INTERVIEW WITH INVISIBLE STRINGS AUTHOR KRISTIE DAUGHERTY

BY AMY BRADFORD

Kristie Frederick Daugherty is an Evansville resident, professor, doctoral candidate, writer, poet, and devoted Swiftie who has taken the literary world by storm with her latest project: Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift.

To know Kristie is to know how wickedly talented and brilliant she is. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing her for several years, we worked together in the education field and became fast friends. She has a warmth about her and a way of speaking that just works when it comes to teaching English and Literature, a natural born teacher. Also, and something I appreciate, she calls out the greatness in those around her, so I was over the moon when some of the literary greats recognized the boundless potential and raw talent within Kristie. Truly, her idea was a stroke of genius…especially considering the timing, as the frenzy that is the Taylor Swift empire rises to a crescendo in pop culture.

This genius idea is none other than a one-of-a-kind anthology featuring the work of 113 contemporary poets, including six Pulitzer Prize winners, who each crafted an original poem inspired by a specific Taylor Swift song. Invisible Strings is a celebration of both poetry and the music that resonates so deeply with millions of fans around the globe.

While I knew her well enough to know she was “up to something”, I could not have fathomed the level of success all her late-night writing sessions would bring. In fact, I had no idea what she was even writing. Yet one evening this past summer a cryptic text came through, inviting me (along with other close friends) out to dinner to share big news. The big news? Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift was picked up by an agent and auctioned off to Ballantine, an offshoot of Random House. Kristie made it to the big leagues.

The spark for this anthology happened on a memorable night—the 2024 Grammy Awards. When Taylor Swift announced her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, Kristie felt a rush of inspiration, “It was like a light bulb just blew in my brain, and I thought: How can poetry, how can we grab this moment that Taylor is offering poetry with so much visibility? And it just came to me.” Kristie’s “educator roots” were on full display as she explained the grander mission behind the book, “Taylor has taught millions of people how to close-read and how to analytically read. They are doing this work, and she has taught them that, which is incredible. That’s an incredible thing for a pop star to be able to teach an entire fandom. As poets, we’re hoping that this anthology can create a new set of readers for contemporary poetry, because poetry is so often viewed as something inaccessible or highbrow or high academia. But contemporary poets are doing what Taylor does — it’s not like that at all.”

Drawing from her research on how Swift’s lyrics intersect with poetry, Kristie reached out to some of the best poets in the world, asking them to respond to Swift’s songs without using her lyrics directly. The response was overwhelming, and the poems that emerged are nothing short of breathtaking.

The journey to creating this anthology has been remarkable. Kristie credits her time in IUP’s Literature and Criticism doctoral program for much of her inspiration. “The faculty and the critical discussions have rejuvenated my own creative writing,” she shares. “I’m not sure I would have had the idea for Invisible Strings if I hadn’t been in this program.” Her advisor, Michael Williamson, played a significant role in shaping her experience, and she feels grateful for the academic community that has surrounded her. With a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts and plans to complete her PhD in summer 2025, Kristie is already planning her next moves. She’s had several poems published in journals, and her work on Invisible Strings has even taken her to Harvard for an invited lecture. She’s also busy crafting a novel titled The Bible of Eve, proving that her creative wellspring knows no bounds.

As a poet herself, Kristie is eager to give back to the community that nurtured her. A portion of the anthology’s proceeds will support her new initiative, The 113 Poets Foundation, aimed at helping poets with travel grants and emergency funds, and supporting small, independent presses, “In the age of AI, we need our poets as never before”.

Invisible Strings is set to hit the shelves on December 3, and Kristie is thrilled by the enthusiastic response from publishers and booksellers alike, especially independent bookstores. “It’s incredible to see how quickly this has all come together,” she says. The book isn’t just for poetry aficionados; it’s also for Taylor Swift fans who may not typically dive into poetry. Kristie hopes that readers will engage with the poems much like they do with Swift’s lyrics—looking for those little “Easter eggs” that hint at the songs.

So whether you’re a poetry enthusiast or a die-hard Swift fan, get ready to dive into this one-of-a-kind anthology that celebrates the power of words and music, all while inviting readers to explore the magic hidden within the lyrics we love.