?’ because she loved my poems, and I was just floored.”
Since then, Hatfield has gone on to publish a few poems through small presses, her biggest publisher being Cricket Media for children. She has had three poems published through Cricket, the latest poem published last month called “These Syllables Fly.” Hatfield started a WordPress page to publish her works online and to get feedback from her audience. When she received positive responses from readers, her friends urged her to write a book.
“Diary of the Soft World” is 304 pages with poems that revolve around nature, ancestry and emotion that Hatfield wrote. There are various types of poetry featured within the book including free verse, rhyme, haikus and song lyrics Hatfield said.
According to Hatfield, the book is for everyone’s enjoyment varying from kids to avid poetry readers to people who are not necessarily a fan of poetry. Hatfield said that she hopes her book of poems connects with people who don’t typically read poetry and that they will find enjoyment reading them.
Freshman chemistry major Margaret Southern had not heard of Hatfield prior to reading a sample of her poems from “Diary of the Soft World,” but enjoyed the freeness of her poems.
“I liked the free nature of her poems, and I liked how woodsy and nature filled it [the poetry] was because it was very open,” Southern said. “I liked the structure of how she laid it out because it wasn’t boring. It was open ended and a lot of her poems had different structures and I could really tell what she was trying to say by her different writing styles.”
Hatfield said her top three favorite poems include “Orange Cat,” “Stone” and “Four Gyrfalcons.” According to Hatfield, the title of the book comes from one of the last sentences from the poem “Stone.” She said that she got the idea for the conclusory words of “Stone” and the book title “Diary of the Soft World” from her sister, who is mentioned in the acknowledgments in the beginning of the book.
Hatfield said she is looking forward to continue writing in the future. She is also hoping to improve and advance in her writing abilities.
“I’m very excited to do that [write more poetry], yes, and I’m hoping it will be even better poems. I hope I’m growing as a writer, I’m trying to,” Hatfield said.
The book is available on e-book through various outlets such as Amazon and Kobo sites. Readers can also purchase the book as a paperback copy.
