Heidi Barr is a Minnesota-based poet, essayist, and author of a number of books including Woodland Manitou, What Comes Next, Cold Spring Hallelujah, Slouching Toward Radiance, and the forthcoming work Collisions of Earth and Sky: Connecting with Nature for Nourishment, Reflection, and Transformation (January 2023). She is also co-author with Ellie Roscher of the book 12 Tiny Things.

In addition to her prolific published works, Heidi is the curator of the Substack publishing stream called Ordinary Collisions: Intersections of Nature & Culture, which includes both interviews and her own insightful posts and contemplations. Recently, I had the pleasure of connecting with Heidi for an Ordinary Collisions interview.

The interview format is deceptively simple. Heidi asks each participating interviewee the same set of questions. What is extraordinary about the questions, however, is how they excavate something rich and thought-provoking from the deeper layers of each person. Because everyone is unique (with differing backgrounds and experiences, differing areas of focus, each holding a diversity of perspectives), the questions-responses are ever-renewing and illuminating.

You can read my own conversation with Heidi here: “Collisions, Dissonances, Sparks” / Interview with Frank Inzan Owen