The unlikely wordsmith: Academy guest author Jacques J. Rancourt turns his experience of dyslexia into literary gold
Rancourt, who will work with creative writing students in mid-January, shares how a strict Catholic upbringing and a learning disability set him up for success as a poet.
Jacques J. Rancourt will be the first to tell you that he was “the least likely candidate” to become a poet. With two published collections and a chapbook to his name, plus credits in top journals like POETRY Magazine, that statement might seem a little surprising. But Rancourt has wrestled plenty of demons in his lifetime, from an overly-strict religious upbringing to a learning disability that severely impacted his reading skills. Now the winner of numerous fellowships and awards, this poet has chosen to galvanize his early struggles into literary gold—finding inspiration and material to fuel a career that’s impacting the next generation of young writers. This January, Rancourt will share his insights and expertise with creative writing students at Interlochen Arts Academy.
The logic of sound: how dyslexia became a gift
Although Rancourt always wanted to be a writer, he wasn’t a strong reader until he was 12. His struggles with reading didn’t stop him from developing a deep love for stories, though. Rancourt’s grandmother enjoyed reading aloud, and she frequently shared her book collection with her grandson.
“She had a little library in her home and she read to me the Odyssey, Beowulf, and all the classics. She read beautifully. I still hear her cadence when I read,” Rancourt says.
Rancourt calls these experiences his “germination as a poet”, even though he didn’t begin to actualize his potential until more than a decade had passed. As a creative writing/English double major with a fiction emphasis in college, he was required to take a poetry seminar.
“ It wasn't something I was drawn to immediately. I think I got a B in that class,” he says. “But the next year, when I took an advanced poetry workshop, I felt really connected with it.”
Rancourt began writing his own poetry. To his surprise, he found that the disability that had so long hindered him was turning into a gift, allowing him to see possibilities that were invisible to others.
“To this day, I often misread things on the page at first glance and things get jumbled in front of me,” he says. “Oftentimes that misread will produce something much more interesting to me. It might be something I can play with sonically, like the start of a poem or a way to edit a line that creates more mystery or intrigue within it.”
A simple misread, like the nonsense phrase “mouth color paint”, might end up being a complete line in a new poem. Rancourt loves the off-kilter feel of phrases like these and enjoys finding ways to incorporate them into his work.
“The way I first interpret books and sentences often comes out very strange or off. And that offness is often intriguing to me,” he says.
The Virgin in drag
It’s not just the sonic experimentation that sets Rancourt’s work apart, though. He’s also been bold in his choice of subject matter. His first collection, Novena, recasts the Virgin Mary as a drag queen—a very deliberate choice, given Rancourt’s religious upbringing and sexual orientation.
“ My mother was a very devout Catholic in the old-school way,” he remembers. “Every night, she would roll up the carpet and we would pray all 15 decades of the rosary on the hardwood floor to connect us with the pain of Jesus.”
Those formative years, painful as they sometimes were, influenced him to consider joining the priesthood. But everything changed once Rancourt hit college, came out as queer, and realized he was pursuing a very different life than the one he’d originally imagined.
“When I began Novena, part of the project was trying to reconcile these two very different parts of my life: the life I had and the life I live now,” he says. “I wasn’t attempting to reconcile them intellectually, because I think they are at odds with one another in obvious ways, but I wanted to honor the emotional journey that I took.”
Novena’s central poem, which shares the book’s title, reimagines well-known Catholic rites in ways that offer reverence to the outcasts and misfits of society. Rancourt says his intent isn’t to mock or vilify traditional religion, but rather to offer new perspectives that lead to healing.
“My hope is that when people are reading that collection, they don’t see it as making fun of religious iconography but instead trying to create a new kind of advocate, one that would help guide my former self into my present self,” he muses. “It’s a love letter of sorts to my 15-year-old self.”
To teach in a place where the arts are prioritized is incredibly exciting. I was so energized by my last visit and I'm looking forward to experiencing that energy again.
Advice for young writers
Rancourt’s other work has taken on charged themes in LGBTQ+ history. His chapbook In the Time of PrEP takes its name from a medicine used to prevent HIV, and his most recent collection, Brocken Spectre, deals with stories of the American AIDS epidemic. Throughout his years of writing and seeking publication, he’s relied on support from close friends he met during his MFA studies—friends like Brittany Cavallaro, who now teaches at Interlochen.
Rancourt, who has taught students from eighth grade to the college level, is excited to share his insights with Arts Academy creative writing majors.
“I love coming to Interlochen, where students from around the world have gathered together to pursue their love for the arts and especially the written word,” he enthuses. “To teach in a place where the arts are prioritized is incredibly exciting. I was so energized by my last visit and I'm looking forward to experiencing that energy again.”
His top advice to young writers is drawn from tools that helped him along the way.
“I would say to do as much copying, imitating, and stealing as you need to find your own voice. Don't publish those pieces, obviously. But a big part of my practice was copying out poems by hand, especially long poems, and then eventually inserting my own narrative into their syntax and rhythms—keeping the sentence structures, but putting my own story in there.”
Rancourt’s own writing is rich in concrete detail and doesn’t shy away from evoking strong emotions. He’s turned the pain of his past into a wealth of inspiration. As a working poet himself, he’s uniquely equipped to offer his students guidance as they learn how to do it, too.
“Ultimately, you just want to discover what makes the hairs in the back of your neck stand up when you read,” he reflects. “You want to articulate why that happens and find out how you can do that in your own poetry. How can you have that kind of powerful effect on someone else?”
At Interlochen Arts Academy, creative writing students receive instruction from gifted instructors and nationally-known guest authors like Jacques J. Rancourt. Learn more about creative writing at Interlochen Arts Academy.
