Questions with KSB by: JOIE BALDYGA & MARIA LINCK content editors
All Photos: M. Linck and J. Baldyga
In the BGQ’s first ever 50 Questions With feature, we put the spotlight on Central’s very own Kathryn Shelley-Barnes, aka KSB. Shelley-Barnes, a passionate English teacher, who is very popular for the energy and personal experience she brings to her classroom. Here we reveal the more personal side of KSB through questions ranging from her favorite eating utensil to her biggest fear. BGQ-What is your favorite music genre? KSB-I would say rock and roll. BGQ-What is your favorite color? KSB-Black. BGQ-What’s your secret talent? KSB-I’m a pretty good chef. BGQ-What was your first car? KSB-A VW 1963 bug, I called her the Gray Ghost. I always name everything. That’s my secret talent: naming stuff. BGQ-What has been your favorite vacation that you have taken? KSB-My husband and I, in 2013, during Christmas and New Years, went to London and Dublin. That was a great trip. BGQ-What is your favorite book? KSB-Well right now, it’s Mary Oliver’s Upstream, it’s a collection of essays. She talks about other poets that I just love. Whitman, Walt Whitman . . . *sigh* . . . As a student I would say Catcher in the Rye had a real influence on me. I was a sophomore when the English Department Chair, Ms. Louise Guery, said that I had to read The Catcher in the Rye or else I couldn’t graduate. And I believed her. I was very naive. But I really liked it, and when I read it again in 12th grade I got more out of it because I was a little bit older. Also in a poetry elective course, taught by the same 14 // BGQ // April 2020
All Graphics: M. Linck
teacher in my junior year, I was introduced to the poet Sylvia Plath. I was so surprised by the candidness of her poetry. I read her memoir The Bell Jar, which chronicled her experiences in a mental hospital when she was sixteen. This book resonated with me for a long time. I was fascinated by her, so I studied her in college as well. BGQ-What is your favorite eating utensil? KSB-Fork. BGQ-How do you take your coffee? KSB-Black. BGQ-What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? KSB-There’s so many new flavors. I would say my favorite flavor is Meditteranean Mint Chocolate Chip. It’s really gelato, but any mint chocolate chip. It has to be green, it can’t be white, and it has to have those little black flecks in it. BGQ-What is your favorite article of clothing? KSB-I’m into jackets now. BGQ-Where is your ultimate retirement destination? KSB-Traverse City. BGQ-If you could teach any subject other than English, what would you teach? KSB-Probably history or psychology. BGQ-What is your favorite way to work out? KSB-I like to lift weights, and I like cardio. I like
