BELLA VISTA -- It was her love of science that led Joan Barrett Roberts to poetry, although it wasn't a direct route.
Roberts is the founder of Village On The Lake Writers and Poets, a group that has been meeting since 2015 with a membership list of about 120. She did an internship as a poet at The Writer's Colony at Dairy Hollow where she also has been a featured reader. But her second career came after her career in education.
She was born in Oklahoma and became a science teacher. In the '80s, she and her husband both found jobs in Huntsville. She taught in the migrant education program, as well as the science department, and found it an "eye-opening" experience. When her mother came to visit, Roberts learned that her grandmother had grown up in Fayetteville. She had heard stories about growing up on a farm but had never known where the farm was located.
When they moved their young family to Wisconsin, Roberts went back to school so she could teach at the college level. Later she took a job as a principal. Their two children grew up and moved away, so when they retired, they moved back to Arkansas to be close to grandchildren.
She started writing when she retired, but she got interested in poetry after losing two of her siblings within a few months of each other in 2010. She grew up in a large family, but the siblings she lost were the two she was closest too and she struggled to deal with the feelings of loss. A weekend retreat led her to poetry writing. It was a way for her to understand her own feelings.
"I've always loved being outside," she said. To combat depression, she started taking long walks around the lakes in Bella Vista. She took photos to capture the beauty she found and then started trying to capture it in words as well. For years she walked and wrote every day. She publishes her own poems on her website, shadowleavesonlakeann.com .
The first writing groups she joined were online. She met new friends online, and they encouraged her to continue writing. Eventually, she reached out to more local groups in Fayetteville and Eureka Springs. But it was hard to travel to meetings, especially at night. When the Artist Retreat Center first opened in the old log cabin on U.S. 71B, Roberts stopped by to meet the owner, Sara Parnell.
She learned that there wasn't a writer's group at the center and was invited to start one. She put a notice in the Weekly Vista and, for five years, the group met monthly.
Local authors were often the guest speakers at the meetings, she remembered, many of them were well known. Often the meetings included workshops led by the authors and up to 60 people would attend. In 2019, the group hosted a boot camp for writers that was very successful.
When covid 19 hit, the writer's group moved to online meetings, Roberts said. Meanwhile, the Artist Retreat Center was sold, so the group became homeless. Attendance has suffered, she said, but she hopes it will pick back up when they find a permanent home. In July, they met at the Historical Museum and heard from Xyta Lucas and Dale Phillips, who co-wrote a new history of Bella Vista.
For now, the Village Writers may be back online. Eventually, they may be able to meet at the Bella Vista Library but, right now, the library isn't hosting meetings.
For more information, go to www.villagewriters.org or contact Roberts at 608 642-1294.