Chelsea Rathburn on the Unexpected Beauty of the “Research Dead-End”
This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. Earlier this summer, our geriatric air conditioner stopped working, bringing an abrupt end to a few years of never-quite-cold-enough temperatures and bafflingly-high electric bills. Our HVAC guy broke the bad
In the summer of 2021, Chelsea Rathburn's geriatric air conditioner stopped working, prompting an abrupt replacement that included re-insulation of the attic and ductwork for an addition that had never been connected to the central AC. This project led her to discover early notes for her fourth poetry collection, Broken Houses. The book explores the house as both physical structure and metaphor, delving into themes of shelter, anxiety, money, social class, and erasure.
Initially titled Magic Cities, the collection's earliest conception was about the settlement of Miami. Rathburn found herself buried under old bills and lesson plans containing the earliest notes for the project while sorting through papers from the pandemic. Despite initial struggles in finding the right direction for her poetry, she realized that her paternal ancestors were among Miami's early pioneers, which led her to explore the disenfranchised and those left out of her family history.
Her research eventually shifted towards personal stories, such as her father's foster home and the identities of his adoptive family, which provided a new avenue for her writing.
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