English professor finds inspiration through experience

Hannah Koeller

Nothing prepared Christine Stewart for recurrent miscarriage. Her first pregnancy had happened
so quickly and without any problems.

She was not expecting to become statistically abnormal after having four miscarriages between
2007 and 2010.

Everyone tells you when youre young its really easy to control your fertility, and its not for
everybody, Stewart said.

So when Xavier Stewart Rex was born on May 5, 2015, Stewart had no idea she would give birth
to such a happy, healthy baby at age 42.

Stewart, associate professor of creative writing at South Dakota State University, was on
sabbatical that semester. She could not believe the news when she found out she was pregnant
again.

I took the test and I was crying, I was angry, I was incredulous, like I couldnt believe it,
Stewart said. I couldnt believe it.

She cancelled two international conferences in the weeks following her discovery, expecting to
miscarry again.

Once the morning sickness stopped and she realized the pregnancy would stick, Stewart began to
wonder what impact her newborn son would have.

She knew life would change with maintaining her writing and teaching careers, taking care of a
new baby and dedicating enough time to her oldest son Holden, who has Landau--Kleffner
Syndrome (LKS), a form of epilepsy that affects a childs ability to understand and communicate
with spoken language.

Stewart and her first husband became aware of their sons condition nearly eight years ago.

He had a seizure the night of his fourth birthday party, Stewart said. ... It wasnt a convulsive
seizure that you would normally notice, thats what was really weird. It looked like he was
sleeping with his eyes open.
Since Holdens diagnosis, she has radically simplified her life on an emotional, spiritual and
material level.

Stewart often incorporates these experiences into her writing. She said having kids hasnt
changed her writing style, but instead added different experiences to the possibilities of what to
write about.

I write a lot about Holdens epilepsy, I write a lot about these experiences, Stewart said. So
that becomes part of my work... learning about these things and dealing with them.

One of these writings includes beginning work on a memoir about Holdens epilepsy. Another
will come in the form of a book of poetry featuring the same topic, along with the theme of
recurrent miscarriage.

Stewarts work to maintain her work and family life has not gone unnoticed by those around her.
Steven Wingate, assistant professor of creative writing at SDSU, said by immersing herself in
both of these things, one doesnt take away from the other.

How she remains productive despite the demands of parenthood is a mystery that only she can
solve, Wingate said. You have to have a lot of discipline in order to get any writing at all done
as a parent, so taking care of two kids who need a lot of time is doubly difficult.

Stewart said she knows Holden will grow out of his LKS and be his own person, so she has to be
her own person too.

Through all the kicking, hitting, screaming and spitting in the past, she said Holden has taught
her more about life than anyone.

He is the person who teaches me about love, Stewart said. [He] has taught me a lot about
patience and love and that words dont always matter... there are times when he could not use
them and I could still know what he was feeling.

There are a few childhood experiences Stewart identifies as the beginning of her writing career;
one of those was being a voracious reader.

As a kid with an alcoholic father, Stewart spent a lot of time reading, never knowing what might
set him off.

I would just read, I took books everywhere, Stewart said. So I think writing kind of just
stemmed from that.
Stewart began writing a lot more after her older sister Teresa died in 1984. She used writing as a
way to process the loss and keep to herself.

I would just write a lot about it because I didnt want to make anyone sad or upset anyone,
Stewart said. And it really changed me as a person though because I really wanted to be like my
sister in all the good ways, but always avoid the things that she did that were so problematic, like
being a heavy drinker.

She started writing poems for her friends in middle school and high school. Eventually, writing
became something that everyone knew she did.

It started to become part of my identity as a person, and its just something I always did,
Stewart said. People expected me to do it, but I kind of expected myself to do it too.

After earning her Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska--Lincoln in 2007,
Stewart came to SDSU, where she has had an impact ever since.

Stewart helped to create an internship program through the Department of English with the South
Dakota Humanities Council to help her students gain more experience and learn about the range
of careers that depend on writing.

Jennifer Widman, director of the Center for the Book at the SDHC, said she appreciates how
well Stewart gets to know her students and how enthusiastic she is about seeing their growth as
Writers.

Christine is a wonderful writer, but I think her influence will go far beyond her own work
because of what a great mentor she is, Widman said. She is definitely enhancing the writing
scene in South Dakota.

Stewart teaches mostly writing classes at SDSU, including creative writing, poetry, creative
nonfiction and advanced creative writing.

She has left a lasting impression on many of her students, including Haley Wilson, who
graduated with an English degree in May 2015.

To this day, when editing a piece, I can practically hear [Stewart] reminding me to limit my
adjectives or to use a stronger verb, Wilson said.

One thing Stewart taught in Wilsons creative writing class that stuck with her was to find the
good in everyone elses writing, whether its a teacher or a classmate.

Dr. Stewart always finds the good in her students writing and pushes them to draft and develop
and strive to make it even better, Wilson said.

In her own writing, Stewart finds inspiration in all kinds of places. Most recently she was
walking home and saw a box of gutted pheasants in the parking lot.

She said the inspiration was how beautiful the feathers were in the box and that there wasnt a lot
of blood. It looked as if the feathers had been arranged nicely, which made it even more
Interesting.

You have to cultivate that creative perspective, where you see something and theres some
tension or agitation or something about the moment that kind of stands out, Stewart said.
Theres something happening here that could change my perspective or something that could be
plumbed for some meaning or something thats just unordinary, extraordinary, even if its
something as small as a box of pheasant feathers.