MariJean Wegert, Winona Lake, stands in a peaceful setting, one that inspires her creativity. She is a teacher and writer, seeking to help readers discover and nourish a richer relationship with their souls and bodies. Her first book of poems, “Water the Bones,” is based on her rather complicated relationship with Indiana. Photo provided by MariJean Wegert.

By Laurie Lechlitner
InkFreeNews

WINONA LAKE — “I believe that human beings house whole kingdoms within them,” stated MariJean Wegert, Winona Lake. “Each of us has hidden longings. Writing is a vehicle to help us discover and nourish a richer relationship with our souls and bodies.

Wegert started writing when she was 12 years old. “I received my first journal for Christmas one year, and I began filling it up with words. I already had a box of empty notebooks. I decided to fill them with words, too.”

Wegert received her bachelor’s degree in 2010 from Grace College, Winona Lake. She went on to earn her master’s degree in English a decade later, with a concentration in rhetoric.

Her prose poem, “The Howling Girl,” was featured in the fall edition of Pan-O-Ply Magazine, a publication by Dan Breen highlighting story and art in Michiana.

The opening lines read: “There is a girl inside my house, and she is howling for love. She is howling because she does not yet believe that she will be tended: she is howling because she’s never met someone who did.”

“I’d recently gone through a pretty traumatic experience when I wrote ‘The Howling Girl.’ Writing the piece was a big part of healing. It’s easy to demonize the unpalatable parts of ourselves and others. But if we ask them what they need, we often find that they are hurting, too.”

Wegert is currently a ghostwriter and editor, and teaches peer-support writing classes at Scribere, a communal healing space offering narrative therapy, expressive arts, and community groups in Brownsburg. She will be offering local classes to Warsaw soon. “I want to offer opportunities for others to make maps of their inner territories. Finding that connection between the heart and body is so magical.”

Wegert likens this inner understanding to the work of a shaman or healer before the formal study of psychology and myth. “They attempted to unite heaven and earth in the imaginations of their communities. They were storytellers.” She is working on a curriculum that unites scholarship, ecology, myth and poetics.

Her first book of poems, “Water the Bones,“ will be released later this year by North Meridian Press. “It’s a bit of a love song about my very complicated relationship with Indiana.”

She learned her writing philosophy from authors like C.S. Lewis and Ray Bradbury, who created their stories around a series of images. “Like them, I always start with nouns. Pictures in my head. Then I build the story around what I see.”

Wegert has two daughters, ages 8 and 5. “We go on so many adventures together. My oldest writes pages of stories. My youngest writes music and sings. They often come with me to poetry readings.”

Wegert recently performed at an open mic hosted at L.I.T.E., a recovery and community center in Milford, offering services and support to formerly incarcerated community members, and has also appeared at readings in Fort Wayne and South Bend.

Those interested in finding out more about Wegert’s writing may subscribe to her Substack, The Poetics of Place, at marijeanelizabeth.substack.com. Those interested in scheduling her as a writer, speaker or teacher can email her at [email protected]. She can be found on Instagram and TikTok @regressada.