Barbara Fant returns to Columbus ready to leave her mark on Thurber House

Barbara Fant is very open about the reality that the arts, and more specifically poetry, saved her life. And she has continued to center this idea in growing her career, believing the same creative release that helped to steady her as a youth can serve as a buoy for others.

“I was a young person going through a lot of trauma,” said Fant, whose mother became ill when she was 12 and died three years later. “And so, I needed a way to release the pain I was in, but then I also needed a way to understand my grief. … And writing gave me a way to get the pain out and to get to a place where there was some sense of joy. And it healed me. Had I not been writing through my 15-, 16-, 17-year-old life, I don’t know who I would have been, because I was an angry kid, an angry teenager. But once I got onstage, there was this sense of release, and I could feel it moving through my body. It was almost somatic, in a way, and it took me around the world. Every door that has opened in my life is because I was a poet.”

This idea informed the work Fant pursued after she moved from Columbus to Los Angeles, and in particular her role as program director for Homeboy Industries, a rehabilitation program for people involved in gangs that operates its own arts academy.

“And what we realized when we were doing that work, and as they were coming into the arts academy, is that you begin this process of stripping away. And so, you’re stripping away these layers so they can figure out who they truly are and what they really like to do,” Fant said. “And one of the ways we would do that is that we would just throw everything at them: Paint this thing, write this thing, dance here. … And now we got kids meditating. We got kids making clothing lines and realizing they want to be chefs – all these things they had never even thought of because they didn’t know what was possible.”

Fant acknowledged it could be a challenging job, at times, requiring her to serve as a program director, a social worker, and a therapist, among countless other roles. But it also helped to foster a sense of personal growth that she described as transformative, and which enabled her to return to Columbus with a new clarity of purpose as she stepped into a position as executive director of Thurber House on Sept. 1.

“I feel different in the way I think about my own work in the world and what I want to do,” said Fant, who will take part in a community welcoming reception at Thurber House from 7-8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17. “I feel clearer about that vision than when I moved away, and I have more language for it. I feel clearer about my own creativity, and I feel more prepared for leadership than when I left.”

Fant first became aware of Thurber House in her early 20s while living in Columbus, recalling how she was invited to serve as a guest artist in a writing class that left her briefly questioning her own credentials. “I was like, ‘Hi, I’m Barbara. I’m a poet and I write and perform.’ … And these people were younger than me, and they were like, ‘I’m such and such, and I’m on my third novel,’” Fant said, and laughed. “And I remember being like, ‘You’re 14! What do you mean?’’

In the years that followed, Fant continued to maintain a connection to the space, teaching journaling and poetry classes, taking part in Poetry Out Loud, reading in authors’ series events, and even serving for a time on the nonprofit’s board of directors. But while she always felt welcomed, Fant said she was continually surprised by how Thurber House remained an unknown quantity even within local writing circles, recalling how she would talk about the organization at poetry slams or open mics and be met with blank stares. “And I’d be like, ‘How do you not know about Thurber House?’” she said. “It’s always been this tucked away, sweet space, and it’s like, yo, we should all know about this.”

Fant takes over as director at a precarious stretch in the storied institution’s history, following successful public fundraising campaigns launched to raise $100,000 in 2021 and $200,000 in 2024, the latter accompanied by messaging reflective of the dire financial straits the nonprofit found itself in at the time. “Thurber House is struggling to remain open and fulfill our mission,” the organization wrote on the campaign page.

These difficult economic realities have done nothing to deter Fant, who said that a lifetime spent in the arts and nonprofit worlds had already steeled her for the challenge. “There’s always that risk, so I was aware. But that’s also been my journey. That’s been my life” Fant said. “We just do what we do, you know? I’m always going to be a writer. I’m always going to be a poet. And I’m always going to believe in the power … of uplifting other writers where I can and cultivating a space where other people’s voices can be heard. And I look at this as an opportunity to do that.”

At the time of our early September conversation, Fant had been in her new role for less than two weeks. But even at a point where she was still acclimating to her surroundings, she had already pinpointed a handful of places where she could begin to imprint herself moving forward.

“You’ll probably hear a lot more about writing for wellness and healing, because that’s the lens through which I see the world,” said Fant, who also intends to introduce the space more widely to the city’s most vulnerable populations, hoping it can come to be known as an accessible community resource rather than a tucked-away jewel for those few in the know. “It’s figuring out how we can break down those barriers and provide more opportunity for those folks who are most vulnerable, because they’re the ones who need it the most.”