I sent that version probably 5 places before it
found its home at YesYes. It was a finalist with the National Poetry Series and
with Arktoi at Red Hen when YesYes asked to see it; I was thrilled that YesYes
wanted to give it a home.
Tell me about the title. Had it always been Boyishly? Did it go through any other
changes?
It had always been Boyishly, but when I sent it to YesYes, I had changed the title.
Their first question was about the title, so it went right back to Boyishly. They were right. The book had
been close enough that I felt like some small changes might be the thing needed
to get it published. The title wasn’t the thing that needed to change though.
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?
Contests have certainly become the most common
way to a book, which seems mostly unfortunate. I feel lucky that I didn’t have
to follow that path, even though I did enter some contests, mostly because I
felt like I had to. YesYes asked to see the manuscript because one of their
editors knew my work. That struck me as a healthier relationship, like they
were interested in me as a poet with a whole career instead of just picking a
blind manuscript that was their favorite in the stack.
I don’t say any of that to be critical of
contest winners or entrants though. I don’t think my poetry path should be
prescriptive; I would say that there are other paths to a poetry career besides
MFA programs, journals, residencies, and contests. If that’s the path you take,
that’s great, but I don’t like the myth that those things are the only way a
person can build a career as a poet.
What was the process like assembling the book?
How many different versions did it go through as you were sending it out?
I started writing in 2000, never thinking about
a book. I just liked writing poems and I never thought about them in
relationship to each other. In 2010, I started thinking about a book and
started looking at all the poems I had, trying to figure out what they had in
common, what questions ran through them. That was very hard. Once I had a stack
together, I started to play with order and groups; I would put poems in as I wrote
new ones that I thought worked and pull old ones out that lost relevance or no
longer fit. The order shifted a lot; I physically spread the poems out and
walked from one to the other to decide what followed what. Once I had a rough
order I would spread them out on the conference table at work and shift them
around. The first poem is the only poem I wrote specifically for the book; late
in the game I decided I wanted an invocation to begin the text.
With the new book I am working on, I’ve been
thinking of it as a book from the start and I’ve been aware of the main idea
the book is playing with from the start. In many ways, this seems much easier,
but I do worry that this method might be too artificial in some way, that the
poems will be too stilted together.
How involved were you with the design of the
book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?
I appreciated that KMA Sullivan, YesYes’s
publisher, said from the beginning that she wanted my input, but her job was to
make final decisions. That took a lot of pressure off; I felt free to say what
I liked and what I didn’t, but I didn’t have to make any final decisions. Alban
Fisher was the designer and I loved the fonts and designs he used. They were
perfect.
Did you suggest or have any input regarding the
image that was used on the cover?
KMA sent me some artists
links to check out. Eleanor Bennett was one of those and I fell in love with
her photographs immediately. KMA contacted her (Eleanor is 17 and lives in
England) and sent her some poems; Eleanor graciously offered to take a few
pictures for us to look at as possible covers. Kids With Guns (the cover photo)
was one of those and both KMA and I thought it was exactly right.. KMA and
Alban figured out how to spread it across the cover and how to include the
blurbs so the picture could be clean. I had asked about having a textural,
non-smooth cover and they made that happen as well.
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?
I’m not a big sender-out of
poems. If people ask, I’m happy to submit stuff when I have it, but it doesn’t
really do much for me. I’m interested in books and in readings much more than
being in journals. That’s what helps me write and what helps me revise, know
what’s working and what isn’t.
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?
Justin Boening was the lead
editor for the book and KMA Sullivan also worked a ton with the manuscript.
They definitely made it better. We pulled 2 poems out, moved a couple, and did some line edits. It
didn’t feel like too much work but I felt like it made the book much, much
better.
What do you remember about the day when you saw
your published book for the first time?
The book arrived a couple of hours before the
launch. There had been a fatal car accident at the head of my road and I was
convinced that the FedEx guy wouldn’t be able to get through as the road was
closed. Somehow though, he pulled up with the big box that afternoon. It was
absolutely a beautiful moment to see them all there. I couldn’t even imagine
what it would be like to see the real object; it was as emotional and as
satisfying as I had hoped. My favorite thing is having a book to read from at
events. It makes me happy every time.
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?”
I have a couple answers.. Sometimes I say it’s a
collection of American voices that aren’t typically heard; other times I say
it’s about alternative masculinities. They are both true. I always say it is a
very American book.
What have you been doing to promote Boyishly, and what have those
experiences been like for you?
I’ve been lucky enough to do a fair number of
readings. YesYes has been very generous with putting together tours and
sponsoring readings. We had a launch in Durham, NC, where I lived at the time,
at the Pinhook, a great local music venue. It featured all kinds of local artists-
Jim Haverkamp showed his amazing film, When Walt Whitman Was A Little Girl,
poet Chris Vitiello gave a reading while dressed as the Pope, the local slam
team performed, and shirlette ammons tore the house down; we even had a house
band to play all the artists on and off the stage. It was a great way to
welcome the book into its Durham community.
Since then, I’ve done 2 YesYes tours, the first
with Ocean Vuong and Keith Leonard in Portland OR, the second with Matt Hart,
Phillip B Williams, and Roger Reeves in Oakland and San Francisco. For both, we
lived and read together each night for about a week. Both were beautiful
experiences. It’s so special to get to hear the same poets several nights in a
row, especially when you are spending a lot of time together otherwise. I’ve
done lots of other readings in support of the book; one of my favorites was at
Dorothea Lasky’s Multifarious Array at Pete’s Candy Store.
What advice do you wish someone had given you before your
first book came out?
I suppose I knew it already,
but books are a slow process. Oprah doesn’t call on Day 2 and even though the
thing you have worked on forever and somehow miraculously made exists, the
world does not stop to notice. You have to show up and read and bring books and
be a professional. Write poems because you love to write poems, not because you
think poems will make you famous or popular or loved.
Are there any new writing projects in the works?
I’m working on a new book, right now called Stay. It explores what it feels like
when the world and its people seem to be moving further apart. That’s what
interests me about America right now: the way way drones and fear and
Guantanamo and inequalities make us drift apart, make us feel more alone, less
connected. It currently consists of 2 long poems with 10-20 short poems
sandwiched in the middle and isn’t nearly as didactic as that description makes
it sound.
Do you believe that poetry can create change in
the world?
Absolutely. I think poets and poetry have real work to do in the
world; when that work isn’t done, I think our world gets worse. I’ve never
understood why poets aren’t invited on CNN to talk about things like the
housing crisis and the World Cup and Flight 103 and drone strikes and
everything else that captures our attention.. Our job as poets (I think) is to
look into, travel into ideas and report back what we see. If I was Poet
Laureate, I’d work on trying to restore the public job of poets; this is also
why we need poets that do other things besides teach other poets.
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Tanya Olson lives in Silver Spring, Maryland and is a Lecturer in English at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Her first book, Boyishly, was published by YesYes Books in 2013 and was awarded a 2014 American Book Award. She has always won the Discovery/Boston Review Prize and was named a Lambda Emerging Writers Fellow by the Lambda Literary Foundation.
Tanya Olson lives in Silver Spring, Maryland and is a Lecturer in English at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Her first book, Boyishly, was published by YesYes Books in 2013 and was awarded a 2014 American Book Award. She has always won the Discovery/Boston Review Prize and was named a Lambda Emerging Writers Fellow by the Lambda Literary Foundation.
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