Finding a Sense of Belonging in Place

How poet and farmer Jessica Gigot found her place

This bonus newsletter is a monthly feature for paid subscribers, the sixth in the series. These extras showcase edited interviews with someone whose work intersects in some way with this newsletter’s focus—place, history, writing. I hope you enjoy this one and those to come.

Introduction

Not longer after moving to Skagit Valley, I discovered Jessica Gigot’s memoir about finding a home here and farming. Soon, I found her on social media and recognized some shared interests around environmental and agricultural issues. When I read her A Little Bit of Land, I recognized landscapes and characters from this place and learned to understand where I lived a bit more. She graciously agreed to meet with me and talk about this place and her creative practice.

Jessica is a farmer, poet, and coach, as well as a scientist. She has spent most of her life in the Pacific Northwest. Jessica is the author of two book of poems, one of which was a finalist for the 2021 Washington State Book Award. Her memoir was the Nautilus Book Award Gold Winner in 2023 and a finalist for multiple other prizes.

(NOTE: the following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.)

Jessica Gigot in front of a communal chalkboard in a Bow, Washington, distillery, not far from her farm, January 2024. (author photo)

Adam Sowards

How do you describe yourself and your work?

Jessica Gigot

That's a good question. I guess that’s a question I've struggled with, because I do a couple different things. I have an academic background, and I realized early on that I was interested in agriculture. But I didn't want to do research, so I got more into the practice of farming. That has become my work.

I'm also drawn to environmental writing—writing in response to not only the work I'm doing on the farm but also just experiences in nature, landscape descriptions, personal experience.

A word that gets used a lot is “witnessing.” I do feel like I am witnessing environmental change. Witnessing my own grief in response to that environmental change has become a big part of my work, as well as my poetic job of noticing—not just within nature but also within relationships.

I think that's one of the things I have adapted from science to poetry: the ability to pay attention to things closely and take notice of things. I've gone through periods of time where I tried to write every day. I don't do that right now, but those exercises have been good in realizing how much you can capture in a day. And if you don't write it down, it goes away. So that capturing is also something I feel like is part of my work in writing.

Adam

On your website, you describe yourself as a “poet, farmer, and coach.” Why that order? Or, if you had written that when you were, say, just graduating from high school, what would those three things have been?