Tanya Nikiforova is a primary care physician who writes poetry and fiction inspired by the breathtaking range of human experience she encounters in her profession. She is a first-generation immigrant from Belarus and resides in the U.S. with her family. She was selected for the Summer Short Story Award for New Writers shortlist by The Masters Review, and her work will be published in Fractured Literary Anthology Volume 4.
You can read My Likeness in the January 2025 issue.
Would you like to tell us a little bit more about your poem? For instance, how or why you wrote it, or perhaps provide some extra context?
Sometimes, the briefest, most unexpected interaction with another person can right our ship. Sometimes it gifts us a little bravery to pocket for when we will need it most. When writing this poem, I imagined two people at a party, outcasts, perhaps uninvited, literally sitting outside of the room where everyone’s gathered and looking in. They’ve never met before and will never meet again, but for an evening they connect with each other freely and authentically. That thread of connection never disappears, and years later, the protagonist pulls on it to help her face a world.
As a poet, what does creative success or achievement look like for you?
I define success differently for every piece of writing. Sometimes a poem feels like a splinter I’m pulling out of myself. Just getting it out on a page with minimal damage—to me, to the idea—is enough; it doesn’t need to be seen by others to be real. But sometimes a poem is a lighthouse beam, beckoning sailors to safe harbor or sending warning about a dangerous shoal. I want those poems to connect with others and try to get them out into the world, one way or another.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a series of poems inspired by the lives of my favorite musicians who have died. Jeff Buckley, Jason Molina, Amy Winehouse. I want to write poems that are haunted by their music, their visions, their shortcomings.
Are there other art forms that inspire or inform your poetry?
I don’t see poetry as being too distinct from other art forms. All art comes from the same well of creativity buzzing and bubbling inside. Sometimes when an idea arrives, it tells me that a poem or a painting or a short story is the best way to give it a body, but other times the same idea is re-incarnated in more than one form and speaks to its siblings.
How do you make space for poetry in your daily routine?
I’m a mother to two young kids with another full-time job, so moments of inspiration are fleeting. Sometimes I know there are all these ideas gurgling in my mind, but hearing them, or holding them, feels impossible. It helps me to find regular ways to be alone and enveloped in quiet, whether on a run, in a museum, or at a library. At the same time, if I don’t write down an idea immediately, it will be forever lost. So no matter what I’m doing, I am intentional about keeping a pen and blank notecards nearby and force myself to record anything that might be of later use. Also, everyone needs at least one amazing writer-friend who understands why it’s so important to prioritize writing and helps you do it. Thank you @lauramullenwrites!
How did you begin writing poetry? Was there a specific inspiration or reason?
I started writing poems in spurts one summer as a 14- or 15-year-old. I think I was trying to make sense of an increasingly chaotic adolescence and was lucky enough to live in a family that accepted writing poetry as a normal manner of self-expression. Figuring out how to keep writing turned out to be a much more difficult adventure.