Cody-Rose Clevidence Interviewed at Creative Independent

Cody-Rose Clevidence talks with poet Elaine Kahn about writing, editing, and living in the wilds of Northwest Arkansas, for the Creative Independent. Their thinking on the move from New York to Arkansas: 

...I was traveling across the country one time and I was lying in the back of the truck while my friend drove. We passed a horrible Oklahoma plain (no offense) and then all of a sudden, it’s the most beautiful rolling hills, with the most beautiful trees and I was like, “I’m moving here. Where are we?” And my friend who was driving was like, “We’re in Arkansas.” And I was like, “I’m moving to Arkansas.” And then the next time I went there, I bought four acres.

Can you talk a bit about what the actual property is like?   

Yeah, so it’s in the Ozark National Forest and you can’t really get there in a two-wheel drive. When I first came, it didn’t have anything there except a light. It has a light post, which is pretty weird, like some Narnia shit—like deep in the middle of the fucking woods, just woods. And I built a little cabin and timber framed an outdoor kitchen and I have a garden. I tried to have chickens but I am not a fucking farmer at all and so… it’s rough in a lot of ways. We just ran a system to pump water like, 700 feet up from a spring. But until then, I spent the last six years filling up gallons of water at a spring three miles away and hauling it back in the truck. I could be out there for weeks and never see anybody or occasionally hear a four-wheeler go by, or in the distance, hear hunters or something. 

Do you have plumbing?

No, we have an outhouse...

Learn more at the Creative Independent.