It’s hard to say because
I never had a very programmatic plan for trying to publish a book of
poetry. I had impulsively sent a
[haphazard] bunch of poems to one or two book contests a couple years before,
but never with the thought that I actually stood a chance. (In fact, I was always a little
appalled at the jumble of poems I’d sent off immediately afterwards.) For a
long time, I had individual poems I liked, but I didn’t feel like I had enough
to pull together a full manuscript.
It wasn’t until 2010 that I really thought I had something that seemed
like a book, and then I entered this one book contest I really admired (because
I had a prophetically good feeling about it). My manuscript didn’t win (proving my powers of prophecy to
be faulty), but I was a finalist, which gave me hope. So then the next fall, with significantly more thought, revision, and consideration, I found
a handful of book contests I liked, including the Donald Justice Prize, and
sent out my manuscript.
Tell me about the title.
Had it always been Oldest Mortal Myth?
Did it go through any other changes?
In one very different,
earlier incarnation, I called it Animal
Afterlives, which is the title of one of the poems included. As a book title, it had very little to
do with the overall manuscript—other than the fact that I liked it and thought
it sounded kind of cool Once I
decided on Oldest Mortal Myth,
though, I knew it fit the book, in a lot of ways.
It seems like there’s a
possible misconception among some poets who are trying to get their first book
published: that they must win a contest. Were you concerned about winning a
contest at any point? What advice would you give to poets sending their book out
now regarding contests versus open reading periods?
It’s very likely I was
one of those poets operating under that misconception! In truth, I hesitate to
give advice because I feel like I was ill-informed about the process of
publishing a book of poetry. It
didn’t really occur to me to submit to open reading periods. In retrospect, I think sure, yes, do
all of the above—send your manuscript to contests and open reading periods, send
it wherever, as long as you sense there’s some kinship between your work and that
published through that contest or press.
What was the process like
assembling the book? How many different versions did it go through as you were
sending it out?
It reminds me a little
bit of the good old art of mixtape-making. I think by the time I was actually ready to assemble a book,
it mostly fell together in an intuitive way. By then, I’d written enough poems that certain themes and
connections were apparent. The
toughest part for me was plucking out the poems that didn’t belong because I
felt sorry for them. I have this
tendency to overinclude. I want to
cram everything in, even my most terrible poems, those poor little stray
dogs. In the end, though,
(hopefully) I was appropriately selective.
How involved were you
with the design of the book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?
I got to choose the cover
image, a photo taken by my brother-in-law, who is a young yet absurdly talented
artist. (His name is Daniel
Alexander Smith, and you should
check out his website. Look out
for this guy!) I was really happy
with how the book turned out. All
credit and thanks to Jamie Smith and Kim Bridgford and the family of Iris N. Spencer and
everyone else at the West Chester University Poetry Center!
What about the
publication of the actual poems in journals and magazines prior to the book
being published? Was there ever a concern for you to have the majority of the
poems published before you were sending out your manuscript?
It was never really a
concern, but I had published a number of the poems in magazines or journals already. I’ve always really loved reading around
in various small magazines and journals, so it was always exciting for me also
to send work out and feel like I was part, even in a very small way, of that
dialogue. It’s wonderful to
discover a gem of a poem by someone whose work you don’t yet know! So, yeah,
I’d been submitting individual
poems for a while and reading journals, but not with any thought towards how
that would or would not affect assembling a book-length manuscript.
How much work did you do
as far as editing the poems from the day you knew the book would be published
to its final proofing stage?
I did make some changes
here and there, and I got some helpful editing/proofreading from the kind
people at the WCU Poetry Center.
But on the whole, once I feel an individual poem is “finished” I usually
leave it alone. I tend not to want
to revisit older poems and tinker with them. I have the gift or curse of not being overly
fastidious. So mostly I was proofreading
and making the final keep-or-cut decisions about poems.
How has your life been
different since your book came out?
It hasn’t really been. I’m so happy the book exists, and I
feel lucky and grateful, and it’s a very nice thing, a thing I always wanted (a
poetry book! a real, live book!), but the book came out just as I was entering
into one of the busiest stints ever in my work. I’m a psychiatry resident, and I was heading into this
period of working these month-long stints of 12-hour shifts in the emergency room,
and half of them were night shifts.
It was pretty grueling.
There weren’t a lot of poetry-related thoughts in my mind, as a
result. But maybe that’s a good
thing, in a way? There’s nothing
better to reframe one’s appreciation for the time and opportunity to read and
write poetry than spending every waking hour in the emergency room of a large,
urban hospital....
If you struck up a
conversation next to someone seated on an airplane, and after a few minutes you
eventually told them that you were an author who had a book of poetry
published, how would you answer their next question: “What’s the book about?”
Carnival freaks and Greek
mythology and ghosts and religious doubt and kidnappers and gunshot testicles
and visual disorders and metamorphoses and the human body.
What have you been doing
to promote Oldest Mortal Myth, and
what have those experiences been like for you?
So far I haven’t done
very much, but I’m looking forward to participating in a couple readings coming
up.
What advice do you wish
someone had given you before your first book came out?
I would still like that
advice, if someone would like to give it to me.
What influence has the
book’s publication had on your subsequent writing? Are there any new projects
in the works?
Only recently has my
schedule eased up a bit so that I can start writing some again. I’ve had a few little bursts of poems
here and there, but the main thing I’d like to try first is another YA novel. That’s what I’m working on at the
moment.
Do you believe that
poetry can create change in the world?
Maybe so.
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