tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31557846997794940222024-03-08T04:58:27.036-05:00First Book InterviewsContinuing in the tradition of Kate GreenstreetKeith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-91695595673007092472014-11-05T11:52:00.001-05:002014-11-05T13:10:14.947-05:00#88 - Emilia Phillips<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How often had you sent out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Signaletics</i> before <a href="http://www.uakron.edu/uapress/akron-poetry-prize/">The University of Akron Press</a> chose it for publication in 2013?</b></span><br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Almost</i> counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and this
question, so let’s say I sent the book out about twenty times. I sent it out to
its first contest in the fall of 2011, and I heard back from the University of
Akron Press in the summer of 2012. It received a few finalist nods elsewhere
and was, after I withdrew it, under serious consideration with another press.
But I found the right editor, Mary Biddinger, at the right time, and I’m
pleased as a possum in a trash bin to be with the Akron Poetry Series.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tell me about the title. Had it
always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Signaletics</i>? Did it go
through any other changes? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For
a little while the manuscript was titled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Latent
Print</i> after a sequence by the same name, but it soon became <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Signaletics</i>. The only time I really
doubted the title was when a Famous-Poet-Not-to-Be-Named upon hearing my title
said, “Are you actually smart? Or are you just trying to sound that way?” What
a blow! Fortunately, after a few nights of pacing and self-doubt, I had some
reassurance from a mentor, and I have no regrets about it now. I do have to
explain the title at readings often, but that just gives me a lead-off talking
point. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Money’s
certainly nice, and that’s one reason one should certainly enter contests. (In
addition to the fact that prizes often have tenured acclaim and publicity.) But
I think landing a book with a press you respect for their other titles, their
design, distribution, and marketing is more important. So, if you land with an
editor you love outside of a contest, be grateful! </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Occasionally,
I’ll hear a poet who second guesses a decision to go with a press or not,
especially after the new-car-smell of the book wears off. If you can find a
great editor, hell, that beats the candy in the contest piñata.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What was the process like assembling
the book? How many different versions did it go through as you were sending it
out? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It’s
difficult for me to locate what’s a draft versus what’s an iteration of a
draft. The book didn’t come together in stages, as the term <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">draft</i> implies. I was always tinkering
with it, from the smallest things to the biggest. Occasionally, I would swell
up with an idea for a poem and have to write it down. Some of the collection’s
poems were drafted as early as autumn 2009. The last was written in late spring
2012. I continue to tinker with the book until the final draft was due in early
2013. The biggest changes were with ordering. I’d say the book went through
about four or five arrangements before it was picked up, two after. One of my
peer reviewers suggested that the book was a little cold, lacking in emotion.
At first I was defeated by this comment, but then I later realized that a
reordering of the collection could help reveal the stakes of the poems. At that
point, I shifted toward the front a few poems that contained the narratives or
situations that make the emotional implications more clear. That’s when I knew
the book was right. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How involved were you with the
design of the book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I
was very involved. My designer’s name is Amy Freels; she works for both
University of Akron and Cleveland State University Press. She’s incredible. I
sent her countless images of things I was considering, and she was very patient
with me through the whole process. We finally settled on a historical
photograph—a mug shot—from Sydney, Australia. We were granted usage rights for
a small fee. From there, Amy composed the cover. After that, she wrote to me
one day and said that she had an idea for section breaks, a small illustration
from an antique book about public speaking gestures. It was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">exactly</i> what I wanted. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Did you suggest or have any input
regarding the image that was used on the cover? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As
I mentioned before, yes. I found the image in a historical trust’s online
archives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately, my designer
loved it! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I
wanted a majority taken by journals I admire before it went into the contest
circuit. Once it was taken, I wanted all the poems to come out in journals
before the book was published. I had about four or five left over, so I sent
those out and placed them quickly. All the poems were published prior to the book’s
publication.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">First
of all, once the book was accepted, I asked Mary if I could add two poems. I
sent her the manuscripts including the additions and she approved. The book
next went out to two peer reviewers who both provided me with some excellent
feedback. I’d say it went through two more rounds of reordering, a round of
nitpicking, and a round of copyediting. Then it went into a draft with the
interior design.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What do you remember about the day
when you saw your published book for the first time?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I
was at Bread Loaf. The official release date for the book was September 1,
2013, but I had been accepted as a fellow to the conference, and in order to go
as a fellow, my book had to be out. Akron rushed the printing of the books and
got them out on August 11, 2013, the day before the conference started. The
first time I saw the book was in the Bread Loaf bookstore where it was being
bought by poets I respect and admire. Incredible! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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?”</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I
usually avoid this conversation because it leads to “I read a poem at my
mother’s funeral and it helped me grieve” at best or, at worst, “People still
write poetry?” So, when someone asks me what my book is about, I say something
like “Well, they’re poems, so you can imagine that they can be about pretty
much everything.” Of course, some people have the notion that poems can only be
difficult abstract representations of love, nature, and death. If I’m feeling
like I don’t want to evangelize them about how amazing poetry can be, what it
can contain and be about, I say something like “forensics, my father, and
anxiety.” If they pry any further, I’d say, “Wanna see a copy? I have one right
here in my carry-on, and one in my check bag, and one in the seat pocket in
front of me, and my agent and assistant have copies in the row behind us, and…”
just to freak them out.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What have you been doing to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Signaletics</i>, and what have those
experiences been like for you?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’ve
done a lot of readings in the last year, some at my own expense. It’s not easy
out there to book readings that pay, but I saved a little moolah to hit the
road a couple times this last year. I have to say that, if you’re running a reading
series, the least you should do is buy a visiting writer supper and let them
crash on your floor. Oh, and make sure that at least a couple of copies are
purchased. (A book raffle? Signed copies to donate to the library?) That’s all
I want when I get out there. If there’s more, well, that’s gravy. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What advice do you wish someone had
given you before your first book came out?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Take
a clonazepam, and chill out. I think I got everything covered as best I could,
but I obsessed over everything and caused a great deal of anxiety for myself.
Perhaps I won’t do those sorts of things with the next book.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Are there any new writing projects
in the works?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Earlier
this summer I sent off my finalized second manuscript titled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Groundspeed</i> to Mary Biddinger at Akron.
It will go to the board for final approval in September. Also, since my return
from working at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, I’ve written seven poems! How
has that happened, especially since I said I would work exclusively on essays
for a while . . .? Bad poet, bad!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you believe that poetry can
create change in the world?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For
some people, and many of them already have that gravitational pull rocking
their tides, and then there’s some that can be reborn in poetry, and then there
will be some people that will never have their world changed by poetry, and we
shouldn’t be sad about that. Earlier this year, a good friend of mine cried in
front of a Pollack painting at the Art Institute of Chicago while I stood
beside him, a little sleepy and sugar-doped from the dessert we had just
before. Sometimes poetry can’t even change my world. I was recently listening
to Joy Katz on the Poetry Foundation’s “Poetry Off the Shelf” podcast talk
about how, after her mother died, she couldn’t find poems that could help her
deal with that grief. There have been times when poems were the last things I
wanted to read, and why? Because maybe right then I needed music. Or time with
friends. Not poems. And this is healthy. It’s like not drinking for a while and
then having one nice Hendrick’s and tonic and realizing that it all goes to
your head much faster those days, and you feel giddy for it. That’s what I need
some times, to be a lightweight with poetry, to not grow cynical. And maybe
I’m not answering your question head on; maybe I’m talking more about how
poetry can change people and how a person can change people by how much time
they devote to poems. But, of course, a change in enough people changes what we
call the “world,” the human world. Now ask me if poetry can terraform, and we
can talk figuratively.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="color: black;">*******************************************************************</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Emilia Phillips</b> is a poet. She is the author of <i>Signaletics</i>
(University of Akron Press, 2013) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Groundspeed</i>
(University of Akron Press, 2016) and three chapbooks including <i>Bestiary of
Gall</i> (Sundress Publications, 2013) and <i>Beneath the Ice Fish Like Souls
Look Alike</i> (Bull City Press, forthcoming in 2014). Her poetry appears in <i>Agni</i>,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harvard Review</i>, <i>The Kenyon Review</i>,
<i>Poetry, </i>and elsewhere. She’s the recipient of the 2013–2014 Emerging
Writer Lectureship at Gettysburg; 2012 Poetry Prize from <i>The Journal;</i>
2nd Place in <i>Narrative</i>’s 2012 30 Below Contest; and fellowships from
Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, U.S. Poets in Mexico, and Vermont Studio Center.
She serves as the prose editor for <i>32 Poems</i>, a staff member at the
Sewanee Writers’ Conference; and an adjunct instructor of English and creative
writing at Virginia Commonwealth University. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="color: black;">*******************************************************************</span></span> </span></span></span> </div>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-4903387100028936852014-11-05T11:46:00.000-05:002014-11-05T11:46:02.228-05:00#87 - Robert Ostrom
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">How
often had you sent out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Youngest
Butcher in Illinois</i> before <a href="http://yesyesbooks.com/">YesYes Books</a> chose it for publication in 2012?</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">I lost count. I remember that, for over a
year, I spent a lot of money on contests. Broke and dejected, for nearly
another year, I sent to contests occasionally. In the end, I got really lucky.
I was just about to overhaul the whole schmear when Justin Boening, who was the
acquisitions editor at YesYes, wrote to ask if I had a manuscript in the
works. </span><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">Tell
me about the title. Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Youngest Butcher in Illinois</i>? Did it go through any other changes? </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">Titling the book was maybe the hardest part
for me. Several years ago, I was listening to a This American Life episode
entitled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">24 Hours at the Golden Apple</i>.
The producer interviewed a man named John Zervas who, in 1979 at 8 years old,
was the youngest butcher in Illinois. I knew I’d be lifting that for a title,
although the poem has little else in common with Mr. Zervas. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Youngest Butcher in Illinois </i>felt
like the best title for the book, but I wondered if the title poem could
shoulder the book. I made long lists of titles and sent them to friends who
almost always chose <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">YBI</i>. In the end,
it felt inevitable and right. </span><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">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?</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">The contest system is a costly gamble. Advice?
There’s something to be said for ushering your work into the world with
reverence. After all, it’s cost you time and blood and tears and any number of
other fluids, vitreous and cardinal. Don’t send to contests that haven’t
published books you like. If you know who the judge is, don’t send to that
contest if you know she or he won’t be into your work. Don’t waste your money.
It’s helpful to get individual poems out into the world. Some people (who are
not me) are really good at networking; that’s of use apparently. If you feel
strongly that your book would be at home with a certain press, get your
manuscript to them. </span><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">What
was the process like assembling the book? How many different versions did it go
through as you were sending it out?</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">Out of the four chapters that make up the
book, two sections constitute a long poem, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To
Show the Living</i>, which had been published as a chapbook. In some ways,
having this long poem made things more difficult for me— I was worried it
dominated the book or that it was of its own world. I contemplated (and still
consider) turning it into a book-length poem. However, I wanted the book to
have formal variety with the poems still being sectarian or at least
accomplices— I imagined many of the poems were just different trails through
the same quagmire—so I had to ax quite a few sweethearts. On the same token,
the need for unity produced its own poems. This is something Linda Gregg told
me— that as she nears the end of writing a book, the book itself writes poems.
In short, assembling the book had to do with arranging the long poem, cutting
poems of different lineage and writing bridge poems. </span><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">How
involved were you with the design of the book—interior design, font, cover,
etc.?</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">The mastermind and captain of YesYes Books,
KMA Sullivan, told me to list artists whose work I felt was kindred to the
book. This was both gracious and daunting. I’m pretty sure Dan Estabrook was
the first person on my list. She liked him too. We looked at all of his work
and chose some favorites. KMA took over from there: she chose the art and
designed the book. Still, she involved me every step of the way. It was
important to me that the paper wasn’t super white, and she honored that. Maybe
because it makes my eye floaters go crazy, I really hate white paper. </span><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">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?</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">Initially, I didn’t really care if I had an
extensive list of journals in my acknowledgements page, but before the book was
coming out, it did occur to me that this could be a good thing— a stamp of
approval. And since YesYes was a very new press, maybe it’d be good for them
too. I don’t know how these things work. And, like I said, the long poem had
been published as a chapbook which meant half of the book had been published
all at once. </span><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">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?</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">I don’t feel like I edited the poems too much,
but I recently found a very early draft and was shocked to see how much had changed.
By the time KMA and Justin got their hands on it, the poems were pretty much as
they are now. We did play around with sections. Also, YesYes asked me to cut
two sections from the book, and I think it was the right choice. Those sections
have been published as a chapbook and a pamphlet. One, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nether and Qualms</i>, is available from Projective Industries. If you
ask YesYes nicely, they might send you a copy of the pamphlet <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Happy Idea. </i></span><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">What
do you remember about the day when you saw your published book for the first
time?</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">I remember everything. I met KMA at the
Myrtle-Wycoff stop, and we took the L train together. I’d been warned by her
and others that it can be a bizarre experience. And sure enough, it was. I’m
such an anxious person; the only thing I could do was worry about everything.
Out of all the feelings I remember from that day, I believe the strangest was
the sense that it was done. All that working and dreaming and rejection was
over. I’m not sure why, but when I think back to that, I hear Hart Crane, “Is
the silence strong enough/ To carry back the music to its source/ And back to
you again…” It was strange to go through these emotions and to see my book for
the first time in the presence of someone else. KMA and I rode the train
together for a while, then I had to go to work with my first book in my bag. I
was teaching an undergraduate workshop at Columbia that day, and though the
book was all I could think about, I told no one.</span><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">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?”</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">I’m on an airplane right now. If I wasn’t so
sheepish, I’d give it a try. I don’t love attempting to say what it’s about. In
fact, I probably wouldn’t answer that question seriously ever. I’d half-joke
that it’s about my mom and my ex(es). There are themes of family and
displacement that run through the book. The can of worms if the worms are my
obsessions. I think the guy sitting next to me hates me. </span><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">What
have you been doing to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Youngest Butcher in Illinois</i>, and what have those experiences been like for
you?</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">Again, I’m really fortunate to have been
published by YesYes books. KMA and her people really believe in their writers
and work hard to promote their work. They set up readings, including a West
Coast tour, and sent the book to a variety of contests and reviewers. I’m
terrible at self-promotion. </span><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">What
advice do you wish someone had given you before your first book came out?</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">I can’t think of anything I wish someone had
told me. I had such tremendous support. Maybe this: Don’t make any
last-minute changes to poems. </span><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">Are
there any new writing projects in the works?</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext;"></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">I’m finishing up a second book, but that could
take forever. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="color: black;">*******************************************************************</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Robert Ostrom</b> is the author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Youngest Butcher in Illinois </i>(YesYes Books).<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>He lives in Queens and teaches at
the New York City College of Technology and Columbia University. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;">*******************************************************************</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></span></span> </span></span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-22531298561936932322014-10-01T15:31:00.000-04:002014-10-01T15:31:53.634-04:00#86 - Tanya Olson<style>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How often had you sent out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boyishly</i> before it was chosen for publication by <a href="http://yesyesbooks.com/">YesYes Books</a> in
2013?</span></b>
<br />
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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.</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Tell me about the title. Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boyishly</i>? Did it go through any other
changes? </span></b></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It had always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boyishly</i>, 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 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boyishly</i>. 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.</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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? </span></b></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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.</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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. </span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What was the process like assembling the book?
How many different versions did it go through as you were sending it out? </span></b></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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.</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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.</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How involved were you with the design of the
book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?</span></b></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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.</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Did you suggest or have any input regarding the
image that was used on the cover? </span></b></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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.</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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? </span></b></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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.</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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? </span></b></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What do you remember about the day when you saw
your published book for the first time?</span></b></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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.</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="normal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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?”</span></b></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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.</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What have you been doing to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boyishly</i>, and what have those
experiences been like for you?</span></b></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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. </span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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. </span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><b>What advice do you wish someone had given you before your
first book came out?</b></span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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. </span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Are there any new writing projects in the works?</span></b></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’m working on a new book, right now called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stay. </i>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.</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Do you believe that poetry can create change in
the world? </span></b></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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.</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;">*******************************************************************</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b> </b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Tanya Olson</b> lives in Silver Spring, Maryland and is a Lecturer in English at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Her first book,<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boyishly</i>, was published by YesYes Books in 2013 and was awarded a 2014 American Book Award. She has always won the</span>
Discovery/<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boston Review </i>Prize and was
named a Lambda Emerging Writers Fellow by the Lambda Literary Foundation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">*******************************************************************</span> </span></span> </div>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-32679596667488237902014-08-01T17:11:00.000-04:002014-08-01T17:11:29.362-04:00#85 - Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How often had you sent out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost Gear</i> before it was chosen as a finalist for the 2014 <a href="http://www.uapress.com/readers/series/miller-williams-poetry-prize/">Miller Williams Arkansas Poetry Prize</a>?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Man, I sent it out for a
while. I “finished” my first workable draft of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost Gear </i>in the winter of 2007/2008, a year and a half after
entering the MFA Program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. I of
course believed it really was finished finished at the time and sent it to
fifteen prizes that year and sent to the same fifteen prizes for the next five
years until it finally got picked up in the winter of 2012/2013. I revised it
every single time it got rejected, and it got better every time. While all the
rejection was heartbreaking (the book wasn’t a finalist or honorable mention or
anything like that for any of the prizes until the winter it was taken), the
process worked. It’s a much better book now than when I first started
submitting to prizes, and I am grateful for that. Could it have happened a
little sooner? Sure. But that’s life. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’m now closing in on
finishing my second book. I have what I like to call my first “non-shitty”
draft, which means it’s not bad but it’s not particularly good. I’m not sure
how to proceed. Send it to contests again and revise it every time it gets
rejected until, at long last, it gets picked up? Or revise it on my own like
crazy for several years and then send it out? The writing and publishing of
books is a mysterious craft. I’m excited to see what it teaches me this
go-round.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tell me about the title. Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost Gear</i>? Did it go through any other
changes? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The backbone of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost Gear </i>is five versifications of
stories my father told of his childhood (and, in the final two poems, of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my </i>childhood and his fatherhood). “Ghost
Gear” recounts his near-death by tidal wave while tramell-net fishing in Alaska
when he was in college. Ghost gear is a term for dilapidated nets and riggings
and other such gear deep-sea fisherman used to discard in the ocean. All that
gear drifted down into the ocean and caused all sorts of havoc. It was really
big in the news ten years or so ago and the practice was made illegal. This
notion of that which we believe we’ve discarded continuing to do its work below
us is the controlling metaphor of the book: each poem an artifact of the past
and present and future tangled up in the mind and body. I have to give my
friend and colleague Curtis Hessel credit for making this connection for me
after I told him I had changed the title to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Ever-chamber</i>,” the second father-story poem. That title would work too, but
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost Gear </i>is infinitely better. I
owe him a kiss on the lips for that and a punch in the gut for just about
everything else!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I only sent to contests. Contests
I really, really wanted<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>to win.
Contests that had published awesome books before me, books that taught me how
to write poems. I did this because I felt it would give the book a little
something to stand on. Who knows if this makes any difference or not. I didn’t
actually win the Miller Williams. I got close but not quite. Luckily, Arkansas
publishes the Miller Williams Finalists as well. I haven’t noticed that the
contest makes any difference but being able to say I was published by the
University of Arkansas Press <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">clearly</i>
makes a difference. So here’s what I can offer: send your book to presses who
have published books you love. Contests. Open submissions. Whatever it takes,
it’s the press that makes the difference. I suppose that if I’d won the National
Poetry Series, I might see things a little differently. But there are only a
few prizes out there for first books (the Miller Williams is an open prize)
anyone really cares about, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost Gear
</i>is getting out there because I’m putting the work in and because it was
published by an established and beloved press, not because it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">almost</i> won a prize.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What was the process like assembling the book? How
many different versions did it go through as you were sending it out? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I just went back in my
files. There are 97 drafts of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost Gear</i>.
I didn’t realize it was that many. Each was completed after the book was
rejected, and I often revised more than once between rejections. Sometimes it
looks fairly similar; sometimes it looks radically different. The poems themselves
“look” more or less the same on the page, but the lines themselves are pretty
radically different every five drafts or so, and the order of the poems is all
over the place. I started chronological, then played with themes, then put the
longest poem at the opening of the book and then moved it back to the end.
“Singing” was always<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>the first poem.
“Ghost Gear” was always the second, third, or fourth, but everything after that
was up for grabs it appears. The greatest amount of revision is in the poems
themselves. Boy did they get better over time. I honestly can’t recall what it
was like putting the book together that much. I remember swimming in the dark a
lot. I sort of did it with a blindfold on. Sure, I had <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">some </i>idea of how the poems worked together, but I don’t think that
became clear until two or three years after that initial draft. I had the
backbone of the book in the father-story poems, thank goodness, and placed all
the other poems around that backbone in an almost infinite shuffle. I also
remember having a lot of help from Judy Jordan and from friends at my MFA like
Jenna Bazzell, Martin Call, and Alexander Lumans. I owe them more than I can
ever repay. I think understanding how to put a book together is probably a
life-long pursuit for someone like me. I am at all times perplexed by…virtually
everything around me. That’s why I write poems I think, to try to understand
this life and the things in it a little better. I think I have a better grasp
of how my second book works. Maybe the third will be a little easier, but I
don’t put too much pressure on myself in that regard. I trust the process and
just stumble forward and backward and in circles from there until things start
to make sense. I think the process of assembling <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost Gear</i> was more the product of rejection than knowing what the
hell I was doing and not know, this may sound strange, what I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wanted </i>to do. In the end, I settled on a
more or less chronological structure. There’s a story told via the arc of the
book that isn’t told in the poems themselves and people are catching on to it.
But damn it took a long, long time to find that arc. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How involved were you with the design of the
book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I was lucky enough to be
given almost 100% control of the cover, which is beyond perfect. If you’ve read
the book, you know the cover is exactly what the book is about. It’s an
original piece of art I commission from Siolo Thompson, an artist out of
Seattle who was a friend of a friend at the time. When I contacted her with the
request for the cover, she asked me to send her three poems. I sent “Singing,”
“Ghost Gear,” and “The Ever-Chamber,” and the cover, more-or-less as is, was
what she sent back. I was just blown away. How someone I didn’t even know could
read those poems and come up with that cover seemed impossible, but I think
it’s a testament to the words and to her skill as an artist and reader. I
couldn’t be happier with it. As for all the other design aspects, I had no
input and really didn’t want to interfere with the good folks at Arkansas. It
was the right move. They made a beautiful, flawless book.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Nah. I just wanted people
to read my shit and sent out like crazy until all the poems were taken. I
didn’t feel the need to publish the entire book in order to get it published.
That’s the nice thing about prizes: most of that info is omitted from your
submission. Some of the prizes do require this information. While I respect the
presses that do, that doesn’t make much sense to me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I went back and forth
with my editor, Enid Shomer, quite a bit on the final poem, “First Catch,” but
the rest of the book was pretty easy to finalize. She has a great eye, and most
of her suggestions made perfect sense, including cutting a monstrous poem that
I wrote for the second book but felt compelled (for reasons I’m not entirely
sure of) to include in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost Gear</i>.
The second she said we should cut it, I agreed, which I think helped ease the
rest of the process for both of us. I am so very happy Arkansas actually edits
their books. Some presses send off finalists to a judge, the judge selects a
winner, and they publish that book without any further editing and even without
copy-editing/proofreading. This is obviously a bad idea. I think I probably
would have hired an outside editor to look at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost Gear </i>if it were selected for a prize sans editor. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What do you remember about the day when you saw
your published book for the first time?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I remember that entire
day. It was long as all hell. I knew the book was incoming on a UPS truck but
had no idea when it would arrive, so I employed a few friends to distract me,
hopping from bar to bar in my current home place of Denver, Colorado. When my
designer texted me “Did you see the book yet?” and I texted back, “I’m waiting
for it to arrive.” and he replied, “It’s waiting for you at your door,” I left
the bar without paying the tab or telling my friends and raced for home. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When I got home, I took
my time opening the slim vanilla envelope only to find the book wrapped in
paper like a gift. I took even more time opening it from there. When it finally
emerged from the packaging, I didn’t cry like I expected. I just held it and
thanked it for coming and apologized to it for not making it sooner. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Then I went back out to
show it to my friends who were waiting for me at the bar. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Then </i>I cried, right there in the middle of an NBA game, and
received a lot of pats on the backs and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lots
</i>of booze from lost of people I didn’t know and a few I did. There are two
days in my life I’d go to war for: meeting my wife in a dive bar and meeting <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost Gear </i>for the first time. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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?”</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost Gear </i>is a book about survival. The father-story poems tell the story of my
father’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rural</i> survival while the
rest of the poems tell the story of my more <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">urban
</i>survival. I grew up in a very rough neighborhood in Nashville, Tennessee.
I’ve got matching scars underneath the fur of each eyebrow and countless scars
on my knuckles from all the fights I was in as a kid. My dad’s scars include
rope burns from the fishing nets in “Ghost Gear” and a burn on his knee from a
forest fire he fought with his brother in Oregon. The book is about how we earn
such scars and how they make us who we are. It’s a bildungsroman, a
coming-of-age book of tall tales that are often true but are more true on an
emotional scale than a factual one. Based on actual events but not factual in
every little detail. You know…big fish stories. I suppose most first books are
like this. But I really don’t care about doing something new; I care about
being original in my own right. I wrote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost
Gear</i>. Not someone else. If it sounds like other books, I wear that as a
badge of honor. It is definitely doing things in its own way, and I think there
are people out there who see that.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What have you been doing to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost Gear</i>, and what have those
experiences been like for you?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Lord, what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">haven’t </i>I been doing? I’ve been on a
surprisingly large <a href="http://andrewmk.com/id110.html">book tour</a> since
the book came out. Something like 35 readings in ten states so far. I really
didn’t see that coming, but I work cheap, and I’m excited to visit classrooms
and work with poets of all shapes and sizes and to share my work with people
wherever they’ll have me. I’ve also work with quite a few writers as an editor
and publisher and, thus, have relationships with writers all over the place who
I think are excited for me and the book.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My first reading from the book was at AWP on the day the book was
technically released. Afterward, at the book signing, I gave away buttons with
either an image of the cover or an image of a badass unicorn on it. Most people
took the unicorn button! It was a joke, of course, and people though it was fun
and picked up a copy o the book as well. Who knew?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I also threw a big ass
book release party with an open bar at a swanky art gallery where I live in
Denver on my own dime and am throwing a release party in my hometown of
Nashville in mid July at Parnassus Books, the only<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>independently owned bookstore in Nashville that exclusively sells
new books. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">If someone asks me to do
an <a href="http://andrewmk.com/id2.html">interview</a> (thank you, Keith!) or
a <a href="http://andrewmk.com/id110.html">reading</a> or a <a href="http://andrewmk.com/id69.html">radio show</a> or a <a href="http://andrewmk.com/id51.html">workshop</a>, I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">always </i>say yes, but I never try to “sell” or promote the book. I
just share my excitement about it and finally having something to show for all
this work I’ve been doing since, hell, virtually since puberty. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’ve been writing poems
since I was 13 years old and turned 33 a month after the book came out. It took
20 years to make this thing. 20 years. That’s a lifetime for most species on
this planet, and many people never realize their dreams. I get really emotional
when I think about that. For a long time there I was terrified I’d never
publish a book, and I think I had good reason to fear this. Now that it’s
happened, that’s all I really care about: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">it
happened</i> and now I’m having fun with it, which naturally translates into my
promoting the book. I have a ton of energy, I love to travel and meet new
people, my wife is awesome, and I love, love, love to talk about poetry, be it
mine or anyone else’s, so this is really the best time in my life. I’m having a
great time.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What advice do you wish someone had given you
before your first book came out?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Honestly I got great
advice the entire time. Countless people have been in my ear for years: poets,
fiction writers, carpenters, chefs, politicians, family members, people I meet
on the light rail, students, friends, voiceovers, Kevin Garnett…the list goes
on an on. I believe that anyone doing good work is an artist and actively seek
out artists every single second of my waking life, even if I never actually
meet these people, even if I just see them in a movie or dunking a basketball.
The message is always the same: WORK. Don’t talk. Work. Talk ONLY when you
work—not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">if </i>you work, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">when </i>you work. If you put the work in,
if you’re persistent, if you don’t give up, you will get there. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">That said, here’s what
I’ll say: Learn to take a break. <u>You have time</u>. Most people don’t just
up and die out of nowhere. Statistically, most of us live long lives. I
overworked in grad school. I literally wrote every weekday for three years. It
was too much. I should have listened to my mentors who said I needed to
breathe, that my brain needed oxygen, that my heart and soul needed a vacation
every few months. Now that I have a book out and another almost finished
(again, whatever the hell that means), I finally feel that I have time to, you
know, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not write</i>. This is not
sacrilege; this is common sense. I get a little tired of writers saying you
have to write everyday to be a writer. That’s kind of like fighting fire with a
bazooka. The sentiment is fine, but the reality isn’t quite there. Taking time
not to write doesn’t mean I’m not writing. Of course not! I have to write to
feed my body and soul. I write every other day on average, but I’m learning to
stop worrying so much about not working, something I wish I’d known more about
when I was working like a dog. Sure, it worked, but I can’t prove the book got
published because I worked my fingers to the bone. So work hard but don’t work
so hard you hate yourself or start gaining weight or have to do drugs to sleep.
Listen to your body. Take a break when it demands one and trust the page will
speak to you when you come back.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you believe that poetry can create change in
the world?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Anything can.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;">*******************************************************************</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum</b>’s
first book of poems, <i>Ghost Gear</i>, was released in 2014 with the University of
Arkansas Press. His anthology, <i>Apocalypse Now: Poems and Prose from the End of
Days</i>, was released in 2012; he is series editor of the Floodgate Poetry Series:
Three Chapbooks by Three Poets in a Single Volume; and co-editor of <i>Warning!
Poems May Be Longer Then They Appear: An Anthology of Long-ish Poems</i>,
forthcoming in 2015. Andrew is also a freelance editor, Founder and Managing
Editor of <i>PoemoftheWeek.org</i>, Acquisitions Editor for Upper Rubber Boot Books,
Contributing Editor for <i>Southern Indiana Review</i>, and teaches college writing in
Denver, CO. Andrew's work recently appears or is forthcoming in journals such
as <i>The Writer's Chronicle</i>, <i>Blackbird</i>, <i>Glimmer Train</i>, <i>InsideHigherEd.com</i>, and
<i>Missouri Review</i>. Read his work at <a href="http://andrewmk.com/">AndrewMK.com</a>.</span></div>
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Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-35572386676859004832014-08-01T16:40:00.000-04:002014-08-01T16:46:55.043-04:00#84 - Tyler Mills<style>
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</style><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How often had you sent out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tongue Lyre</i> before it was chosen for the 2011 <a href="http://craborchardreview.siu.edu/firstpo.html">Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award from Southern Illinois University Press</a>?</b></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I sent the manuscript to
a few presses and contests each year after I completed my MFA in 2008. The
manuscript wasn’t ready to be a book that first year, or even the second, but
increasing its readership in this way helped me think about what it meant for
the individual poems to become a book as I continued to revise them. I
gradually cut and added poems, clarified the language, and re-ordered areas of
the manuscript between 2008 and 2011. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tell me about the title. Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tongue Lyre</i>? Did it go through any other
changes? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Initially, the manuscript
was called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tongue. </i>Jon Tribble
suggested that I might think about adding a second word to the title: we were
phone conferencing about edits and brainstorming possibilities, and “lyre” was
the winner. (One of the poems in the book is called “Cleaning Out the Lyre.”)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When I first began
sending out the manuscript that became <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tongue
Lyre</i>, I didn’t know all that much about the publishing industry for poetry.
I sent individual poems out to journals that my university library had in their
periodicals room, and I read calls for submissions in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Writer’s Chronicle</i> for contests. I learned as I read, and I
researched presses that published books I enjoyed spending time with. But I
wasn’t as hooked into “the scene” as many MFA students seem to be now. I didn’t
know about many other ways of having a first manuscript picked up other than
through a prize, since most of the publisher’s calls for first books that I was
seeing at the time were linked with first-book contests. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What advice would I give poets sending out their
book now? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’ve recently screened
poetry manuscripts for a national prize, and it has been interesting being on
the other side of the table. It made me think of the post-MFA me, and the
manuscript I was circulating a bit too early at the time. I suppose on the one
hand, I want to tell poets to send their book to as many places as possible.
But on the other hand, I would also advise poets to ask themselves: “Is this
manuscript <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really </i>ready to be a book,
or do I just really want it to be one?” Many of the manuscripts I screened were
interesting and demonstrated a lot of skill, but as a whole, they weren’t
coming together as a book quite yet. There is no prescription for when a book
“is finished”: each book is different. But I would advise poets not to spend
money on the contest fee unless they absolutely, honestly believe the
manuscript is ready to be a book. That means making sure that on your end you
have done all you can to make the manuscript read as a finished whole. I would
also say that while Facebook can be a great way to connect with people and
learn about news, I would warn poets not to let it trap them into rushing their
work. Social networks can be great, but they can also exert a pressure to
produce, as though you have to keep up. It’s important to look inward not get
swept up in it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What was the process like assembling the book? How
many different versions did it go through as you were sending it out? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Countless, obsessive
revisions. I mean that. I lost count. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tongue
Lyre </i>builds off the structure of the Odyssey, which is a frame narrative.
It drove me crazy—a good kind of crazy—figuring out how to incorporate that
structure into the arc of my book. I re-arranged the poems many, many times.
And the individual poems? Some have been through 40 revisions. Some many more.
I have boxes of old notebooks and papers, and I recycled some of the
preliminary hard copies of the manuscript recently because I just can’t hold
onto all of that paper anymore. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How involved were you with the design of the
book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The press did a beautiful
job with the book. I suggested some cover images, and some were suggested to
me, and the designer did an amazing thing with the image we decided on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Poets should stop
worrying about this. It seems like there’s a mentality that once all the poems
are taken, the book is “done.” Even if every single poem in a manuscript is
published, that does not mean that a poet’s book is finished—no matter where
all these poems have been taken. Think of a book like a giant poem. Ask
yourself, “What does my giant poem want to be? How is it holding together, as a
giant poem?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My first inclination
after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tongue Lyre </i>was taken was to
re-do the whole thing. I actually ripped the manuscript apart and spent an
entire weekend rewriting it. The result? A terrible, terrible draft. I never
sent that version to the press (I doubt they would have accepted it). I think
that because I felt like a younger artist-“me” was behind the earliest drafts
of some of the poems, I thought I had to make the project match the artist-“me”
that answered the phone the day Jon called me with the wonderful news. But both
“me’s” are not all that different, I’ve come to realize. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I ended up tweaking minor
things in the manuscript before sending it to Jon, and then Jon and I talked
about a range of edits to the poems that made a huge difference, but that were
akin to taking a tiny brush to a painting to clean off the surface rather than
soaking a rag in turpentine and wiping the canvas down with it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What do you remember about the day when you saw
your published book for the first time?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It was surreal. And
amazing. I was very happy: I couldn’t believe it existed. But it was also a
little weird, seeing a box of reproductions of the thing that I felt like I
made only one of. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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?”</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I would say it is a
book-length sequence that gives voice to the myth of Philomela, whose tongue
was cut from her mouth after she was raped. But it is also a book about
representation in art and music that was deeply influenced by Joyce’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ulysses. </i>(An Odyssey series of poems
threads throughout the book.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What have you been doing to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tongue Lyre</i>, and what have those
experiences been like for you?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’ve been reading from it
a fair bit, in Chicago where I live (at Danny’s and the Dollhouse, for
instance) and also in other cities and towns (the Writer’s Center in Bethesda,
MD; the AWP Bookfair in Boston, MA; the Stadler Center in Lewisburg, PA; Bates
College in Lewiston, ME; the Monsters of Poetry Reading Series in Madison, WI;
the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, TN; the Women Write Resistance AWP
Off-Site in Seattle, WA; the Split This Rock festival in Washington, DC, among
others). Each reading is very different. The audience brings its own energy to
the space. It doesn’t matter if two people show up or if the room is full: I
try to think about how I can make the poems come to life for the people in the
room each time I read. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What advice do you wish someone had given you
before your first book came out?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Not to worry so much
before giving a reading. I can get pretty anxious about it the day of. And also
that things like this—this interview—take time. Once the book is in the world,
a lot more of your time will be dedicated to talking about it in a public way.
It’s energizing, and an honor. But it does take time. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Are there any new writing projects in the works?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’m working on my next
manuscript right now. I don’t want to say anything more about it at the moment
and risk jinxing it. The manuscript is similar to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tongue Lyre </i>in some ways, but in others it is very, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">very</i> different. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you believe that poetry can create change in
the world?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Yes. When I’m 85, I might
be able to start answering this question... </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;">*******************************************************************</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Tyler Mills</b> is the author of Tongue Lyre, winner of the 2011 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award (SIU Press 2013). Her poetry has recently appeared or is forthcoming in <i>Blackbird</i>, <i>The Believer</i>, <i>Poetry</i>, and <i>Boston Review</i>, and her essays have appeared or is forthcoming in <i>The Robert Frost Review</i> and <i>The Writer's Chronicle</i>. She has been the recipeient of work-study scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the Vermont Studio Center, and she is editor-in-chief of <i>The Account: A Journal of Poetry, Prose, and Thought</i>. She lives in Chicago, where she is a PhD candidate in creative writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">*******************************************************************</span> </span></span> </div>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-63870707331055958402014-07-02T16:34:00.002-04:002014-07-02T16:50:55.606-04:00#83 - Lynn Melnick<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>How often had you sent
out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If I Should Say I Have Hope</i> before
<a href="http://yesyesbooks.com/">YesYes Books</a> chose it for publication in 2012?</b></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
I think I sent it out
kind of occasionally for a few years. It was never anything I focused on or
thought enough about so I don’t remember exactly. I was lucky that YesYes asked
to see my manuscript, because I suck at this kind of stuff.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<b>Tell me about the title.
Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If I Should Say I Have
Hope</i>? Did it go through any other changes? </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
It was for a while <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When California Arrives It Lasts All Year</i>,
which I still love, but the title was one of the few things my editor,
Katherine Sullivan at YesYes, wanted to change about the book, and I get it. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If I Should Say I Have Hope </i>encompasses
more of what the book is.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<b>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? </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
Those contests are a
crapshoot, it seems. There are a hundred billion poets in the United States! I
would advise poets to send to presses whose books they admire. I think one nice
thing about going directly with a press is that you have more of chance that
they’ll publish your second book, should there be one. A lot of contests are a
one-off.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<b>What was the process like
assembling the book? How many different versions did it go through as you were
sending it out? </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
Oh gosh, I don’t know.
I’m a slow-as-fuck writer and obsessive reviser of each poem. So it’s not like
I had to choose which poem would go in a manuscript. They pretty much all did.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<b>How involved were you
with the design of the book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
I’m a terribly un-visual
person. My editor said to me, when we were first discussing the book, something
like “I’m sure you’ve been thinking for years what your book cover would look
like.” And I was embarrassed because I hadn’t at all. But YesYes’ designer,
Alban Fischer, is a freaking wizard of book design and he made my book an
astonishing beauty. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<b>Did you suggest or have
any input regarding the image that was used on the cover? </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
Yes. I decided I wanted
an image of Los Angeles, of a certain kind of Los Angeles, but I just didn’t
know what image exactly. I crowd-sourced my LA and art-world friends and I got
so many amazing suggestions. My friend Merrill Feitell, who is a fiction
writer, went to school with someone who is friends with the artist Zoe Crosher,
and that’s how I came across her work. When I saw her photo series “Out the
Window (LAX),” I stopped breathing. The image I finally went with “The LAX Best
Western Suites, 2003” is exactly where my book lives, where my mind lives. I’m
eternally grateful to Zoe Crosher for allowing us to use her work on the cover.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<b>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? </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
Ha, no, that would be so
nerve-wracking for me, to think so methodically about publication strategy,
although it’s impressive, those who do. I was also very fortunate that most of
the poems had been taken by journals over the years before YesYes got in touch
with me, so I guess I didn’t have to think about it, really. Then again, it
took me about a decade and a half to finish my book and let it go, so there’s
that.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<b>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? </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
I changed the title, as I
mentioned, and I cut one poem that Katherine didn’t care for. I was only
keeping it in there because it had hot pants in it. So I wrote another poem
with hot pants in it, along with two other poems for the last section.
Katherine felt I should get a little more hopeful toward the end of the book,
and I tried. I also got the courage to remove a poem that I loved that just
wasn’t right for the book. It was an elegy. The poem still exists online
though.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<b>What do you remember
about the day when you saw your published book for the first time?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
It was also the day of my
book party and so suddenly I was in a room with my book and over 100 people,
which was a mindfuck in so many ways. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<b>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?”</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
Someone would have to
strike up a conversation with me, I’m kind of shy. If I were to answer that
question I guess I would say “love, sex, violence, death, and California.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<b>What have you been doing
to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If I Should Say I Have Hope</i>,
and what have those experiences been like for you?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
I’ve been doing my best.
I didn’t post on social media when my book was accepted for publication or came
out for sale, and I suppose I should have but I was bashful. But I’ve gotten
several nice reviews in nice places and I did a shit ton of readings in NY and
also California and a few other places and I’ve been getting slowly better at
advocating for myself and my work.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<b>What advice do you wish
someone had given you before your first book came out?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
“You will open yourself
up to more personal scrutiny than you thought possible.” I think maybe it’s
because of my subject matter, but I get a lot of trolls who get turned on by my
book and/or seriously angry about it. Also people feel like they can ask you
personal questions during Q&As, like they want to know why you look so
sweet but you write about fucking and drugs so much. But, you know, this other
weird thing happened, sort of the opposite. I was always so worried about
feeling exposed, and I certainly feel raw and anxious about being public in any
way, but then I realized that the sky didn’t fall in when my book came out,
that I can write about certain things and put them out there and keep going. So
my new poems are even more dark and explicit, I think. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<b>Are there any new writing
projects in the works?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
I’ve been writing a lot
of poems, as well as essays and book reviews, and I’m also in the process of
revising a novel. Also, a book I co-edited with the poet Brett Fletcher Lauer
(whose terrific first book of poems, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Hotel in Belgium</i>, came out last March) called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poets for the Next Generation</i> is
coming out next spring with Viking.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<b>Do you believe that
poetry can create change in the world?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
“If art doesn’t make us
better, then what on earth is it for?” – Alice Walker</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">*******************************************************************</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Lynn
Melnick</b> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">is the author of <i>If I Should Say I Have Hope</i>,
named a Top 40 Poetry Book of 2012 by <i>Coldfront Magazine. </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">She is<i> </i></span>co-editor, with Brett
Fletcher Lauer, of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Please Excuse This
Poem: 100 New Poets for the Next Generation </i>(Viking, 2015). Recent poems
have appeared in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The New Republic</i> and
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Public Space</i>. She teaches poetry at
the 92nd Street Y and works with VIDA: Women in Literary Arts. She grew up in
Los Angeles and currently lives in Brooklyn. You can find her on Twitter
@LynnMelnick</span>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">*******************************************************************</span></span><span style="color: black;"> </span></span> </div>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-46472685060545766672014-04-02T17:07:00.000-04:002014-04-02T17:08:08.988-04:00#82 - Wendy Xu<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How often had you sent out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You Are Not Dead</i> before it was chosen for publication by <a href="https://www.csuohio.edu/poetrycenter/">Cleveland State University Press</a> as a finalist for the first book competition in 2013?</b></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Unbelievably, CSU Poetry
Center was one of the two places I ever sent my book. The other was Wave Books.
I dropped those two manuscripts in the mail at the same time, fully prepared
for the long road ahead of many more trips to the post office. I got so very
lucky.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tell me about the title. Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You Are Not Dead</i>? Did it go through any
other changes? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It went through so many
title changes, all of which I kept in chronological order in a word document
that I am looking at now. Some funny (very real) highlights are:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">STAR VERSUS SIDEWALK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">SEVEN HORSES AND THE
OCEAN</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">IN LIEU OF A STUTTERING
LOVE LETTER</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">YELLOW PORCH POEMS</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">WE ARE BOTH SURE TO DIE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The few weeks before I
sent off the manuscript, I would run downstairs almost every day, to knock on
my friend Lech's door who lived in the apartment below me, trying out new
titles on him. He vetoed so many bad ones, and talked me through other
possibilities. Though it is only a matter of time I believe, waiting for a
book's correct title to reveal itself to its author. I like to say I had no
hand in it. Like letting your kids name themselves.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I guess I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was </i>concerned with the possibility of
winning a contest, seeing as how I sent to one. The other place I sent was an
open reading period. But mostly, no, I don't feel that any aspect of the
first-book publication process should be prioritized over giving editors and
presses you deeply believe in the opportunity to read your book. Your
relationship with the contest ends when the contest ends. Your relationship
with that press and publisher/editor is only beginning. When I look in any
direction in my apartment, I see Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Books. I have loved and admired them for so long. If I could, I would have
driven to Cleveland and put my manuscript in Michael Dumanis' trash can, if it
meant he might read it. The delivery method shouldn't matter, what matters is
the dignity and love with which you're assured your book will be treated.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What was the process like assembling the book? How
many different versions did it go through as you were sending it out? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Many versions, many
evenings of collapsing in and among its pages on my living room floor. Kind
eyes of friends. Reminding myself to think less, intuit inter-poem
relationships more. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How involved were you with the design of the
book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I was given the
opportunity to be as involved or uninvolved as I wanted, which immediately made
me feel super comfortable. I do a tiny bit of book arts stuff myself for iO
Books, the chapbook micro-press I publish, so I wanted to stay in the loop, but
mostly my role was choosing between impossibly beautiful font pairings that Amy
Freels (CSU's designer) sent me over email. They made me feel so taken care of,
and they let me suggest tweaks and tiny revisions to things that were
so-close-to-perfect.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Did you suggest or have any input regarding the
image that was used on the cover? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">CSU generously allowed me
to entirely choose the cover image, which is a collage by the wonderful Belgian
artist <a href="http://www.jellemartens.be/">Jelle Martens</a>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A secret is that it also
appears on the cover of this beautiful contemporary collage book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Edges-Contemporary-Robert-Klanten/dp/3899553381"><i>Cutting Edges</i></a>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I mostly told myself I
would begin sending out the book when it felt like a unit. A good number of the
poems did end up finding homes in journals before that time, but, it was
something I (surprisingly) did not overthink.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The book went through two
full cycles of editing, once for substantive edits, once for grammar. I learned
that I have almost never spelled a hyphenated word correctly. I spent a lot of
time on the phone with Frank Giampietro, CSU's interim director, pulling the
book through the long process. It was amazing. We explored possibilities for
almost every single poem, a better word here, a different line break here. The
level of detail and attention was unbelievable. In the end, I chose to change
or not change things based entirely on my own preference, and being given that
kind of agency was really heartening. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What do you remember about the day when you saw
your published book for the first time?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When the proof arrived in
the mail, I cried and touched it a lot. When they handed me a final copy at AWP
Boston, I made a series of absurd faces and I remember someone took my picture.
It's the worst photo I've ever taken. I was too happy to remember how to smile.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How has your life been different since your book
came out? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Oof, this question! For a
while after it came out, I couldn't write any poems. Then I gave up trying.
Then I stopped reading poetry altogether and just read novels for a while. The
poems came back though, as they always do. The plainer answer is that I've had
the opportunity to give more readings, meet more poets, and just generally
"do more poetry things." Publishing a book has also revealed to me a
desire to write slower. I feel calm, I feel like plodding along at a different
pace. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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?”</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This happened to me a few
months ago, on my way to Cleveland to read. I said "feelings." Then I
felt a little embarrassed, and offered something about "what happened to
me when I became displaced and moved somewhere new." They were very
satisfied with this second answer. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What have you been doing to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You Are Not Dead</i>, and what have those
experiences been like for you?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I made my best effort to
do a lot of readings since the book came out, and make it to things whenever I
could. Also the book was taught in a few classes last year at U. of Minnesota,
Florida State University, and UMass-Amherst. But that had nothing to do with my
efforts, it was all the kindness of other poets and writers. The experience of
being tied to a literature-object in the world has been humbling. I won't ever
get used to it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In March I'm finally
going on a reading tour, basically a full year after the book was published.
It's "promotion" for the book, but it's also my best excuse for
getting in a car with my friends Brian Foley and Luke Bloomfield, whose
respective books will be out too, and driving around the country seeing faces. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What advice do you wish someone had given you
before your first book came out?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I wish more people would
have forced me to relax about aspects of the book coming out. It's amazing more
people didn't hang up on me during that time. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What influence has the book’s publication had on
your subsequent writing? Are there any new projects in the works?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My language and my poems
have been changing, and I'm working on some poems now that might eventually
become a thing. They haven't quite taken on thing-ness yet, but, I'm excited
about them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you believe that poetry can create change in
the world?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Yes, always, yes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">*******************************************************************</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Wendy Xu</b> is the author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You Are Not Dead</i> (Cleveland State
University Poetry Center, 2013) and two chapbooks: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Hero Poems</i> (H_NGM_N) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I
Was Not Even Born</i> (Coconut Books), a collaboration with Nick Sturm. Her
poems have appeared in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Best American
Poetry, Gulf Coast, Black Warrior Review, The Volta, Columbia Poetry Review</i>,
and widely elsewhere. She co-edits and publishes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">iO: A Journal of New American Poetry</i> / iO Books, and teaches
writing at UMass-Amherst. Find more at <a href="http://extrahumanarchitecture.tumblr.com/">http://extrahumanarchitecture.tumblr.com </a></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">*******************************************************************</span></span> </span></span></span> </div>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-68319104180006851052014-03-18T15:05:00.001-04:002014-03-18T15:53:33.544-04:00#81 - Natalie Giarratano<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How often had you sent out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leaving Clean</i> before it was chosen for the 2013 <a href="http://brierycreekpress.wordpress.com/liam-rector-first-book-prize-for-poetry/">Liam Rector First Book Award from Briery Creek Press</a>?</b></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I sent out a first
version of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leaving Clean</i> for about a
year and a half—to over 30 contests and open submission periods—but didn’t
receive so much as a nibble. I knew there was work to be done on the
manuscript, so I spent the following year or so revising, reordering and
cutting and adding new poems. That later version started to get some attention
(three finalist nods) and after another round of 20 or so contests, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leaving Clean</i> won the Liam Rector First
Book Prize for Poetry in 2013. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tell me about the title. Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leaving Clean</i>? Did it go through any
other changes? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The title has been
through a couple of changes. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dancing near
the Surface</i> was first and, though it is a line from a pretty dark poem in
the manuscript, I ultimately decided it sounded too light-hearted on its own
for the subject matter of the book and for me. I also imagined some editors
rolling their eyes after reading that title and never getting to the actual
poems. This made me cringe.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I also sent the
manuscript out with a bit gloomier title, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Almost
Washout</i>, which is what the title was when it won the contest. However, the
insightful editor at Briery Creek Press, Mary Carroll-Hackett, requested a new
title and gave me options from which to choose. I thought <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leaving Clean</i>, with that gerund always in action and, therefore,
the leaving always and never happening, was the way to go.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I definitely sent out to
more contests than open reading periods, but mainly, honestly, because of my
ignorance of open reading periods. Any manuscript needs to be sent where it
might potentially belong. But my best advice is to admit, to know, that it’s
all a crapshoot. Good work or no, it takes that one or handful of readers that
dig your work to get your book published. No matter how much work you do in
learning presses and others’ work, you can’t absolutely know their evolving
architecture and how yours might fit with it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What was the process like assembling the book? How
many different versions did it go through as you were sending it out? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leaving Clean</i> went through three versions before it was selected for publication.
It began, essentially, as my MFA thesis and included many short poems that
dealt with the grand “I” with which many first books deal. In many ways the
final version does deal with what the original did but, I hope, in more complex
ways. I think by the final version I had cut ten shorter poems, added two new
poems—one of which is eight pages long—and edited the remaining poems and poem
order, the latter pretty drastically. This is when it is great to have other
writers and/or editors to see what you’re too close to see. My very good
friend, Beth Marzoni, helped me put together this final version and was bold
enough to suggest cutting so many poems and to suggest which newer poems to
add. Without that other set of unflinching eyes, I might not have done what I
needed to in order for someone to want to publish this manuscript. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How involved were you with the design of the
book—interior design, font, cover, etc.? Did you suggest or have any input
regarding the image that was used on the cover?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The interior design of
the book is all Briery Creek Press, but I was totally on board based on the
design of previous Liam Rector winners’ books that I had read. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As for the cover, when I
signed my contract with the press, I knew I would have a choice of a handful of
photographs taken by the students that help run the press. Having worked for a
small press while in graduate school, I knew what beautiful work students could
do. I ultimately went with the photo that is the cover because it was a bit
more abstract and weirder than the other choices yet still works well with the
poems.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Well, I sent out to all
kinds of journals, as I’m sure most poets do. I’d say maybe half of the poems
had been published prior to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leaving Clean</i>
being accepted for publication, but I never felt pressure to have most or all
published. I think for most emerging writers working today that is a rare feat.
Maybe some folks just work more diligently at the submission process than I do,
though.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I did some light editing
myself—commas turned into semi-colons, a dash added here or there—but most of
the manuscript is in the same shape as it was when I sent it to the contest.
The editor did not ask for any changes to the poems or poem order as we went
through the editing process, just a new title. I don’t know if this is usual
for the press, but it made me feel much better about all of the edits I’d completed
for the manuscript over the years.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What do you remember about the day when you saw
your published book for the first time?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It was unbelievable to
see this thing that I’d been working on for, more or less, eight years finally
in front of me. Something I had begun to think would not happen at all. I got
to share that day with my husband, who knows those eight years well. Even the
dog crazy-danced in the kitchen with us.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How has your life been different since your book
came out? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Oh, you know, I get to
pal around and talk shop with James Franco. So there’s that. Which is to say I
lie more. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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?”</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My initial reaction would
probably be “you should read the book,” since what one person gets out of a book
is not always what others do, which is one of the things I love most about the
reading and writing life. I’m not going to make a lot of friends with that,
though, so I might follow up with: often when we fight off the person we don’t
want to become, we’re also fighting culture, religion, family, and landscape—all
of which can come gunning for you as soon as you turn your back to them. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What advice do you wish someone had given you
before your first book came out?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Don’t beat yourself up
over what you have so little control. Dance. Be willing to let poems or a manuscript
go or to work a lot more on them/it. And then dance some more. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What influence has the book’s publication had on
your subsequent writing? Are there any new projects in the works?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">If anything, the
publication of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leaving Clean</i> makes me
dare to think that perhaps my singular voice <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">might</i> be important to this world and, so, makes me want to keep
writing and publishing because it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">might</i>
just matter. I’ve a near-ready-to-send-around second manuscript and have been
thinking about a third that might have to do with cities of music during the
Civil Rights Movement—a broad idea I had after visiting the National Civil
Rights Museum and the STAX Museum on the same day while briefly in Memphis.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you believe that poetry can create change in
the world?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Yes, if even for just a
few seconds at a time, yes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">*******************************************************************</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Originally from small-town
Southeast Texas, <b>Natalie Giarratano</b> received her MFA and PhD in creative
writing from Western Michigan University. Her first collection of poems, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leaving Clean</i>, won the 2013 Liam Rector
First Book Prize in Poetry and was published in June 2013 by Briery Creek
Press. Recent poems appear or are forthcoming in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gulf Stream: Poems of the Gulf Coast</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Isthmus Review</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American
Literary Review, Laurel Review</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hayden’s
Ferry Review, </i>among others. D.A. Powell selected her work for inclusion in
the 2011 edition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Best New Poets</i>,
and she won the 2011 Ann Stanford Poetry Prize from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Southern California Review</i>. She co-edits <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pilot Light</i>, an online journal of 21st century poetics and criticism,
teaches writing at American University, and lives in Northern Virginia with her
husband, Zach Green, and their pup, Miles. Find more at</span>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.nataliegiarratano.com/">http://www.nataliegiarratano.com</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">*******************************************************************</span></span> </span></span></span> </div>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-78615757200946031102014-03-05T17:28:00.000-05:002014-03-05T17:28:07.592-05:00#80 - Mark Neely
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How often had you sent out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beasts of the Hill</i> before it was chosen for the 2011 <a href="http://www.oberlin.edu/ocpress/prize.htm">FIELD Poetry Prize</a>?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I began sending out a
version years before it was published—it was a finalist for a contest as early
as 2004. But the manuscript has changed drastically since them, and I think it
was fortunate that earlier version wasn’t picked up by anyone—I’m much happier
with what it became. In its final form, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beasts
of the Hill </i>circulated for about two years before it was chosen for the
FIELD Prize. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tell me about the title. Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beasts of the Hill</i>? Did it go through
any other changes? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The earlier version was
called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dogs of Indiana, </i>which was
also the title of one of the poems. I abandoned it when I cut that poem from the
manuscript. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beasts of the Hill </i>comes
from a poem I love, Theodore Roethke’s “In a Dark Time”: “I live between the
heron and the wren / Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When I started thinking
about publishing a book, it seemed like contests were virtually the only to get
a first book published. Even now, a lot of publishers still won’t look at first
books. But I sent to open reading periods when it was an option. My rule was,
will I be proud to see my name on a book from that press. If the answer was
yes, I sent to them, regardless of the editorial system. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What was the process like assembling the book? How
many different versions did it go through as you were sending it out? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This book began as my MFA
thesis, but only about three poems from the thesis remain. Over the years I
took out poems I thought were weak, or ones that didn’t fit thematically or
stylistically with the rest of the book. Sometimes I think I would have been
better off burning the thesis—I see now it was apprentice work—and starting
over. But I’m happy with the result. It just took a long time. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How involved were you with the design of the
book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My father-in-law is a
painter and the image on the cover is his. I showed it to Oberlin and they
liked it. Their book designer designed the final cover and did all the interior
design, which was tricky because of the weird formatting of some of the poems
(four square blocks of prose arranged in a larger square, like a crossroads, or
a four-pane window). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I think it helps to have
a solid-looking acknowledgements page—it let’s first readers know</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">the poems have been
appreciated by magazine editors, but no one’s going to publish a book based on
the tastes of other editors. I’ve seen excellent books published with very
short acknowledgements pages. Since this book took a while to find a home,
quite a few of the poems were published in magazines before it came out. I
don’t know if had any influences on the editors at Oberlin or not.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Actually very little. My
editors had some suggestions, which I took, and there were some minor things I
changed, but I’d already been over the manuscript with a fine-tooth comb by
that point, so most of it stayed pretty much the same. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What do you remember about the day when you saw
your published book for the first time?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Joy. I ripped open that
box of books and just stared for a while. Also relief that it actually
happened. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How has your life been different since your book
came out? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’m better able to take
genuine pleasure from other people’s successes, which is good. Resenting other
people’s achievements isn’t healthy, and in a small group like the poetry
community, it’s deadly. Oscar Wilde summed up this attitude when he said, “It’s
not enough that I succeed; my friends must also fail.” For a while there I felt
like I was the last writer I knew without a published book and that was a
frustrating feeling. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I also have an easier
time imagining people actually reading the poems I’m writing now, which makes
it harder to write in a way, but also gives me a greater sense of urgency. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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?”</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’d peek at whatever they
were reading, then say the book was about a) the zombie apocalypse, b) a band
of child warriors forced to fight for their freedom, or c) the American Civil
War, depending on the book they were holding. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Or I’d say it was about
love and death, and let my seatmate turn gracefully back to fiddling with his
or her electronic device. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What have you been doing to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beasts of the Hill</i>, and what have those
experiences been like for you?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’m not much of a social
media person, which I know is how you’re supposed to promote your work these
days. Instead I did a lot of readings the year after the book came out. I met
lots of cool people, caught up with old friends, and generally had a blast. It
was amazing and encouraging to see enthusiastic audiences for poetry in so many
far-flung places. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What advice do you wish someone had given you
before your first book came out?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’ve heard (and given)
all the advice, and all of it is true and none of it means anything. If writing
matters to you, write. Don’t worry too much about the rest. Of course it
probably would take a lifetime of Buddhist training to not worry about the
rest, but try. For a lengthier explanation of my thoughts on this, see <a href="http://try101.org/2013/05/30/flow/">here</a>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What influence has the book’s publication had on
your subsequent writing? Are there any new projects in the works?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’m just finishing up
another poetry manuscript, and I have a nonfiction project in the works. I’m
not sure having the book published has affected my writing much, but working on
it all those years certainly has. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you believe that poetry can create change in
the world?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Yes and no. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">*******************************************************************</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
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</b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Mark Neely</b>’s first book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beasts of the Hill, </i>won the FIELD Poetry
Prize. He is also the author of a chapbook, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Four
of a Kind, </i>from Concrete Wolf Press. His poems have appeared in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, Barrow Street,
Boulevard</i>, and elsewhere. You can find out more about him at <a href="http://www.markneely.com/">www.markneely.com</a></span>
</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">*******************************************************************</span></span> </span></span></span> </div>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-84129763194264978032014-02-17T16:19:00.001-05:002014-02-17T16:19:24.385-05:00#79 - Ash Bowen
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How often had you
sent out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Even Years of Marriage</i>
before it was chosen for the 2012 <a href="http://home.comcast.net/~jpdancingbear/dhpcontests.html">Orphic Prize from Dream Horse Press</a>?</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I'm not sure. I've suffered two laptop
implosions since 2012, so my records from that time are gone. I completed my
MFA in the summer of 2008, and I know that I sent out <i>that</i> version of
the manuscript a few times, but that was a very different manuscript that bears
little-to-no resemblance to the book you see today. I got serious about
revising the manuscript in 2012, and I sent out the revised version in late
summer and autumn to three or four contests and three presses. The manuscript
was a semi-finalist in one contest and a near-miss at one of the presses. I won
the Orphic Prize at the end of December.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tell me about the title. Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Even Years of Marriage</i>? Did it go
through any other changes? </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The
manuscript went through a bunch of different titles. Originally, it was called
<i>gravityANTIgravity</i>, but that was when the book contained some poems that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ultimately yanked. Corey Marks at the
University of North Texas really worked with me and taught me how to view the
manuscript as a book and not just a collection of poems. He suggested that I
comb the manuscript for phrases that jumped out as potential titles. I poured
over the poems in a coffee shop in Denton, Texas, and that phrase seemed to
work as a frame for the book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">At
first, I just wanted my book to come out; I didn't care how. But then winning a
contest became important because I'd been told a contest win was helpful on the
job market. Since I was preparing to go on the market around that time, the
contest route seemed the way to go. But these days, I'd be inclined to tell
poets to be less concerned about contests and more focused on finding a quality
press. Do a lot of research and find out which presses are publishing books
that they'd feel honored to have their work sit beside. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What was the process
like assembling the book? How many different versions did it go through as you
were sending it out? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I
won't lie: assembling the book was very difficult. For months my partner would
come home to a living room covered with manuscript pages I'd lain out on the
floor. She'd find me on my knees, reading the poems aloud to find the poems
that resonated against each other. After I'd shuffled and reshuffled the pages
about 10,000 times, I enlisted the help of poets Sandy Longhorn and Anthony
Robinson, both of whom made useful suggestions about the order and structure. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When
I'd been an MFA student at the University of Arkansas, I'd studied under
Geoffrey Brock. One day we'd gotten into a discussion about the impulse to
arrange books of poems in a way that gave them a narrative arc. I can't speak
for Brock now, but at the time, we were both heavily against this.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When
I went to the University of North Texas to complete my doctorate, Corey Marks
let me see that the way I'd been ordering my poems was hurting my chances of
getting the book into print. He convinced me to approach the book's structure
in a much different way, and I honestly believe that without his direction, the
manuscript would still be sitting on my computer. His input was invaluable to
me. He taught me a lot. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How involved were
you with the design of the book—interior design, font, cover, etc.? 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? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I
wasn't involved in that aspect of the book—thankfully. I don't really have the
patience for that kind of work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
for editing, J.P. Dancing Bear sent the galleys to me, and those went back and
forth a few times. I shuffled the order of a few poems but nothing major. We
did drop one poem, as I recall, and replaced it with another. But other than
that, we mostly looked at spacing and such. I don't think I touched the poems
at all. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Did you suggest or
have any input regarding the image that was used on the cover?</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Dream
Horse Press makes beautiful books, which was one of the reasons I submitted my
manuscript to them. When it came time to pick art work, Bear had a strong
vision for the book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has a lot
more experience designing books, so I deferred to him. I've had loads of people
tell me how much they love the cover.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Earlier
you asked what advice I'd give to other poets, and I'd advise them to try to
negotiate some control over the cover art. This might be something a poet might
not even think about in the excitement of a press saying it wants to put your
work out, but this is something that will certainly come up later. I personally
know someone who ruined her relationship with a great press because of
disagreements over the cover art for her book. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I
once read an interview with Cleopatra Mathis where she said she didn't really
send poems out much anymore because she knew the poems would eventually come
out in a book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suppose that I
just don't have that kind of confidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I wouldn't even consider sending out a manuscript until the poems had
been field tested through journal publication (though one of my favorite poems
in my book was never able to find a home). Having an acknowledgments page that
shows publication in good venues doesn't seem like it would hurt a manuscript
when an editor looks at it.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What do you remember
about the day when you saw your published book for the first time?</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Not
much, to be honest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I'm not
really one to sanctify such moments. Plus, by the time the book arrived, it'd
been close to a year since I'd won the contest. I was already deep into a
second manuscript, so the book in many ways was like a relic, almost like it
was someone else's book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But don't
get me wrong:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was doing
cartwheels on the day that I learned that I had won the book contest. I opened
a 20-year-old bottle of scotch that I'd been saving for the occasion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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?”</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Honestly,
that would never happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Aside
from my wife and my kids, my family doesn't even know that I have a book, so
mentioning to a stranger on a plane that I have a book is hard for me to
imagine. But I think I would describe the book as one of loss and regret. There
are some moments of levity, but I resisted catharsis. I don't think there is
catharsis in real life, which suddenly strikes me as something The Misfit might
say in “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What have you been
doing to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Even Years of
Marriage</i>, and what have those experiences been like for you?</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">All
of my Facebook friends are tired of hearing about the book. I suppose I'm doing
the usual things people with first books do. I'm getting book reviews lined up.
I've scheduled readings. But I'm looking for new ways to pimp the book. I had
some ideas that involved multimedia, but I'm still fleshing out those ideas. So
not much, I suppose. Or not as much as some. I did just start a Tumblr page, ashbowenpoems,
to help promote my work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The
experience has been very positive. I was invited to read as part of the Kraken
Reading Series, a fantastic series run by the great Kyle McCord and equally
great Trista Edwards. Though I had a terrible cold, I had a great time at that
reading. I've also been invited to read at a college back home and I'm reading
at the Arkansas Literary Festival.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What advice do you
wish someone had given you before your first book came out?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Probably
not to expect too much; that the book isn't really going to change your life
all that much.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Are there any new
writing projects in the works?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I'm
pretty close to having a second manuscript completed. The new poems are
different than the poems in <i>The Even Years of Marriage</i>. <a href="http://baltimorereview.org/index.php/fall_2013/contributor/ash-bowen">Two poems</a> in <i>The
Baltimore Review</i> are representative
of what I'm doing now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had a
burst of creative energy last April when a friend of mine and I agreed to do
the poem-a-day challenge. We swapped poems every day to keep each other honest,
and I ended up with 30 solid drafts at the end of the month. Many of those
drafts fell together into finished poems pretty quickly, so I was fortunate.
I've been writing steadily ever since, but the drafts have taken longer to get
to a usable state. One new poem went through 70+ drafts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you believe that
poetry can create change in the world?</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;">Absolutely, or at least your own part of the world. I remember
reading Norman Dubie's poem, “</span><span style="color: black;">The Pennacesse Leper Colony for Women, Cape Cod: 1922,” for the
intro creative writing class I took as a sophomore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A feeling came over me that I've never forgotten.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried to express the impact<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the poem had on me to my professor, but
I couldn't translate the feeling into words. The world changed that day, for me
anyway.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">*******************************************************************</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
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</b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Ash Bowen</b> lives with his partner and
step-children in Alabama where he teaches literature and creative writing at
the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. His work has appeared in <i>New England Review,
Blackbird, Best New Poets, Quarterly West, Kenyon Review Online</i>, and
elsewhere in print and online.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>
</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">*******************************************************************</span> </span> </span></span><span style="font-family: Garamond;"></span></div>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-52664430350527535232014-02-04T12:24:00.001-05:002014-02-04T12:27:54.527-05:00#78 - TJ Jarrett<style>
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</style> <span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How often had you sent out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ain’t No Grave</i> before it was chosen for publication by <a href="http://www.wmich.edu/newissues/sub-guide.html">New Issues Poetry and Prose</a> in 2012?</b></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’m happier not knowing
how many places I sent my manuscript when I carpet-bombed the universe. It’s generally
depressing. Let’s settle with ‘I sent it out lots’ and be done with it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tell me about the title. Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ain’t No Grave</i>? Did it go through any
other changes? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In the book’s first
incarnation, I called it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Moon Looks
Down and Laughs</i> after the Billie Holiday song, but as I was working through
it, I thought that the title wasn’t really reflecting the direction of the
book. A friend of mine is a musician here in Nashville and invited me to see a
show. I protested, but when I got there, I saw Mike Farris & the Roseland
Revue sing ‘Ain’t No Grave’—a cover of Sister Rosetta Tharpe. I heard the first
few bars, remembered the song and I knew right then that it was the title. Sort
of like falling in love.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">First: Charlie Sheen has
ruined the word ‘winning’ for years to come. Fo’ sho.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I hear it’s completely
possible to get a book published without being in a contest. But on the nature
of ‘winning’: It feels so good to say that you ‘won’ something that it’s
completely understandable that we fall into the trap that a contest is worth
winning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We stop thinking about
what kind of press and what kind of books they produce and have the all-consuming
quest for ‘a’ book rather than focusing on either writing our best book or
finding a press who best matches our needs and will produce their best book as
well. So there’s that. There’s also the fact that there are several open
reading periods that will also pick up a first manuscript and these shouldn’t
be discounted. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But I’ve been lucky: I
was runner up (see: not winning) for the New Issues Prize in 2012 and won one
of the Crab Orchard Open Poetry Prize slots in 2013. Winning is not the point.
Getting the work out at a press you admire and is a good fit for you is. I’ve
heard tell of manuscripts that have a push/pull with editors. I’ve not had that
at all and have had the most enlightening and constructive interactions with my
publishers. If you want, you can call that winning. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I did a lot of complaining
while I was writing the book—that it wasn’t picked up fast enough (which means
instantaneously in my limbic brain) and that it wasn’t being written fast
enough (which is crazy because it came together in about 18 months)—but if I
had any real regrets, it’s that when I finally turned it over to my editor, it
seemed too fast. I wanted more time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I always do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What was the process like assembling the book? How
many different versions did it go through as you were sending it out? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Oh, I must have written
and rewritten into it at least 3 or 4 times. Not to mention little things here
and there that make the book hold together. There were edits into poems that
directly spoke to other poems because it could fit into that specific place.
That’s the most fun part of the whole damned thing. I wrote both of my books in
a bar, so I would just go in there, get all that ambient sound around me and
get to work. I still can’t really write a poem without that sound.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">NB. I’m trying to write
without a bar because I’d like to keep my liver. Even though sometimes I
wouldn’t even drink at the bar, I’d still want to be able to write without
smelling of smoke and bad decisions. Let’s see how long that lasts. I always
seem to crawl back to the bar when I want to get ‘real’ work done.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How involved were you with the design of the
book—interior design, font, cover, etc.? Did you suggest or have any input
regarding the image that was used on the cover? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">New Issues has a design
department, so I gave general thoughts on what I wanted and they gave me two
covers and I picked one. I said that I wanted the moon in the trees and I got
that. Maybe I’m low maintenance about it, but I think they did an incredible
job with the cover and within their style guides. Also, Marni Ludwig (the
winner of the contest and a production cycle before me) won the war with
getting a serif font, so I ended up getting all that I wanted. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In the sense that I think
that having publications get you closer to writing better poems toward a book,
I think publication is a means to get you on your way. I also think that’s the
best way toward building public anticipation for a book. I never really thought
of publication of poems per se as the measure of a good book. I’m fairly
suspicious about using the fact that a poem is published as the only yardstick
for whether it belongs to a manuscript.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">William Olsen told me
when we first met about the book that first books are often over edited. He was
fairly adamant that I leave the order almost exactly as it was. I did some
small tuning of line and a few word choice changes I’d had in my notes, but
besides that, I let it roll as I sent it to them initially. Besides copy edits,
I wasn’t all that hands on with the text after it was picked up. My second book
was the exact opposite. The text that won is considerably different than the
text that I sent in for publication. I’d just done an overhaul of the book when
they called me. I shipped the book up to Jon Tribble and he was quite gracious
about the changes in direction of the book. I think <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zion</i> (my second book) is a better book for those changes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What do you remember about the day when you saw
your published book for the first time?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’d like to say that I
had this overwhelming sense of accomplishment, but I just sat at my kitchen
table and cried. Because I’m a poet like that and too sensitive to be alive. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How has your life been different since your book
came out? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I wish I could say it was
completely different. I think my book sold me to my (admittedly awesome) new
roommate. But really, I still buy my own groceries. I do my own laundry. I mop
my own floors. Sometimes I take time off work to do a reading and I get a free
meal. But then I’m back to my really dull, murder mystery BBC-a-thon that is my
life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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?”</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I rarely bring it up,
because every sonofabitch has a book in them and they all want to talk about
it. I’m quite cagey about it, like when I used to go to bars and claim I was an
airline stewardess because it was easier than admitting that I’m a software
engineer. But when cornered, the synopsis is usually: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This is a book about the nadir of race relations between 1880 and 1930
and what a southern black family does to resist and embrace the weight of
history. But you know, in verse.</i> The synopsis is true, and maybe the book
is about a lot more than that, like death, malice between men, and the burden
of the living and memory. But most (if not all) books are about that on some
level, no?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What have you been doing to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ain’t No Grave</i>, and what have those
experiences been like for you?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I am travelling to places
where I’ve been invited and doing readings and selling books. I want to do
more, but I can’t because well, I have a corporate job and they have needs too.
But I do like the fact that my boss and coworkers are always intrigued about
the places I go and what I ate and we can chit chat about it. I’ve worked at
places where I have to be a Fight Club character about my writing. In contrast,
my current life is quite nice.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What advice do you wish someone had given you
before your first book came out?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Dear pre-book Tanya:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Don’t sweat the small
stuff. Run your own race, your own best time. Spend time with your words and
enjoy them. This is your only first book. Don’t be an asshole; listening to the
theme song to 8 Mile won’t make it go any faster. You’re not going to want it
to go any faster in the long run. Writing a book isn’t about proving anything
to anyone. Say what you need to say—no more, no less. There are so many things
that are more important than this. Spend more time with your friends. Love
them. The words will always be there. Get more sleep. Take care of yourself.
Rest. Rest. Rest. Live fully, drink a little less, laugh a little more. Work is
work and your overdeveloped sense of responsibility needs to understand limits.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What influence has the book’s publication had on
your subsequent writing? Are there any new projects in the works?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I think I get a little
bolder with each book I write. I don’t write from the ‘I wonder if I can write
a book’ but from the ‘What is the most important thing for me to say’ place.
That’s liberating. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you believe that poetry can create change in
the world?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Poetry rocks MY world. I
think there are people to be reached and hearts to be touched and moved by
words. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">*******************************************************************</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>TJ Jarrett</b> is a writer and software developer in Nashville, Tennessee. Her recent work has been published or is forthcoming in <i>African American Review</i>, <i>Boston Review</i>, <i>Beloit Poetry Journal</i>, <i>Boxcar Poetry Review</i>, <i>Callaloo</i>, <i>DIAGRAM</i>, <i>Ninth Letter</i>, <i>Linebreak</i>, <i>Rattle</i>, <i>Southern Poetry Anthology</i>, <i>Third Coast</i>, <i>West Branch</i> and others. She has earned scholarships from Colrain Manuscript Conference, Sewanee Writer’s Conference and Vermont Studio Center; a fellowship from the Summer Literary Seminars 2012; a runner up for the 2012 Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize and 2012 New Issues Poetry Prize; and her collection <i>The Moon Looks Down</i> and Laughs was selected as a finalist for the 2010 Tampa Review Prize for Poetry. Her debut collection <i>Ain’t No Grave</i> was published with New Issues Press in the fall of 2013. Her second collection <i>Zion</i> (winner of the Crab Orchard Open Competition 2013) will be published by Southern Illinois University Press in the fall of 2014. Find more at <a href="http://www.tjjarrett.com/">http://www.tjjarrett.com </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">*******************************************************************</span></span></div>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-68713439829331130922014-01-03T14:53:00.000-05:002014-01-03T14:53:05.488-05:00#77 - Kristina Marie Darling
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How often had you sent out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs</i> before it was chosen for publication by <a href="http://goldwakepress.com/">Gold Wake Press</a>
in 2010?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Before sending out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs</i>, I had been publishing poems
in small print journals, as well as online literary magazines, for years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was just thrilled to have poems
accepted, but after awhile, a few publishers expressed an interest in
publishing a full-length collection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Although I didn't have one ready at the time, I kept track of the
publishers who had invited me to submit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs</i> was finally
finished, I sent it to approximately four publishers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gold Wake Press was the first one to respond, and when I saw
that my manuscript had been accepted, I was thrilled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'm a fan of Jared Michael Wahlgren's creative work, especially
his full-length book from BlazeVOX.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He had also just published Zachary C. Bush and Donora Hillard, whose
work I really admire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tell me about the title. Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs</i>? Did it go through any other
changes? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I had written a chapbook
called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Music</i>, and I always
thought that I would stick with the same title when the full-length version was
ready.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I realize now that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Music </i>is not a very good title,
but at the time, it seemed alright.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That all changed when I gave a reading in St. Louis at Dressel's Public
House with Nick Demske and several other poets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nick called my chapbook by the wrong name, and told me that
he really enjoyed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>But I was so glad that he messed up
my chapbook's title.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I decided
that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs</i> was a big
improvement over <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Music</i>, and
that's what I ended up titling the full-length version.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It still amazes me that accidents and
missteps can be so important for the creative process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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?”</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I usually tell people
that it's a thematically linked poetry collection, with much of the work being
inspired by my love of classical music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I think that's accurate, but it's also very much inspired by my love of
French prose poetry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book
actually drifts in and out of French in certain passages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think that person on the airplane
would also be surprised at just how strange the book actually gets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I even start erasing my own poems at
the end, which usually surprises the non-poets or non-poetry readers out there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs</i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> has
just been reissued, correct? Can you tell me a little about the process of the
how and why of the reissue? And why the new cover, font size, etc.? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs </i>was first published, I was just starting out as a poet,
and it was also one of Gold Wake Press's first three titles. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's really wonderful and exciting to
see how much the press has grown, and to see growth in my writing at the same
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I'm so impressed with how
Jared Michael Wahlgren has developed the press since those early titles in
2010.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He's expanded the catalogue,
publishing poetry as well as cross-genre work (like Kathleen Rooney's
novel-in-poems and Joshua Young's play-in-verse) and some really fascinating
collaborations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the design
of the books was always beautiful, Gold Wake Press titles have also become, in
recent years, even more striking than those first few books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The idea behind the
reissue was to create an edition of the book that's more in line with the
press's current aesthetic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs</i> was first published, all the
books had glossy covers, and the back cover was always white.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The visual presentation of the books is
much different now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The current
titles have matte covers and spine text, but there's also more room for the
interior layout, cover design, and other visual elements to reflect the
aesthetic of the manuscript.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I really love what Gold
Wake Press has done with the design of the new edition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
feel like the design elements have breathed new life into my first book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Did you suggest or have any input regarding the
image that was used on the cover? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">One of the great things
about working with an independent press is that you have more freedom and
choice when it comes to design elements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I feel fortunate to have been asked for input about the cover artwork
for both editions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's really
wonderful to have the opportunity to choose cover art that you feel represents
the book and your aesthetic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I never entered contests
for financial reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I was
sending out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs, </i>I was
studying continental philosophy, so I really didn't have the money to pay entry
fees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I think that open
reading periods do have a distinct advantage over contests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I say this because editors take into
account your track record publishing in magazines, how active you are in the
literary community (in terms of publishing, but also editing, reviewing, etc.),
and the potential readership for the book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These things tend to get overlooked in contests, where the
submissions are completely anonymous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So if you have a good track record of publications,
and are active as a reviewer or editor, I'd definitely suggest looking into
open reading periods, because these are the first books that tend to have the
best chance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Even as a very young poet,
I knew that journal publication was important for building audience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That's why I worked hard to publish
nearly every poem from the book in a magazine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my opinion, publishing in magazines is especially
important for a first book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
one thing, it opens up opportunities for reviews, interviews, and features when
the collection is released.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
journal publication certainly helps generate interest in a new book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if it's not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The New Yorker</i>, publishing individual poems helps build a potential
audience for your poetry, which can be challenging with a first book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What do you remember about the day when you saw
your published book for the first time?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In 2010, when the book
was first published, I was a residency at the Vermont Studio Center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had a nightmare before the copies
arrived that I opened the box and the book was Xeroxed and stapled together
crooked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was so nervous to see
the finished product, since I had never published a book before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I saw the first edition, I was
thrilled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember being so
happy that I carried the book around with me everywhere I went.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I literally wouldn't set the book
down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When I saw the second
edition, I was even more thrilled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It helped me see the work in a completely new way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had been working in more experimental
forms since publishing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs, </i>but
seeing the finished book made me want to work on writing prose poems
again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How has your life been different since your book
came out? I know that you have many more books published since the original
version of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs</i> is published.
How do you find time to write so much and put together so many books of poetry?
</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I feel so grateful to
Jared Michael Wahlgren for publishing my first book, since that one publication
opened up everything for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
other Gold Wake Press authors are so supportive, and have been really generous
as I've worked to promote my poetry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs</i> came out,
Cow Heavy Books published my second book, and the editor, Donora Hillard, is
also a Gold Wake Press author.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
was thrilled to work with Donora, since she's a very talented poet, and she
also did some beautiful design work on my book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I might never have come into contact with her if it hadn't
have been for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Likewise, Erin Elizabeth Smith is the
editor at Sundress Publications, and we're getting ready to release my new
book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fortress,</i> in 2014.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also met Erin through Gold Wake
Press.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I feel fortunate to be
working with a press that publishes great poetry, but also promotes poets who
are active in the literary community working on exciting projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What are you doing to promote the reissue of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs</i>? How are you promoting it
now versus how you promoted it when it was first published? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I feel like I've learned
a lot about book promotions since my first book was published.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Songs</i> was first published, I sent review copies directly to
magazines, which resulted in very few reviews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Magazines often wanted to publish a review, but didn't have
a reviewer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I definitely see
how important it is to reach out to individual reviewers whose work I
admire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I've also learned to focus
more on web-based promotion, since a reviewer can be posted and reposted, and
read by people in many different geographical locations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of my readings, on the other hand,
have been attended mostly by my friends, who already knew all about my
book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What advice do you wish someone had given you
before your first book came out?</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The fiction writer
Christina Milletti gave me great advice about book promotion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She said that it's important to be your
own publicist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This doesn't mean
being aggressive, or overbearing, but you should definitely follow up with
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If someone mentioned that
they'd like to review your book, you might check with them and see if they need
help placing the review.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can't
tell you how many times I had an interested reviewer, and a magazine that
wanted to publish a review of my book, but the reviewer and the magazine didn't
know about each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So you can
definitely steer reviewers toward interested markets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For me, getting my books
reviewed has been a really enjoyable process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I've made great friends, and even met a collaborator, when I
was just trying to promote my books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Poets shouldn't be afraid to reach out, because one of the most
rewarding aspects of poetry is being part of a community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Are there any new projects in the works?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I'm working on a
collaboration with photographer and costumer Max Avi Kaplan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It involves Polaroids, disembodied
hands, and Vladimir Nabokov's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lolita.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Stay tuned for details!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you believe that poetry can create change in
the world?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I can't speak for other
people, but poetry has certainly taught me to value things like community,
collaboration, and dialogue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
you ask me, changing one individual's consciousness does create change in the
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">*******************************************************************</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Kristina Marie Darling</b> is
the author of sixteen books, which include <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Melancholia
(An Essay) </i>(Ravenna Press, 2012), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Petrarchan
</i>(BlazeVOX Books, 2013), and a forthcoming hybrid genre collection called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fortress </i>(Sundress Publications,
2014).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her awards include
fellowships from Yaddo, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and the Hawthornden
Castle International Retreat for Writers, as well as grants from the Kittredge
Fund and the Elizabeth George Foundation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She is currently working toward a Ph.D. in Poetics at SUNY Buffalo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">******************************************************************* </span></span></div>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-8454153010548724122013-08-01T17:54:00.002-04:002013-08-01T17:57:03.522-04:00#76 - Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How often had you sent out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chord Box</i> before it was chosen for publication by The University of
Arkansas Press as Finalist for the <a href="http://www.uapress.com/geninfo/poetryguidelines.html">Miller Williams Prize</a> in 2013?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The book was picked up
pretty quickly—within the first six months of submitting it—but by the time I
got the call from the University of Arkansas, it had already been rejected by
16 different contests or open reading periods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had been a semi-finalist for a couple of contests, and a
finalist once, which was enough hope for me to keep trying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I admit that I didn’t have a great
sense of where my manuscript might fit in the publishing landscape—it’s a hard
thing to predict, even if you’re reading a lot—so I blanketed the market,
sending to as many places as I could manage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was expensive to do this, and emotionally taxing to
get the rejections, but I’m glad I invested.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tell me about the title. Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chord Box</i>? Did it go through any other
changes? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chord Box </i>was always my title.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Alice Fulton, who served as my thesis committee chair in graduate
school, suggested it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It comes
from two lines in my poem “Echo”: “Lungs lift against the chord/box, stir its
twin folds.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because the book is
primary about music and sound—with the guitar and the human voice being two of
its major subjects—Alice’s suggestion hit home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The title, to me, seemed to suggest both the physical body
of a guitar, as well as the voice box, or larynx, which houses the vocal chords.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Alice Fulton also gave me
another helpful piece of publishing advice: it’s good to avoid having a title
poem for your collection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A title
poem puts a lot of pressure on that one small piece of the manuscript, and, if
the judge or editor isn’t crazy about the poem, it could hurt your chances of
getting published. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’d suggest sending to
both contests and open reading periods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My book was picked up, along with <a href="http://firstbookinterviews.blogspot.com/2013/04/68-joshua-robbins.html">Joshua Robbins’s</a> and Elton Glaser’s,
out of the submissions to the Miller Williams Prize.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes a contest judge or editor will feel passionately
enough about your manuscript to publish it, even if it’s not the contest
winner. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When you feel that your
manuscript is ready to send out, I’d suggest that you send it to as many open
reading periods and contests as you can afford.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It feels terrible, and like a huge waste of money, but most
of us have to reach a critical mass with manuscript submissions before our
books will be picked up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was
lucky enough to have the book taken pretty early in the process, but I think
that this was due to, at least in part, the fact that I was so diligent about
sending our the manuscript from the very beginning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because I initially didn’t have much extra money to write
the contest checks, I moved into a cheaper apartment and took on a roommate for
a year, thus cutting down on my monthly expenses. It was worth it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What was the process like assembling the book? How
many different versions did it go through as you were sending it out? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chord Box</i>
is essentially the same as my MFA thesis, though I added and subtracted some
poems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sections have remained
mostly the same as they were for my thesis. The first section of the book is a
long narrative sequence, and I knew all of those poems had to be in a section
together in order for the story to make sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sequence is a very charged and morally ambiguous
coming-of-age narrative, and while it initially felt like a real risk to have
it come first in the book, my editor said that it was this section that really
grabbed her attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The middle
section of the book was more assorted in its subjects and forms, and I played
around with the order of these poems quite a bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The last section of the
book is about living in China.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
inclusion of some Chinese words, and characters is a challenge for some
readers, and so I tried to arrange that section so that the first poem
“teaches” you how to read the poems that follow it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted to ease the reader into the more experimental/less
transparent aspects of the book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When you’re submitting your manuscript, anything you can do to make it
more user-friendly is good. Contest readers and editors will likely be tired by
the time they start reading your manuscript. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For a while, I was
worried that the last section of the book, because of its more experimental
poetics, might be the start of second book, rather than the conclusion of this
first one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, what I learned
is that it’s fine to have the last section veer off in a slightly different
direction, so long as there are some resonances with poems earlier in the
collection.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">One thing I wish I’d
known: the manuscript was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">much</i> too
long in its original form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think
it’s better to include fewer poems when you’re trying to get your manuscript
published. Less can be more. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How involved were you with the design of the
book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">University of Arkansas
Press gave me a lot of freedom around how the book was designed, especially
when it came to the cover.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
friend Monica Burke, whose primary artistic field is lamp-making, designed the
cover of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chord Box. </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a number of conversations
and trial designs before coming up with our final pick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lot of book covers are really drab,
and I wanted something that was slightly outrageous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(My book cover reminds me of a paperback from the
1970’s.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m grateful that the
press went with Monica’s idea, and kept an open mind, even if my book looks
different than most of the books in their series. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Did you suggest or have any input regarding the
image that was used on the cover? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As I described, my friend
Monica Burke was responsible for almost all aspects of the cover. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Yes, a fair number of the
poems had been published in journals, especially in the middle and last section
of the book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Publishing these
poems was a way of testing the waters, seeing if my writing was resonating with
editors and readers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m glad I
did this. It gave me enough confidence to start sending out my book-length
manuscript. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But the first section of
the book, as I’ve described, is a long sequence, and so most of those poems did
not place in journals, mostly because one really needs to read all of them
together to make sense of the narrative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’d published the opening poem of that sequence in a magazine, but that
was the only poem.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My editor, Enid Shomer,
was a very thorough reader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had
two very long phone calls and went through each poem together, and from there I
made occasional line edits, word adjustments, or omissions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took most of her suggestions,
though she left the final choices up to me. The best suggestion Enid gave me
was to cut a number of poems from the manuscript.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was shocked to discover that, even after I’d cut a number
of poems, the final manuscript is close to 100 pages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s very long for a first book of poetry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What do you remember about the day when you saw
your published book for the first time?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Oh man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I currently live in a very small town
in rural Ohio, and no one gets mail delivery at their home; you have to go to
the post office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I went
to look for the box, it wasn’t there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Because Kenyon College is a small community, I finally found the box at the
office of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Kenyon Review,</i> where I
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I opened the box
immediately, and, yes, took a picture of the books!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A mentor, Janet McAdams, instructed me to sleep with
the book under my pillow that first night, for good luck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I did.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How has your life been different since your book
came out? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It’s nice to know that
those poems are officially “done,” and I’ll never revise them again!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also think that having published a
book, for better or worse, affords some people’s respect, and can, at least on
good days, affirm your choice to live a creative life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s also been nice to share my work
with a larger group of people; so much of writing feels like talking to the
wall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In theory, the book now
means I’m “qualified” for a number of academic jobs, but it’s a very
competitive world out there, so I have my doubts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have a fellowship at the moment, so I haven’t
entered the larger job market just yet. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It’s important to
remember that everyone is on their own timeline when it comes to writing and publishing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many people have to wait for
years before their first book is published, but by the time that first book is
taken, they have another fantastic manuscript completed, or they’re deeply
immersed in a second project, and they’ve got a strong sense of identity as a
writer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was only 26 years old
when <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chord Box </i>was picked up for
publication, and not quite 28 years old when it was published.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m grateful to have gotten this
relatively early start, but it also means that my next project feels pretty nascent,
and I still lack confidence about my ability to write meaningfully and
artfully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve felt a little bit
unmoored for these past two years, often worrying about whether or not I’ll
publish another book, and when it might happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suppose this is a common experience. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For the most part, my
life is the same as before the book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, it’s been fun to do some readings, and to have the book to
share with new and old friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’m grateful. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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?”</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It’s hard to talk about
your own work, but I think <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chord Box</i>
a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">buildungsroman </i>in every sense of
the word.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s also a book about
music, identity, and geography.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Martha Collins, who was good enough to write me a blurb, says the book
is about “the language of sound, and the sounds of language.” That is pretty
astute, I think! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What have you been doing to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chord Box</i>, and what have those
experiences been like for you?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’ve done a string of
readings—mostly places where I’ve lived or know people—and that has been fun.
I’ve also promoted the book, to some extent, through Facebook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t had much luck getting reviews
for the book, which is a bit of a disappointment, but it’s still early; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chord Box</i> has only been out since
February.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reviews are hard
to come by for your first book, or so I’ve heard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In general, I think I’m not so good at self-promotion, but
I’m working on it. It takes a lot of energy, and it’s not very conducive to
writing itself. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What advice do you wish someone had given you
before your first book came out?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As I mentioned before,
I’ve really struggled with confidence around my work, and, unlike some of the
thicker-skinned among us, I don’t deal with rejection very well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily, someone <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">did </i>give me the important advice: just focus on the work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Write what you need to write, even if
it isn’t as hip or clever as what your peers are writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if you really want your book
published, you’ve got to keep sending it out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If it gets rejected many times, this doesn’t mean
anything in particular; it’s common, and the chances of getting published are
always slim, even if you’ve got a strong manuscript.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The more you send out, the better your chances will be. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What influence has the book’s publication had on
your subsequent writing? Are there any new projects in the works?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">After writing so much
about music, sound is now the primary sensory operation in most of my
poems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s more important than
the visual, even, which is usually the dominant sense in writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in regards to most of the poems in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chord Box</i>: it was a different era of my
life, and I can never write like that again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The new poems are more global and political in their scope,
and are less about identity or history than the ones in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chord Box.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
are also formally different from my old poems; my sense of the line continues
to evolve, and I find that the ultra-terse, tightly-wound lines that I used to
write don’t seem to be serving my words any longer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Form is holy to me, so the old habits have been hard to
break. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In some ways, the new
poems are more ambitious, which means they often fail or don’t quite live up to
their potential. Writing is really hard! Every time I sit down to work, I feel
like I’m trying to reinvent the wheel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But I’m still at it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ve had a writing fellowship for this past year, which has been great,
and has given me time and space to think and try new ways of writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some experiments fail; others produce
interesting results.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, in
addition to poems, I’ve also begun to experiment with a new form altogether:
essays. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you believe that poetry can create change in
the world?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I hope so?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Whitman would say,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Great or small, your furnish your
parts towards the soul.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">*******************************************************************</span><b><br />Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers</b>
is the author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chord Box </i>(University
of Arkansas Press, 2013).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her
poems appear in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Missouri Review,
Prairie Schooner, FIELD, Crab Orchard Review, AGNI Online, POOL, </i>and other
journals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Born and raised in North
Carolina, she is a graduate of Oberlin College and the MFA program at Cornell
University, and also spent several years teaching in rural China.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is currently a poetry fellow at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Kenyon Review</i>, and lives in Gambier,
Ohio. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>You can read more about her poetry on her website:
<a href="http://www.elizabethlindseyrogers.com/">www.elizabethlindseyrogers.com</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">*******************************************************************</span> </span> </span>Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-54587943940173625272013-07-15T12:33:00.001-04:002013-07-15T12:33:10.262-04:00#75 - James Pollock
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>How often had you sent out </b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>Sailing to Babylon</i></b><b> before it was
chosen for publication in 2012 by <a href="http://www.ablemusepress.com/">Able Muse Press</a>?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I was fortunate; I did manage to get
eighteen submissions out the door, but to my delight the manuscript was
accepted only three months into my submission process. I had planned to send
the manuscript to about a hundred presses in the U.S. and Canada over the
course of a year. At the time it was a little bewildering because one of the
places I submitted it to, Able Muse Press in California, had indicated in its
submission guidelines to expect a six-month wait for a response, but in fact
they accepted it just twelve days after I sent it to them. It was thrilling, of
course, but this was essentially a new press (they’d only published three or
four books at the time), and I wondered if I ought to wait to hear from some
more established presses first. But I asked around and got some advice—the poet
Eric Ormsby’s good word was especially decisive—and ultimately I gladly
accepted the offer. Though not before I’d heard back from some other publishers
first. The book was a semi-finalist for the Crab Orchard Poetry Series First
Book Award. McGill-Queen’s University Press in Montreal was interested, but the
editors wanted me to make the manuscript longer by twenty-five pages and submit
it again within five months, which didn’t strike me as the right thing for this
book. And some presses sent letters of praise that nevertheless didn’t make me
an offer, including Graywolf and Etruscan in the U.S. and Gaspereau in Canada.
The most whiplash-inducing<b> </b>of these was from someone at Farrar, Straus
& Giroux, whose words are forever burned into my memory: “Your verses are
lyrical, your images exact and moving, but our small poetry list is booked for
the foreseeable future.” Alas! But in the end I’m very happy the book was
published by Able Muse, for a variety of reasons. For example, many small
presses have trouble with distribution, but that’s not an issue; it’s not hard
to get your hands on the book. It’s also in my contract that, as long as the
press stays in business, the book will never go out of print. That’s hard to
beat. And my editor at Able Muse, Alex Pepple, has been a pleasure to work
with. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Tell me about the title. Had it always
been </b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>Sailing to Babylon</i></b><b>? Did it go through
any other changes? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The working title for many years was <i>Northwest
Passage</i>, which is also the title of two of the poems in the book. But when
I finished the manuscript it didn’t fit. The phrase lacks the mythic resonance
outside of my native Canada that it has there. And on the other hand it’s been
so well-used in Canada that, there, it’s almost a cliché, at least for the
title of a book. What I wanted was a title that would place the book in the
main stream of Western literary tradition, and one with several layers of
meaning—in this case, an image of a sea voyage, an ironic or disputative
allusion to Yeats’s poem “Sailing to Byzantium,” an allusion to the several
Babylons of history, the Bible, and nursery rhyme (“How many miles to Babylon?/
Threescore miles and ten./ Can I get there by candle-light?/ Yes, and back
again.”), and so on. I wanted a title that would be inviting to readers at
first glance, and resonant with new dimensions of meaning later on: a complex
symbol. I myself keep discovering new ways of thinking about it even now, and I
like that very much.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Book contests, with their reading fees,
are simply a business model many poetry publishers rely on in the U.S. in order
to keep publishing books, and they’re a perfectly good one. But there are also
plenty of publishers that call for open submissions, and in fact a lot of them,
including Able Muse Press, do both. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no reason
to choose one over the other, because just about every manuscript that gets
published—as opposed to self-published—is the winner of a competition with
other manuscripts, whether it’s called a book contest or not. As for me, among
the eighteen presses I sent the manuscript to, six involved contests, though I was
planning to enter many more.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">And anyway, after a book is published
there are also plenty of post-publication book awards, the point of which is to
publicize the book, to find readers for it. I’ve entered some myself, and my
publisher has entered my book in some too, fifteen altogether. When <i>Sailing
to Babylon </i>was named a finalist for the 2012 Governor General’s Literary
Award in poetry, a major honor in Canada, it gave the book a big boost in
visibility. There was a $1000 prize for each finalist, and a finalists’ reading
in Montreal which meant a lot to me. The book was named the runner-up for the
2012 Posner Poetry Book Award, in Wisconsin. And now I’ve learned that it’s
been shortlisted for the 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize, Canada’s most prestigious
poetry award, and the publicity for that has already been extraordinary. Each
finalist will be given $10,000 for doing a reading at the Royal Conservatory of
Music in Toronto on June 12, 2013. And the winners—one Canadian and one
international—will be announced at a gala the next evening, and given another
$65,000. I’m overjoyed, as you can imagine, and filled with gratitude. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>What was the process like assembling
the book? How many different versions did it go through as you were sending it
out? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I sent it out in one version. It took
me about fifteen years to write the poems, but once I had finally written
enough good ones for a book, it didn’t take long to put it together—just a few
days. I spread the poems out on the floor and read them all, putting the ones
that seemed to belong together into piles, then ordering the poems in each
section and putting the sections in a natural order. Granted, there are only
eighteen poems in the book—the last one is twenty-three pages long—so arranging
the poems was probably not as difficult in this case as it might have been
otherwise.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The hard part was writing it. I wrote
many more poems than made it into the manuscript, and I was ruthless in
deciding whether a given poem was good enough. Hence the fifteen years. The
last thing I wrote was the long poem, “Quarry Park,” and when it was done I
knew for the first time that I had written a book. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>How involved were you with the design
of the book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">One perk of publishing with a small
press is that you have some input on these matters. The book was designed by my
editor and publisher, Alex Pepple, and he did a marvelous job. There was plenty
of consultation, lots of back-and-forth, but in the end my main design
contribution was the color of the cover—blue instead of the original beige.
Other than that, my publisher gets all the credit for the design, which I love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Did you suggest or have any input
regarding the image that was used on the cover? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I suggested several images that
involved ships at sea, and Alex chose an image on his own with a similar theme
but a more abstract style. It’s a photograph called “Sailing Ships from
Heaven,” by a French photographer named Roger-Michael Goerge, and he seems to
have done something to the camera lens. I think I read somewhere that he
smudged it with petroleum jelly to make the image dream-like. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>What about the publication of the poems
in journals and magazines prior to the book’s being published? Was there ever a
concern for you to have most of the poems published before you sent out your
manuscript? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Yes, indeed. I understand that some
editors read the acknowledgements page very carefully to get a sense of the
caliber of journals the poems have appeared in, especially for a first book.
The more prestigious and difficult to get published in, the better. And editors
also have a clear sense of which journals tend to publish the kind of thing
their presses specialize in. In such cases, where you’ve published affects the
editor’s attitude, and perhaps how much time he or she is willing to spend on
reading the manuscript. If she hasn’t heard of any of the journals the poems
have appeared in, or if they’re just the wrong journals from her point of view,
she may well give it short shrift—because editors are nothing if not overworked
and short on time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But the main reason to publish your
poems in journals is to test your work against the standards of the editors. It
helps you see which of your poems are the best, and which either need more work
or just aren’t good enough. And of course, you do it to find readers for your
poems. So I spent many years getting the poems published in magazines. In the
end, all but two of the poems in <i>Sailing to Babylon </i>were published
beforehand, and one of those two was “Quarry Park,” which was just way too long
for most journals. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>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? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Quite a lot. The process delayed
publication for about a year, but I wanted to make sure the book was the best
it could be. A few months after the manuscript was accepted, and with the
blessing of my editor, I went to the Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference where
I received some invaluable advice from Joan Houlihan, the poet and critic, and
Jeffrey Levine, the editor of Tupelo Press and also a poet. I’d applied and
been accepted to the conference before my book was accepted for publication; I
had thought my submission process would take longer than it did. But by the
time the conference happened, as I say, the manuscript had been accepted by
Able Muse Press. I went to the conference anyway because I wanted to make the
manuscript better, and I’m glad I did. I ended up removing two or three poems,
revising some others, and changing the order of the poems in a few cases. So it
added up to a significant improvement. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My editor, Alex Pepple, made some
helpful suggestions about a few poems, as well. And a few months later I was
very lucky to have the unofficial editorial services of my friend Carmine
Starnino, a very fine editor, poet, and critic in Canada, who, I was happy to
find, only suggested some judicious cuts to the first three pages of “Quarry
Park.” He’s a famously tough editor, so I knew from the scarcity of his
suggestions that the book must be getting close to ready to go to print. After
I made those changes, my wife, Stormy Stipe, who had been responding to drafts
of the poems all along for years, signed off on the manuscript again too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">That just left the proofreaders. I
think my editor and publisher, Alex, in his remarkable thoroughness, hired <i>six</i>,
some of whom had reputations for being very tough—which is just what you want
in a proofreader. They each caught several different things, some of which were
debatable and which got resolved according to the press’s house style. But one
of these proofreaders—an older man from Europe, I was told—made a suggestion
that really helped the ending of a poem called “Weekend in Vienna.” He said
something about how everyone knows that a certain kind of doorless elevator in
Europe that doesn’t stop at your floor—you have to step onto it while it’s moving—everyone
knows it’s called a “paternoster elevator.” Well, I didn’t know that, but what
a perfect name! It was just right for the ending of the poem. So, many a
thank-you to that anonymous proofreader, whoever he was. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>What do you remember about the day when
you saw your published book for the first time?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It was early July, a bright, hot day. I
carried the box in from the front porch and set it down on the living room
floor, and my son Felix, who was six, kept pushing my hands out of the way and
saying he wanted to open it himself. And when we finally managed to get it open
with the scissors, my wife picked up a copy and felt the cover and smiled and
said it felt like flour, and then she went off to read it. I read some of it to
Felix, too, the parts about him, and he was very excited. It was all very
domestic and joyful. The book looked beautiful. But I remember thinking, what
am I going to do with all these books? There were fifty copies in the box.
Since then I’ve had the pleasure of doing several readings, so by now I’m happy
to say I’ve sold my way through box number two, and I’m about to order another.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>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?”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It’s full of poems about exploration
and discovery, from wilderness explorers like Henry Hudson, John Franklin and
David Thompson to mental travellers like Northrop Frye and Glenn Gould. And it
ends with a long poem about hiking through a wooded park with my two-year-old
son in Madison, Wisconsin, and what we find there. On another level, it’s about
spiritual journeys, and ultimately about making a home for yourself by engaging
imaginatively with the history of the place you find yourself in. It’s an
allusive book, written in a clear style, and with much attention to the sounds
of words.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>How has your life been different since
your book came out? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I spend a lot of time now promoting the
book, along with my book of essays that was published a few months later (<i>You
Are Here: Essays on the Art of Poetry in Canada.</i>) Several doors have
opened—readings, interviews, invitations from editors and translators and festival
directors, and things I’m now eligible to apply for, like fellowships and
grants. And I’ve made quite a few new literary friends. It’s like being
welcomed into a tribe. But on a deeper level, my long apprenticeship in the art
is finally over. I’m filled with confidence, and excited about starting a new
book.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>What have you been doing to promote </b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i>Sailing to Babylon</i></b><b>, and what have
those experiences been like for you?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’ve been submitting the book to
contests, as I say, and applying for fellowships and grants, and scouting out
reviewers, and having review copies sent to anyone who’s interested. I’ve been
developing and maintaining a Web site, and networking on Facebook and other
social media sites—making announcements and responding to people who have contacted
me to say how much they like the book, which is always a pleasure. I’ve been
doing readings, and getting my book into local bookstores and even a national
chain in Canada. And doing interviews, both online and with journalists at
newspapers. And so on. It’s like having another job. But it’s been such a
pleasure to hear from readers and audiences and reviewers and other poets. So
far the response has been wonderful.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>What advice do you wish someone had
given you before your first book came out?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I gathered so much advice from so many
sources—including the interviews in this series—that I feel I was pretty well
prepared. The best advice I can give is to be ruthless with your book,
especially after it’s been accepted by a publisher. Make it the best it can be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>What influence has the book’s
publication had on your subsequent writing? Are there any new projects in the
works?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I published a book of essays a few
months later, as I say, and between working on that, and promoting both books,
and teaching, and so on, I haven’t written much poetry. But I do have some
things I’m working on. I’m also editing a volume of selected poems by Daryl
Hine, who just died last year, and writing a review-essay on the poetry of
Stephanie Bolster.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Do you believe that poetry can create
change in the world?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Great poetry not only can, but does,
yes. All the time. It happens on a much deeper and more enduring level than
many other things in the world, and it takes time for it to happen, sometimes a
long time. But just think of the influence of Homer, Sappho, Dante and
Shakespeare on world culture, and you’ll see what I mean. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I have some things to say about this in
the closing paragraphs of <i>You Are Here</i>, which come at the end of a long
essay on poetic value. “Truly great poetry,” I say, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">is one of the most powerful of all manifestations of language. Its
object is ultimately the formation, and transformation, of the human self and
community. Its power to do these things is not different in kind from the power
of ordinary language to do them; it’s just greater in degree. This is because
great poetry is a fusion of reason, emotion, sensuality and imagination,
bringing to bear all these powers of the human soul at once, whereas other uses
of language are usually more specialized: rational but cold, passionate but
stupid, beautiful but shallow, effective but ultimately meaningless.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A lot of people—let’s call them Philistines—say this is all nonsense,
that poetry is a marginal and specialized kind of playing with words, a strange
kind of niche entertainment, of no interest to serious people, and certainly
with no real power to make or transform anything. “Poetry makes nothing
happen,” in the words of W. H. Auden, who, while not otherwise a Philistine,
was channeling one, I’m afraid, when he wrote these words.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In response, I can only appeal to my own experience as a reader.
Great poetry gives me pleasure. It stimulates my intellectual, emotional and
imaginative powers. It deepens my understanding of myself and other people, and
helps me pay closer attention to my life. It gives me the power to perceive
things more clearly, to feel not only more intensely but more subtly and
precisely. It resurrects the dead world I live in, and the dead words I use,
and makes the sources of strong value in my life resonate again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I know from experience, however, what it means to be part of a
community without a great poetry of its own. Whitman and Dickinson are not
quite the central figures in American culture that Shakespeare is in British
culture, or Homer in Greek, or Dante in Italian; but as a Canadian I feel
exquisitely the lack of such a major poetic figure in my own country. An
important part of the community of Canada, and therefore of the self of every
Canadian, has not been fully formed. Now, everyone knows achieving that level
of poetic power is extremely difficult. But we also know it’s not impossible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I want our poets to
try.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>James Pollock</b> is the author
of <i>Sailing to Babylon </i>(Able Muse Press, 2012), a current
finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize, a finalist for the Governor General's
Literary Award in poetry, and runner-up for the Posner Poetry Book Award;
and <i>You Are Here: Essays on the Art of Poetry in Canada</i> (The
Porcupine's Quill, 2012), currently shortlisted for the <i>ForeWord Reviews </i>Book
of the Year Award. His poems have been published in <i>The Paris
Review</i>, <i>Poetry Daily</i>, <i>AGNI</i>, and other journals in
the U.S. and Canada, and listed in <i>Best Canadian Poetry 2010</i>. His
critical essays and reviews have appeared in <i>Contemporary Poetry Review</i>, <i>The
New Quarterly, Arc Poetry Magazine,</i> and elsewhere. He earned an
Honors B.A. in English literature and creative writing from York
University in Toronto, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in creative writing and
literature from the University of Houston, where he held several fellowships in
poetry. He was a John Woods Scholar in poetry at the Prague Summer
Program at Charles University in Prague, and a work-study scholar in
poetry at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. He is an associate professor at
Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, where he teaches poetry in the creative
writing program. He lives with his wife and son in Madison, Wisconsin. You can
visit him at his Web site at <a href="http://www.james-pollock.com/"><span style="color: blue;">www.james-pollock.com</span></a>.</span></div>
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Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-24235227783175729932013-07-15T12:10:00.002-04:002013-07-15T12:11:35.824-04:00#74 - Jeff Newberry<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How often had you sent out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brackish</i> before it was chosen for publication in 2012 by <a href="http://aldrichbookpublishing.blogspot.com/">Aldrich Press</a>?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I spent a solid three
years sending out the manuscript. In that time, I was continually revising and
reshaping the manuscript, cutting out poems, adding poems in, and rearranging
the order. Several of my writer friends read it and offered me all kinds of
advice on it. Particularly, Al Maginnes and Justin Evans gave me some feedback
that helped me re-see the manuscript. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tell me about the title. Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brackish</i>? Did it go through any other
changes? </b></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The original title of the
manuscript was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Where Brackish Water Flows</i>,
a reference to the landscape I’m writing about:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>North Florida. I shortened it to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brackish</i> after a while. I like how that word sounds. I love that it
has a hard “k” right in the center but ends with a soft “sh.” Of course, for
me, the word is also a metaphor:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>fresh and salt, life-giving and life-taking, sacred and profane—just
like the places I write about in the book. I like to think my poetry as
brackish, too, one the one hand firmly lyrical, musical poems and on the other
hand firmly narrative and grounded in a particular place. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I think that contests
give you name recognition. And I don’t say that to put contest down. Rather, I
think that winning, say, the Miller Williams Prize, gives your book some legs
that help it on its journey. I entered several contests:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Miller Williams Contest, the
Backwaters Press contest, the Crab Orchard Review contest. At first, I really
wanted to win one. I thought that I had to in order to get the book out. I
thought that no one would read it otherwise. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But then, I started
looking at alternatives, particularly presses that had open reading periods.
Aldrich Press is a small press, and when I sent to them, I had no idea that
Karen Kelsay would pick the book; and when she accepted it, I was a little
nervous at first. Alrich is a print-on-demand press (like Dream Horse and many
others), and I worried that it might be vanity publishing. After doing some
research, I found that although it is small, Aldrich is a widely-respected
publisher whose books have been reviewed in many journals. I am more than
pleased with Aldrich. They’ve been amazing. I was involved with every aspect of
the publishing process, right down to the font choice for the manuscript (it’s
Goudy Old Style, by the way).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My advice? Read the
market. Know the market. Send to places that publish books you like. I think
that some poets have this idea that a contest is the only route. Contests are
great (and lucrative, sometimes), but they’re not the only route by any stretch
of the imagination. I’d keep an eye on open reading periods of small presses.
Broaden your net; send to several places. Understand that winning a contest is
a route to accolades, but not the only route to publication. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What was the process like assembling the book? How
many different versions did it go through as you were sending it out? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I really struggled with
the architecture of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brackish</i>. I
didn’t know how I wanted the book to look. I knew that the book was about a
place—a specific place—but I didn’t want it to be limited by its geography.
Instead, I wanted the geography to enhance it. Two books really helped me to
see the structure of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brackish</i>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Richard Hugo’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lady in Kicking Horse Reservoir </i>and Jake Adam York’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Murmuration of Starlings</i>. Hugo’s
poetry has a profound influence upon my own, and his book taught me that geography
is in a large sense a psychic landscape. Charles Wright once said that “All
forms of landscape are autobiographical,” and I agree wholly. So, the geography
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brackish </i>is very much the
geography of both the literal place (North Florida) and my mind (my conception
of the place). The book begins with “How to Come of Age in a Mill Town” and
ends with the image of a drowned boy in a riverbed. The journey is from
childhood to adulthood, from innocence to experience. In that way, the
landscape is secondary (but certainly not incidental).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Jake Adam York’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Murmuration of Starlings </i>includes a
longish poems about Sun Ra. Jake had organized that long sequence so that each
section of the poem had its own page, its own breathing room, and its own white
space. The concluding poem in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brackish </i>is
a long poem entitled “North Florida:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>An Autobiography.” I broke the poem into un-numbered sections and put
them on separate pages in an attempt to capture the breathing white space that
gives so much life to Jake’s poem, “At Sun Ra’s Grave.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">An aside:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I still miss Jake, an amazing poet
whose work and presence gave life to the world. I still can’t believe he’s
gone.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How involved were you with the design of the
book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I was very involved with
the design of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brackish</i>. I had an idea
in my head about what I wanted the book to look like. I’d originally laid the
book out in Cambria font, but I didn’t like how that looked. Then, I switched
it to Garamond and then to Perpetua. Finally, I settled on Goudy Old Style.
Karen Kelsay indulged me on every change. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I chose the cover image.
It’s by a South Georgia-based photographer, Steve Robinson. Though the cover
looks like a painting, it’s actually a filtered photograph of a beach scene in
Apalachicola, Florida. Steve is amazing. You can find more his work <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/steverob50pics/">here</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
A great many of the poems in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brackish </i>were
published in journals. Early on, I worried that if I didn’t have enough of the
poems published, no press would consider the book. I don’t know if that’s true.
I do know that some publishers look at the little magazine market as a proving
ground. So, in a sense, I did continue to send the poems out, even as I was
shopping the manuscript—that is, even as I was submitting to contests and open
reading periods. I didn’t worry about the majority of the poems being published
as much as I wanted them published. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Karen and I worked
together on the manuscript. She did the layout, emailed a PDF proof to me, and
I sent her back corrections. Since she lives in California and I live in
Georgia, I worried that this kind of back and forth would get tedious. It didn’t.
Karen is a consummate professional. She made any changes very quickly. I was
quick to read my proofs, as well. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I did edit some of the
poems, but overall, the book looks exactly as it did the day I sent Karen the
manuscript. I didn’t want to drop a wholesale rewrite on the book after she’d
accepted it. In fact, the contract for Aldrich Press asks that poets not
completely rewrite the book. I think the only major change I made was to drop
one of the poems (a very weak poem) from the second section of the manuscript.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What do you remember about the day when you saw
your published book for the first time?</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Aldrich shipped my
author’s copies, but they were slow in freight. The book appeared on Amazon and
at Kelsay Books’ website before I actually had a copy. A writing student of
mine got a copy before I did, and he posted a picture of the book to Facebook.
I remember sitting in my office, staring at my book on my Facebook wall, and
thinking that this had to be the most surreal moment of my writer’s life.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Unbeknownst to me, my
wife had actually ordered a copy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brackish
</i>from Amazon. She brought it to me later that same day. So, I purchased a
copy of my own book before I even saw my author’s copies. It was an amazing
experience. In many ways, I’ve been writing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brackish
</i>my whole life. To see the book in print finally was very much a cathartic
experience.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How has your life been different since your book
came out? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Honestly, not much
different. I’m still teaching, still writing, still fighting the good fight. I
do feel that the book have given me a measure of credibility in the writing
world. The Gulf Coast writers I call friends are a wonderful group, however,
and never dismissed me before the book. It feels good, though, knowing that
I’ve carved out my place. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I do find myself working
hard to promote the book. I’m constantly emailing people and constantly calling
folks trying to arrange readings. I update <a href="http://www.jeffnewberry.com/">my website</a> much more than I used to. I think that one thing
the publication of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brackish </i>taught me
is that it’s definitely up to me to ensure that the book finds an audience. I
work very hard at getting the work into the hands of appreciative readers.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What have you been doing to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brackish</i>, and what have those experiences
been like for you?</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I have my website, and
I’ve asked several people to review the book. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Florida Book Review </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Apalachee
Review </i>have published reviews of the book, both favorable. Several friends
(both writer friends and non-writer friends) reviewed the book on Amazon.com.
I’m active on the conference scene in the Southeast. I serve as the president
of the Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers, and at our
conference in March of this year, I read from the book and sold several copies
of it. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In addition, the town
where I live—Tifton, Georgia—has an active farmer’s market. This past December,
I was invited to sell and sign books at the annual holiday market sponsored by
the Wiregrass Farmers Market. It may sound odd for a poet to be selling books
at a farmer’s market, but let me tell you:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sold a lot of books. People of all stripes were very kind,
asking me questions about my writing and my past. These weren’t academics, mind
you. These were people from all walks of life. Wiregrass Farmers Market draws
in a wide variety of folks, from older country-type to young hipsters
interested in sustainable living. Since my writing is concerned with natural
environment, I think that selling books at a farmers market is incredibly
appropriate.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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?”</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">That’s an interesting
question. On the one hand, the book’s about my past. I make no apologies for
writing autobiographical poetry. On the other hand, the book is about the
environment of North Florida. Furthermore, in an oblique way, the book is also
about music—the music I grew up with (classic rock and blues) as well as the
music of the landscape, those syllable-twisting town-names in North
Florida:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apalachicola,
Wewahitchka, Sopchoppy, names like that. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What advice do you wish someone had given you
before your first book came out?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Take it slow and take it
easy. Don’t be in a hurry to publish. Some young poets see publication as a
route to a job. I find this a very troubling view of writing poetry. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Back when I was a PhD
student at the University of Georgia in Athens, I was struggling to put
together my dissertation, which wound up being a very early draft of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brackish</i>. I remember asking my mentor
and advisor, the poet Ed Pavlić, how I should go about writing a book of
poetry. How, I wondered, does one put together an entire book? His answer still
resonates:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Line by line, man.
Line by line.” Sage advice indeed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What influence has the book’s publication had on
your subsequent writing? Are there any new projects in the works?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The big news is that
Snake Nation Press will be publishing an anthology that the poet Brent House
and I are coediting, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Gulf
Stream:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Poems of the Gulf Coast</i>.
The book should appear sometime this summer. I’m excited about the anthology.
I’ve long wanted to edit a collection about the place that’s given me such
inspiration over the years. Brent’s a wonderful co-editor, too. He has a keen
editorial eye and a deep understanding of contemporary poetics.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’ve continued to write
new poems, as well, and I’m building a body of new work. My new poetry isn’t as
autobiographical or place-focused as the writing I did before, so I’m
interested to see what a new manuscript will look like.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’m actually working on a
novel now, tentatively titled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Stairway
to the Sea</i>. Since I teach a heavy 5/5 load of courses, I don’t have the
energy to devote to a novel during the semesters, so I work on the book during
the summertime, when I teach only one course. I’m probably 45,000 or so words
into the book now, though I’m not sure how much of that is actually usable
prose. I hope to finish a solid draft in summer 2013. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you believe that poetry can create change in
the world?</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’m going to quote a
better poet than I’ll ever be. I think that poetry is a way of happening, a
mouth.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">*****************************************************************************************</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Jeff Newberry</b> is the author
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brackish </i>(Aldrich Press, 2012) and
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Visible Sign </i>(Finishing Line,
2008). With Brent House, he is the co-editor of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Gulf Stream:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Poems of
the Gulf Coast </i>(Snake Nation Press, forthcoming). Recently, his writing has
appeared in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Chattahoochee Review</i>,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sweet:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Literary Confection</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Waccamaw:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Journal of
Contemporary Literature</i>. He serves as the president of the Gulf Coast
Association of Creative Writing Teachers. He teaches writing and literature at
Abraham Baldwin College in Tifton, Georgia, where he advises <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pegasus</i>, a regional undergraduate
literary magazine. Jeff lives in Georgia with his wife and son. Find him online
at http://www.jeffnewberry.com or Tweet him at @NewberryJeff</span>
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">*****************************************************************************************</span></span> </span></span> </span></div>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-53111154222412965882013-06-17T15:00:00.001-04:002013-06-17T15:02:37.043-04:00#73 - Catherine MacDonald<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>How often had you sent
out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rousing the Machinery</i> before it
was chosen for the 2012 <a href="http://www.uapress.com/geninfo/poetryguidelines.html">Miller Williams Arkansas Poetry Prize</a>?</b></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I had sent the manuscript
out in 2008, I think, to just one contest, The Crab Orchard Series First Book
Award. Nothing came of that, and I didn’t send it out again until late fall
2010. That year I sent it to a bunch of book contests. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Tell me about the title.
Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rousing the Machinery</i>?
Did it go through any other changes? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The manuscript went out
with the title <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leda at Work in the World,</i>
but once Arkansas took it, the series editor Enid Shomer and I went back and
forth about other possible titles, including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">S</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">leeping House,
Morning Sky; Blue Strobe; </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Offshore; </i>and<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> The Signs for Fire, Ocean, Air.</i> I still
like all of those titles, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rousing the
Machinery</i> is the best choice for the book. I think it's a one-of-a-kind,
too. There are no other books out there with that title as far as I can tell.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Was I worried about
winning a contest? No, not worried. My feelings might be better described as resigned.
I knew that once I started sending out the manuscript, I would be competing
with many talented and original writers, all of us trying to find our way to
print. I also knew that this was a serendipitous and unpredictable process that
probably wouldn’t lead to publication right away, if ever. There’s so much
poetry out there! I felt like I was standing around the crowded gym at a high school
dance hoping to be noticed. Not a particularly pleasant feeling. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I am now a beneficiary of
the contest system, but the challenges of the contest system are obvious; for
example, it’s expensive both financially and spiritually. Yet winning a contest
equals publication, attention, a payday. I think an ethically run contest is
good for poets and readers because it makes public work that might otherwise remain
mostly unknown. So if you can afford the fees and the wear and tear on your
spirit, you should enter contests. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As for open reading
periods, I didn’t send my manuscript to any of those, but I would have if the
manuscript hadn’t found a publisher that year. My advice for those who are
sending manuscripts out to contests or open reading periods is to choose the
venue carefully and vet your work ahead of time with honest, savvy readers
whose judgment you respect. Then let the process run its course and don’t
obsess. It’s out of your hands. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>What was the process like
assembling the book? How many different versions did it go through as you were
sending it out?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The first version I sent
out back in 2008 was basically my MFA thesis with all the typos corrected.
Although I had begun to teach composition full-time by then—and there’s nothing
like turbid undergraduate prose to clog the pipes—I wrote new poems and
continued to tweak older poems. I kept the revision process going right up
until I submitted the manuscript to contests in fall 2010, and even after that.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Also, in 2009 I published
a chapbook, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How to Leave Home,</i> that
includes many poems from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rousing the
Machinery. </i>Ordering the chapbook contents allowed me to develop a structure
for the full-length manuscript. Good readers and friends such as poets Kathy
Davis, Claudia Emerson, and Leslie Shiel read the full-length manuscript and
helped me figure out how to make it better. So, basically, there was really
only one version of the book, but I’d been hammering away on it for a while. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>How involved were you
with the design of the book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Graphic designer <a href="http://lizlesterdesign.com/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Liz Lester</span></a> handled the project, inside and out, which made
sense to me since I’m not a designer. I saw proofs at each stage and had
opportunities to comment. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Did you suggest or have
any input regarding the image that was used on the cover?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Yes, I had a lot of influence
on this aspect of the book’s design. The painting on the cover, George Tooker’s
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bird Watchers, </i>is one I brought to
the press’s attention and they obtained permission to use it from the museum
that owns it. I’ve loved Tooker and this painting for a long time, and I hope
it conveys some sense of the book’s concerns and its aesthetic.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>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?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I think maybe a third of
the poems had been published prior to the book’s publication. Frankly, I’m
terrible at sending out poems. Once a poem feels finished, I sort of lose
interest in it, and this means I’m not thinking about it any more or sending it
out to journals. The engaging work is figuring out the poem, not placing it
somewhere. (I know this is not a good business practice.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A month or so after the
book was accepted for publication, I had two long conversations with series editor
<a href="http://www.enidshomer.com/">Enid
Shomer</a>. She felt that the manuscript
was well ordered, so that didn't change, and we agreed to eliminate two poems from
the original manuscript. The editing process with Enid was both affirming and
helpful, and the manuscript benefitted from her attention and experience. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Further along in the
production process the astute copy editor at Arkansas, Brian King, asked great
questions that led to simple but significant revision on a couple of other
poems, including the change of a single word in the title poem. Then, during a
fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, I polished some of the
newest poems a bit more and researched possible cover art, before sending
everything off for production. Working with the press was a great experience
from start to finish.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>What do you remember
about the day when you saw your published book for the first time?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">You know, I don’t
remember feeling any special thrill in seeing it or holding it for the first
time. I was glad it was done; I thought it looked great. However, because I was
so involved with the production of the book—seeing two sets of page proofs and
several images of the cover—I knew it well long before I held a physical copy. Plus,
it’s a long process from the first poem to a published book, and I’d moved past
those poems in many ways.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Now getting the news that
the book won the Miller Williams/Arkansas Poetry Prize was exciting. On Valentine’s Day 2011 I got an email from the
University of Arkansas telling me that my manuscript was one of four selected
for publication, and that poetry series editor Enid Shomer would be phoning all
four finalists later that day to inform the winner of the of $5,000 prize. Needless
to say, I was stunned to learn I had won the prize. For a few days afterwards,
I was afraid that I had misunderstood the conversation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>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?”</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Although the question
hasn’t been asked of me on a plane, I have answered this question in other
settings, though never very well, I’m afraid. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rousing the Machinery</i> is about men and women, work and class, resiliency,
and more broadly, history and inheritance.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>How has your life been
different since your book came out? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">No different in the
day-to-day, but knowing the poems are out there is at once unnerving and
satisfying. I’m married to a librarian and I love libraries, so I especially
like to imagine the book on library shelves. WorldCat is wonderful on-line tool
to see where the book has landed in the world. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">One of the best things to
come out of winning the contest is that I was able to use some of the prize
money to go to Italy. I’d never been out of the United States before, three
weeks in Florence and Milan, thanks in part to the poems, felt very good.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>What have you been doing
to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rousing the Machinery</i>, and
what have those experiences been like for you?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Promoting poetry is very
humbling. Audiences are small and the external rewards are few. I’ve done the
usual readings and talked about the book with other writers who are studying
poetry. It’s especially fun to talk with students who are beginning to write
poems. Their responses to the book are sometimes surprising and give me insight
into how a poem is received by a reader who has no prior knowledge of my life
or me or even, sometimes, poetry. These conversations remind me to write as
well as I can, to do my part in the conversation as well as I can. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>What advice do you wish
someone had given you before your first book came out?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For me, the process was
without serious bumps, and I suspect that the best advice comes from people who
have had a harder road than me. My advice is to take from the experience what
will help you move on to the next poems. Try thinking of it as just one very
interesting thing among many that will happen to you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>What influence has the
book’s publication had on your subsequent writing? Are there any new projects
in the works?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I don’t think the
publication has affected my new work too much, though it may have improved my
work ethic a bit since intense revision appears to have paid off.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">These days I am working
on a couple of things. One is a poetry manuscript tentatively titled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Unkept House</i>. I’ve been reading Edith
Wharton’s early nonfiction about home and garden design as well as writing by contemporary
geographers such as Doreen Massey who think about how space and place shape us.
Other people’s housekeeping habits and domestic travails enter into many of these
new poems. I’m not really a project-centric poet, but these are the poems I’m
writing now. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I am also writing a
nonfiction piece about work I did as a guardian ad litem (an advocate for
abused and neglected children<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">).</i> I’m
messing around with a possible fictional treatment of this subject, too.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Do you believe that
poetry can create change in the world?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I can’t go so far as to say
it can change the world, but poetry has certainly deeply engaged and changed me.
As a reader I go to poetry for music, form, and content conveying precisely and
urgently something of another person’s singular experience. When a poem
delivers that, it’s a quite remarkable thing. Though some argue that the
culture has moved on, leaving poetry behind, I think there will always be an
audience. For the reader who is open to it, reading the right poem at the right
time can be, in that moment at least, transformative. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">*****************************************************************************************</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Catherine MacDonald</b> is the winner of the 2012
Miller Williams Arkansas Poetry Prize for her collection <i>Rousing the
Machinery </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(University of Arkansas
Press)</span>. Her work has been published in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Washington Square,</i> <i>Crab Orchard Review, Blackbird, Cortland
Review, Louisville Review, </i>and other journals. She has also received scholarships and fellowships
to the Sewanee Writers' Conference, Ropewalk, and the Virginia Center for the
Creative Arts. She teaches writing at Virginia Commonwealth University.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">******************************************************************************************</span> </span></span> </div>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-28954588183475556272013-06-05T19:02:00.004-04:002013-06-05T19:02:47.865-04:00#72 - Johnathon Williams<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I spent about a year
sending the book exclusively to contests — probably a dozen or more
— with absolutely no luck at all, not even a finalist mention. I was
finishing my MFA at the time, and sending to contests was the thing that
everybody did. But then the next contest season rolled around, and I couldn’t
stomach the expense and absurdity of it anymore. I knew other poets with
terrific manuscripts who had been doing the same thing for four or five years,
spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars in the process, with no end in
sight, biding their time and waiting their turn to be the next recipient of the
Backwater Review’s Now You Qualify For A Tenure Track Position Award. I’m not
sure what you call the ability do that year after year (patience is perhaps the
most generous word), but I knew I didn’t have it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The problem with the
contest system is that it’s a side effect of the academic takeover of contemporary
poetry. I’m not hating on MFA programs here, because mine made me a far better
writer, but, in an environment where 9 out of 10 poets hope to make a living by
teaching, the lockstep relationship between contests and publication and
teaching jobs is restrictive and absurd. Too many good books sit around for too
long. I make this complaint as a reader as much as a writer – I want to buy and
read those books sooner rather than later.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Anyway, I was fortunate
in that I already had another way to make a living (I’m a web programmer), so I
didn’t have to live and die by the length of my CV. As luck would have it, my
friend and teacher Davis McCombs mentioned that Antilever was seeking
manuscripts at about the same time I gave up on contests. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I suppose my advice would
be to avoid the contest racket if you can. It’s a huge sink of time and money,
and the benefits outside of academia are negligible. But anyone who would take
my advice about publishing should probably check whether his health insurance
covers psychiatric care. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tell me about the title. Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Road to Happiness</i>? Did it go through
any other changes? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The title was originally <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sawdust</i>, which was taken from another
poem in the manuscript. Most of my writer friends were lukewarm on that title,
so after the book failed to place at five or six contests I changed it. In
hindsight I’m glad I did. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What was the process like assembling the book? How
many different versions did it go through as you were sending it out? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The book went through two or three minor revisions
as I was submitting it, most of which involved substituting newer, stronger
poems for some older ones I fell out of love with.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How involved were you
with the design of the book—interior design, font, cover, etc.? Did you suggest
or have any input regarding the image that was used on the cover? </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I had no input on the interior design, but I did
approve the cover image after my editor suggested it. (I struck out trying to
find a cover image on my own.) I’m very happy with the look and feel of the
book — the folks at Antilever did a fantastic job.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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? </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I didn’t care about
having the majority of the poems published, per se, but I was desperate to see
at least some of the poems appear in journals or magazines, especially those poems
that were written during my first year or two of grad school (the Arkansas MFA
is a four-year program). I’d been writing and publishing prose as a journalist
for years, but writing poetry was new to me — most of my first real
efforts as a poet were included in my application packet to my MFA program. I needed
those first publications in journals and magazines to prove that I wasn’t
wasting my time.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My editors at Antilever,
particularly Dillon Tracy, gave the book a tremendous amount of attention after
accepting it, and we went back and forth on everything from the order of the
poems to rewriting stanzas within individual poems to whether certain poems
should be included at all. That attention to detail was gratifying and
humbling, and the book is better for it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What do you remember about the day when you saw
your published book for the first time?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I remember more about the
beginning of the day than I do the end of it. My wife and kids were out of town
visiting family the day my author’s copies arrived. So I came home after work
to find this box sitting on the stoop and no responsibilities claiming my time before
the next morning. I picked the box up and carried it, unopened, to my favorite
bar, where I ordered a double pour of mid-shelf whiskey and opened the box and
began signing books and giving them away to anyone I had ever met or anyone who
made the unfortunate decision to ask about the contents of the box. I gave away
19 signed copies that night. I have a vague memory of standing in line at Jimmy
John’s around 1 a.m. and asking the register lady to please give me the poet’s
discount on my sandwich. I woke up the next morning on my couch with a wretched
hangover and the empty box clutched in my arms and my final remaining copy
sitting next to an empty bottle of bourbon on the coffee table. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How has your life been different since your book
came out? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It hasn’t really,
although there have been a few perks. Every now and again a random
friend-of-a-friend will mention that he read and enjoyed the book, which is
nice. The book’s presence on my shelves is strangely comforting when I wake up
in the middle of the night worried that I forget to pay the electric bill. Oh,
and every year on my birthday before the book was published I used to get
really drunk and lament the fact that I was a year older and still hadn’t
joined the author’s club. I suppose this year I’ll have to get drunk and lament
something else.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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?”</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The awful truth is that
I’m terrible at explaining what the book is about. I have a canned paragraph
that I send out when people insist, but it isn’t very good. <a href="http://www.antilever.org/articles/foreword-to-the-road-to-happiness">Katrina Vandenberg’s introduction to the book</a>
explains it better than I ever could. I don’t know whether Katrina and I share
a blood type, but if we do and she ever needs a kidney, I’m committed to giving
her one of mine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What have you been doing to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Road to Happiness</i>, and what have
those experiences been like for you?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’ve done a couple of
readings, and a Skype appearance for a classroom or two, and this here
interview, and… so fucking little. I have no idea how to effectively promote a
book of poetry. My only comfort is that no else does either. It’s not that I
mind promoting the book — honestly, at this point I’d get naked on
television if I thought it would help. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What advice do you wish someone had given you
before your first book came out?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Related to the above, I
wish someone had told me to have a marketing campaign ready to go as soon as
the book was available. Also, I wish the same person had told me what an
effective marketing campaign for a book of poetry looks like. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you believe that poetry can create change in
the world?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I believe that poetry can
create change in the individual human heart. And I believe that is enough.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">******************************************************************************************</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Johnathon Williams</b> is a writer and web developer living in
Fayetteville, AR. He publishes the online journal <a href="http://linebreak.org/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Linebreak</i></a>. Find more at his website: </span><a href="http://johnathonwilliams.com/"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">http://johnathonwilliams.com</span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">******************************************************************************************</span> </span></span> </span></div>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-23625577838841676762013-05-16T15:27:00.000-04:002013-05-16T15:30:14.423-04:00#71 - John Estes<style>
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</style><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">How often had
you sent out </span></b><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Kingdom Come</b> </span></i><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">before it was chosen for publication in 2011 by <a href="http://www.crpress.org/">C&R Press</a>?</span></b></span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">I would not even want to go back and
count. Some version of the book had been making the rounds for a year or so; it
had been a finalist in several contests and had received a few of those
rejections that helps you believe in a book more than disbelieve in it. But I
did a major revision in the summer of 2009, and shortly after that it was
picked up. There are aspects of the older manuscript I miss in the published
version, particularly its less overtly narrative structure and that it was, as Schlegel
might have called it, a book of “mixed means.” Insofar as one wants a first
book to declare one’s intentions and range as an artist, I think the previous
version did that more comprehensively, more forcefully. But it did become a
tightly coherent book, and readers have responded to that.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Tell me about
the title. Had it always been </span></b><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Kingdom Come?</b> </span></i><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Did it go through any other changes? </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">The title prior
to that revision was <i>Sufficient Wildness</i>, which is a phrase of Thoreau’s
</span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">from
“Walking” and also a poem in the book. I </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">was attempting
to capture some essence of the compromises at the heart of the book. On one
hand, the personal compromises involved in marriage and family, the site—or
presumed site—of many of the poems. </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">And o</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">n the other hand, </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">the</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> aesthetic
compromise at the heart of the book, </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">between my typical language-centered mode the
shift—part chosen, part innate brought on by the threshold I was crossing—</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">toward biographical</span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> narrative. The poetics were attempting to track with a deeper immersion
in and acceptance of my own material existence, a thing unavoidable when one
founds a household. It’s something like when James Gatz first kisses Daisy: he
feels that love draw him irrevocably into his humanity such that “his mind will
never again romp like God’s.” (As if). It may also be the inevitable discovery
getting older that the mind of God—a figure for freedom—is not opposed to but
rather dependent upon being sunk into the midst of one’s life, which becomes
possible in new ways once others are bound to you. Poetry is one <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3155784699779494022" name="_GoBack"></a>means of navigating those attachments.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">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? </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Considering
that honor is the coin of our mostly-coinless realm, yes, I had hoped to win a
contest. One reason is purely pragmatic: </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">as you know, </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">the majority of avenues for first-book publishing are through
contests, and many publishers, even if they end up publishing some finalists,
still don’t consider </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">other </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">books outside their contests. </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">We</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> must
enter</span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> then</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">, even though </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">it can become quite expensive (and heartbreaking)</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">. Also, considering the near non-existent marketing budgets of
small presses, the exposure that comes from winning a contest—people do
notice—is difficult to replicate. And I don’t think </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">wanting to win</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> an entirely selfish desire, either; we all know we’re not <i>entirely
</i>the authors of our poems. Any worthy poem comes in part as a gift in whose
fashioning we are fortunate enough to participate</span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">, and the same can be said of our books</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">. So the hope of seeing that work honored is</span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> a natural hope. One merely needs
to keep it all in perspective.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">But this </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">wish</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> was not without</span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> its flip-side</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">; one knows </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">contests are</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">
something of a racket, </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">something of</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> a crapshoot, and come (usually)
without any commitment beyond that book. </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Most contest publishers publish a book a
judge chose and not necessarily a book they would have selected, and so it’s no
surprise that they feel no longterm investment in the work or career of that
poet. This is a pretty odd situation if you think about it, and just the kind of
transaction money is good at instituting. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">I am romantic
enough that even as I pursued this </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">end </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">I would often say that I’d
much prefer to have the book </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">picked up</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> by a publisher who </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">believed in the work and wanted
to see it exist in the world, and that’s what happened.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">What was the
process like assembling the book? How many different versions did it go through
as you were sending it out? </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">As I said, the book evolved over a couple
years, but at its kernel was a chapbook, called <i>Swerve</i>, that had won a
Chapbook Fellowship from the Poetry Society of America. That little book traced
in a brief arc my movement from an ascetically-minded artist to a husband and
father struggling to keep hold of my artistic-practice-as-I-understood-it in
the midst of those new conditions. But I wanted to build on that, and had more
poems in that vein, so the book was an exercise in expansion (some have said
too much expansion) into an arc that now spans five sections. I gave the
sections somewhat jokey titles (structured after the chapters in A.A. Milne’s
books), which I have some mind to revise in a future edition, but they do serve
one primary end—to remove all doubt about the narrative structure. One chooses
the work one wants a reader to do, and I realized that trying to unearth a
buried narrative was not the thing I wanted readers attending to. So I try in
each section to trouble what might initially feel like excessive clarity as
much as possible, which I’m sure attentive (or patient, whichever) readers
notice.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">How involved were
you with the design of the book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Somewhat by
accident I was more intimately involved than is </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">anywhere near normal</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">. The press’ book designer was out of the country </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">for an extended trip </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">when </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">it
came time to start assembling the book, and since I have experience in design
they allowed me to get the process started and I just kept going. So my
influence on the book’s look and feel was complete. I’m happy with how it
turned out; people pick it up and call it a beautiful book, which is gratifying
and about all I could hope for.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Did you suggest
or have any input regarding the image that was used on the cover? </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">The cover image—these are always a
treasure-hunt, aren’t they—was discovered on an airplane back from an AWP conference,
when I happened to be sitting next to a photographer who was organizing photos
on his laptop. We fell into conversation, he sent me some pictures, and I chose
the aspen stand which wraps it front to back, which I felt was not only
striking but significant enough.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">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? </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">This was, and I suppose remains, an
obsessive concern, yes. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">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? </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">The unique design situation meant that I
had control of the poems far longer than is typical and I took advantage of it,
revising poems up until it went to press. One long poem that serves as the
book’s climax remained to be written (or it occurred to me needed to be
written) after the book’s acceptance, but the others kept shifting—largely in
response to each other—and I felt truly satisfied by time of publication that
I’d taken every poem as far as I could take it. It was an especially
instructive exercise in the assembly of a book, to see just how deeply one can
or even must get to know one’s own work, which helped me to discover and solve
problems I didn’t even know existed with some of the poems. If it hadn’t been
for that year and a half of revision that took place during the design process
(a process delayed, too, by a major move from Missouri to Ohio and the start of
a new job) it would be a different book, maybe a less complete figure. But
again, there is always something to be said for the unfinished quality of
everything, which I hope it retains.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">What do you remember
about the day when you saw your published book for the first time?</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">You hear so many stories about the thrill
of that unboxing, but I was terrified to open the box for fear of finding a
problem and didn’t do so immediately. Well, as befits my karma and my intuitive
expectation, there was a printing error with that first press run and that
moment I’d worked toward for almost 10 years was much more disappointment and
grief than pride, relief, joy or whatever at that moment. Fortunately we got all
that fixed and the finsihed book finally arrived, but you just can’t recreate a
first time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">How has your
life been different since your book came out? </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">One thing I was
not prepared for was the sensation that having a book can be a kind of burden. </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">It has an independent existence
and it can—if you let it—exert (or extract) certain demands. I made a choice in
the summer after the book came out to try and promote and sell the book rather
than, as I really wanted, to start work on the next one. This meant putting
together a tour, finding ways to promote it, etc. I enjoy doing readings—even
the ones done for just a few people—and it’s always gratifying to find readers
(and they must be searched down). While more reviews and sales are always to be
hoped for, I have felt that in some small measure the world registered my
offering. The book is a gentle tyrant by and large, and we co-exist peaceably.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">But having a book published does impose
changes, at least insofar as ratifying your identity as a poet or writer; here
is proof, beyond the fantasies of your imagination and a hope in a distant
event, that you are what you say you are. At least for now. It makes getting
work possible, and it relieves a lot of psychic tension bound up in those
uncertainties. One hopes that it’s a good book, and that it encourages more,
even better, work. In my case, the choice not to dive into the second book
right away—coupled with a busy job, a young family, everything in between—has
meant two years passing before I had another manuscript ready. I try to trust
that the delay, which has not been without its pain, has been a good investment
all around. We’ll see.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">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?”</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Funny, since as I told you above that
actually happened to me and I got a cover photo out of it. This is a question I
duck as much as possible; it’s impossible not to be reductive and I wouldn’t
want to be guilty of confirming anyone’s worst assumptions about potery. But
because of the way I’ve structured it and the presence of those domestic
concerns, the book <i>is </i>about something. There is an attempt to speak to
various common experience—marriage, child-birth, art, ambivalence about these
things—and it was for that reason I worked as hard as I did to find an audience
for it. Nonetheless it is poetry, and so my success at finding those readers
has been mixed at best. But the good thing about a book of poetry is there is
no hurry; poems wait around for a reader to find them.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">What advice do
you wish someone had given you before your first book came out?</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">More than any advice what I could have
used was pretty practical information: a more efficient means of getting the
book disseminated to people and places that might be willing to buy or stock it
or host readings. The library system is a black box, and the independent
booksellers are geared almost entirely toward fiction and non-fiction. One is
left to a lot of email writing, a lot of guesswork, trial and error. Even after
being pretty industrious about all that, I’m pretty willing to let the
marketing department take over.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">What influence
has the book’s publication had on your subsequent writing? Are there any new
projects in the works?</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">I have a new book in manuscript, called <i>Stop
Motion Still Life </i>that is starting to be sent out, another one in
development. I started a film project last summer, which may or may not amount
to anything. I can’t claim that the book has influenced later writing, except
insofar as it let me deal squarely with some matters that I don’t feel the need
to address again any time soon, at least not so dead on. Life keeps going.
There is that phenomenon called The Empty Attic of Achievment, which is good to
see filling up again with the next thing. Maybe that’s about as good as one can
say about finishing a book, is that it gets out of the way so that the next one
can emerge. And so forth.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Do you believe
that poetry can create change in the world?</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">I think poetry changes poets, and that
kind of certainty is enough for me. I’m suspicious of mass movements, and
probably wouldn’t like a world created by poetry anymore than I like the world
created by all the non-poetic forces at work on it. And certainly individuals
are transformed, or at least informed, by reading, and the world would be a
better place if more people read better things (including me). So my ambitions are
fairly modest; if a poem were to instigate even one reader to tilt her head at
even a <i>slightly </i>new or different angle to the universe, then it has done
a lot, maybe all that it can do.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">******************************************************************************************</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><b>John Estes</b>
is</span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">director of the creative writing program at Malone University in Canton,
Ohio. Recent poems and prose have appeared in <i>Tin House, New Orleans Review,
Southern Review, Crazyhorse, AGNI, </i>and other places. </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">He is </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">author
of </span><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">one book of
poems, </span><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Kingdom Come </span></i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">(C&R Press, 2011) and two chapbooks: <i>Breakfast with Blake at the Laocoön
</i>(Finishing Line Press, 2007) and <i>Swerve</i>, which won a 2008 National
Chapbook Fellowship from the Poetry Society of America. Fine more at his website: </span></span><a href="http://johnestes.org/"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-BZ" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">http://johnestes.org</span></span></a><style><!--
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Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-9168350530955618932013-05-02T14:01:00.002-04:002013-05-02T14:02:10.169-04:00#70 - Joanna Pearson<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How often had you sent
out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oldest Mortal Myth</i> before it was
chosen for the 2012 <a href="http://www.wcupoetrycenter.com/donald-justice-poetry-prize">Donald Justice Poetry Prize</a>?</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It’s hard to say because
I never had a very programmatic plan for trying to publish a book of
poetry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>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).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My manuscript didn’t win (proving my powers of prophecy to
be faulty), but I was a finalist, which gave me hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So then the next fall, with <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Tell me about the title.
Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oldest Mortal Myth</i>?
Did it go through any other changes? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In one very different,
earlier incarnation, I called it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Animal
Afterlives</i>, which is the title of one of the poems included.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once I
decided on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oldest Mortal Myth</i>,
though, I knew it fit the book, in a lot of ways.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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? </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
didn’t really occur to me to submit to open reading periods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What was the process like
assembling the book? How many different versions did it go through as you were
sending it out? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It reminds me a little
bit of the good old art of mixtape-making.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think by the time I was actually ready to assemble a book,
it mostly fell together in an intuitive way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By then, I’d written enough poems that certain themes and
connections were apparent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
toughest part for me was plucking out the poems that didn’t belong because I
felt sorry for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have this
tendency to overinclude.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want to
cram everything in, even my most terrible poems, those poor little stray
dogs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end, though,
(hopefully) I was appropriately selective.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How involved were you
with the design of the book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I got to choose the cover
image, a photo taken by my brother-in-law, who is a young yet absurdly talented
artist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(His name is <a href="http://www.newmonuments.com/">Daniel
Alexander Smith</a>, and you should
check out his website.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look out
for this guy!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was really happy
with how the book turned out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All
credit and thanks to Jamie Smith and Kim Bridgford and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the family of Iris N. Spencer and
everyone else at the West Chester University Poetry Center!</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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? </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It was never really a
concern, but I had published a number of the poems in magazines or journals already.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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 <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I did make some changes
here and there, and I got some helpful editing/proofreading from the kind
people at the WCU Poetry Center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But on the whole, once I feel an individual poem is “finished” I usually
leave it alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tend not to want
to revisit older poems and tinker with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have the gift or curse of not being overly
fastidious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So mostly I was proofreading
and making the final keep-or-cut decisions about poems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How has your life been
different since your book came out? </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It hasn’t really been.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was pretty grueling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There weren’t a lot of poetry-related thoughts in my mind, as a
result.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But maybe that’s a good
thing, in a way?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.... <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3155784699779494022" name="_GoBack"></a></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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?”</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Carnival freaks and Greek
mythology and ghosts and religious doubt and kidnappers and gunshot testicles
and visual disorders and metamorphoses and the human body.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What have you been doing
to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oldest Mortal Myth</i>, and
what have those experiences been like for you?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">So far I haven’t done
very much, but I’m looking forward to participating in a couple readings coming
up.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What advice do you wish
someone had given you before your first book came out?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I would still like that
advice, if someone would like to give it to me.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What influence has the
book’s publication had on your subsequent writing? Are there any new projects
in the works?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Only recently has my
schedule eased up a bit so that I can start writing some again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s what I’m working on at the
moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Do you believe that
poetry can create change in the world?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Maybe so.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Joanna Pearson</b>'s first book
of poetry, <i>Oldest Mortal Myth,</i> was selected by Marilyn Nelson for
the 2012 Donald Justice Poetry Prize. She is also the author of a novel
for young adults,<i> The Rites and Wrongs of Janice Wills.</i> She
currently lives in Baltimore where she works as a resident physician at Johns
Hopkins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her website is <a href="http://joannapearson.com/">joannapearson.com</a>.</span></span>
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Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-71087926201210136312013-04-18T13:23:00.005-04:002013-04-18T19:03:17.359-04:00#69 - Rebecca Hazelton<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How often had you sent
out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fair Copy</i> before it was chosen for
the 2011 <a href="https://ohiostatepress.org/index.htm?/books/series%20pages/poetry.html">Ohio State Press / The Journal Poetry Award</a>?</span></b><br />
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">According to my
spreadsheet, I sent <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fair Copy</i> out one
hundred and eighteen times to various contests or open reading periods from
2009 to the first month of 2012. I was a finalist ten times, a runner-up three
times, and a semi-finalist five times. Looking at those numbers really brings
back the feelings I had during those years, that I was yelling into the wind. Also,
that I had no money. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Tell me about the title.
Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fair Copy</i>? Did it
go through any other changes? </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It’s always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fair Copy</i>.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I would say that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fair Copy</i> is a conceptual book. Can you
explain what that means to you, and what the challenges are of creating a book?
Do you think things like format, structure, and arc change significantly with a
conceptual book versus one that’s not? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The book is conceptual in
that there is a formal element uniting the poems, but it happened almost by
accident – one day I wrote an acrostic off a line of Emily Dickinson’s, and
then thought to keep going, choosing every 29<sup>th</sup> poem in my Collected
Emily Dickinson. I knew doing so would provide me with a book length amount of
material, but I didn’t for a moment really think I’d do it. But if I consider
the book in terms of the subject matter, the book is less conceptual. Many of
the poems in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fair Copy</i> have different
voices or speakers, with different agendas and concerns; if the formal
framework weren’t there the book would be a more jagged affair. I think of
conceptual books as more unified in subject matter, like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American Busboy</i> by Matthew Guenette, where all the poems center
around a restaurant and its wait staff, or almost any book by Jenny Boully, a
poet who really unites the concept and the conceit. But that may just be me
thinking of “conceptual” in a limited way, like an album (do we call cds albums
anymore? Do we even call them cds?) – Pink Floyd’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wall</i>, or Joanna Newsom’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ys</i>.
</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">You also have your second
book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vow</i>, being published in 2013 by
CSU Press, only a few months after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fair
Copy</i>. Though this is rare for poets, it does happen. Tell us about trying
to write two collections at the same time—if that was the case of course. Which
do you consider your real “first book”? And what are the advantages and
disadvantages, do you think, of having two collections coming out within months
of each other?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I didn’t write them at
the same time; I’m not that good of a multi-tasker. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fair Copy</i> was completed by the time I was at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison for a year as the Jay C. and Ruth Hall Poetry Fellow. During
my year there, I wrote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vow</i> in around
nine months. I wouldn’t consider either to be my real “first book.” I wrote a
manuscript for my MFA thesis called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hinx
Minx</i>; that was my first book. It was not, however, good. I sent it out to a
few contests, and then realized when it placed in one that I really didn’t want
it out in the world. So I shelved it. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Having both books come
out at almost the same time is very strange. I feel like I haven’t had a lot of
time to get used to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fair Copy</i> being
my first book, because the demands of the second book are very much present –
editing, cover questions, marketing, etc. I have readings scheduled, and don’t
know whether I should just read one book at a reading, or try to read parts
from both books at a reading –how does it work? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I submitted both to
contests and to open reading periods. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fair
Copy</i> won Ohio State University Press’s contest, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vow</i> didn’t win Cleveland State’s contest but was selected by
Michael Dumanis. I had good feedback from open reading periods, but no success.
I would certainly suggest poets try both, but my experience was just that there
weren’t a lot of open readings available compared to the number of contests.
Passing through the screenings of a book contest is a matter not just of skill
– you get the right preliminary screener, and not the one who has a chip on his/her
shoulder against your aesthetic. You get the right second round screeners. You
get the right final judge. You get lucky, in other words, but you get to be in
that lucky position because you have skills as well. I assume these things
apply to open reading periods and well, though I haven’t been on the other side
of those as I have for contests. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The contest system is
problematic, but it’s hard to know the way out. Contests help support small
presses and journals, and whenever I wrote a check I told myself that’s what I
was doing (sweetened a little when the contest actually included a subscription
or copy of the winning book). I just told myself it was a donation. But knowing
that the money helped support things I cared about still didn’t make the system
any less expensive, and there were definitely other things I wanted that money
for, like car maintenance and repair, or living in a less terrible apartment. The
only way I made back (most of) the money I spent on contests over the years
sending it out was that I won a book contest with a slightly larger than
average prize. The fact remains that these contests are most accessible to
people with some cash to burn – so how many voices are we not hearing because
of that? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Friends of mine suggested
that I try and pick the judges I thought would appreciate my aesthetic, and
there were times I placed in contests where I thought that was the case – and
just as many where my dream judge passed me by. Really, you’re just hoping that
your judge is someone who can see past his or her own preferences, and there’s
no way of knowing if he or she has that kind of breadth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For what it is worth, my
advice is to only pick the presses you would be proud to be a part of. There’s
so little compensation for poets, monetarily or otherwise, and we are
continually doing work for free – books reviews, interviews (thank you again!),
untold hours at journals and presses that are labors of love. We do these
things because we love them, and because we believe in poetry, but we shouldn’t
then think that our work has no value. We at least need to realize that our own
work deserves a proper setting, among other poets you respect. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What was the process like
assembling the book? How many different versions did it go through as you were
sending it out? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Ordering poems in a
manuscript is not my strength. Everyone has different methods, and after a
while, I felt as if I’d tried them all. The initial order was simply how I’d
written them – every 29<sup>th</sup> Emily Dickinson poem – but that was
terrible. I tried ordering via narrative – one of a child growing into
womanhood (ala <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Satan Says</i>), or a
relationship taking a downward trajectory – but it felt forced. I tried
ordering by linking words from poem to poem, so that a poem ending on one word
might match up via word or them to the following poem, but that was overly
precious. I tried ordering by mood, and no surprise, I’d reorder it drastically
whenever I was in a bad one. I tried thinking of it like a mixed tape. I
finally returned to the narrative angle, but it is a fairly buried one. </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The book went through
many revisions, but because of the formal constraints the revisions could only
be so radical and maintain the form. There are lines that changed drastically,
and some poems I almost entirely rewrote, which was often a better, though
exhausting, tactic to take rather than jimmying with one stuck line. Mostly,
the style of the book changed a lot from the initial draft to its final
incarnation – when I started I was very interested in jamming in as much as possible
– I kept telling people I wanted the poems to be rococo! – and over the years a
lot of that playful excess got stripped out, as fun as it was, because it was
distracting. So weirdly, as time went on, the book gained a more Dickinsonian
spareness than less. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How involved were you
with the design of the book—interior design, font, cover, etc.? Did you suggest
or have any input regarding the image that was used on the cover? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Ohio State asked me to
send them several possible images for the cover, but it wasn’t guaranteed
they’d choose one of my suggestions. I sent in a number of Victorian and late
nineteenth century illustrations. I actually didn’t know they’d chosen the Kay
Nielsen illustration I’d suggested until they sent me a preliminary proof, so it
was a good surprise! I wasn’t involved in any of the other design aspects for
the book, but they did an amazing job – I love the cover’s font. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I never thought about it.
If I had, I suppose I would have sent the poems out more often. I certainly had
some publications, and some journals, like <i>Field</i> and <i>Pleiades</i>, seemed to really
respond to these odd poems, and I am so grateful for that support. I’ve had
more poems taken from <i>Vow</i>, but I also sent out more from Vow, and more often.
It’s only in the last two years that I’ve started submitting more regularly,
basically because friends of mine said I needed to do so. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">With <i>Fair Copy</i>, the
changes were minimal. The book had been through a lot of revisions by the time
it was taken. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What do you remember
about the day when you saw your published book for the first time?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">That it felt so strange!
I felt as though I were watching myself. For my entire adult life –even when I
was a teenager – I’d imagined being a published author. So to have that dream
come true felt both amazing and surreal. When the box arrived, my husband and I
opened it together, and he took a picture of me. The expression on my face looks
a little like a kid whose had too much sugar at the fair: happy, but also
possibly about to barf. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How has your life been
different since your book came out? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I feel a little more
exposed to the world, which isn’t a bad thing, but is uncomfortable. A lot of
poets, myself included, have a drive to be noticed and to be read, but also a
deep discomfort with public scrutiny. You toil away for so long as a poet, generally,
and are so used to being unnoticed, that to have someone suddenly take a look
at you can feel really alarming. After the book was published, I was more aware
that other people really could read the things I write. I don’t know why
individual poem publications didn’t trigger that for me, but they didn’t. It’s
a good thing my subsequent book as taken so quickly and unexpectedly – I think
if it hadn’t, I could have second-guessed the work in that book to death. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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?”</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">That would be a pretty
self-punishing thing for me to do – I’m actually talking to a stranger in this
scenario? We’re breathing each other’s re-circulated breaths? Terrifying! Well,
assuming the braver, less flight phobic me is in this situation, I would
probably tell them it’s about domesticity and desire, and the difficult of
understanding the truth of either. Then I would quickly pick up the Skymall
catalogue and become very interested in mobile stairs for arthritic dogs.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What have you been doing
to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fair Copy</i>, and what have
those experiences been like for you?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’ve got a number of
readings scheduled in the next few months, and the experience has been awesome
so far, although I’ve just gotten started. I got to read in the Kraken Series
in Denton TX, and back at my alma mater, Davidson College. I’ve been impressed
by the strength of reading series in cities across the country. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What advice do you wish
someone had given you before your first book came out?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I actually think I got all
the good advice! Several of my friends warned me that the experience of having
the book published was in some ways anti-climatic. So I was prepared that I
might not feel as excited as I felt I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">should</i>
feel. I was also warned that publishing a book wouldn’t change my life, so I
managed not to wake up the next day expecting unicorns. All this sounds a
little bleak –it’s not, I promise! I only mean that it’s easy to think, “I just
need to get this book published and then…” – and to fill in that blank with
whatever secret desire you have about your life. But the publication of the
first book is not a panacea for your anxieties. That first book is just a first
step if you want to keep writing poetry and to keep publishing it. So my advice
is to celebrate – break out the champagne! – then figure out what’s next for
you the following day.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What influence has the
book’s publication had on your subsequent writing? Are there any new projects
in the works?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Before the book was
taken, I felt conscious of it as not finished – for me, finished was to finally
be in print. I had moved on to different work, but every couple of months, had
to look at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fair Copy</i> again, polish it
further, send it out again, etc. I wanted very much to be done with it and
completely free to do something new, but I continually had to try and dip into
the book again and again, editing it while trying to be true to the book’s
beginnings. It was hard to maintain those very different ways of thinking: my
previous aesthetic and the work I was trying to create. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As for new projects, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vow</i> is coming out, which is quite
different from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fair Copy</i>. No formal
constraint to speak of, a number of series with implicit narratives, a lot more
frank in terms of subject matter. I’m also working on a series of ekphrastic
poems based off the works of contemporary female artists’ self-portraits: Cindy
Sherman, Terri Frame, and Julie Heffernan, some of which are included in <a href="http://floatingwolfquarterly.com/11/rebecca-hazelton/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tender Trapper</i></a>, a digital chapbook from
Floating Wolf Quarterly, and some of which will appear in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bad Star</i>, forthcoming from <a href="http://yesyesbooks.com/store/browse/45s/">Yes Yes Book’s Vinyl 45 chapbook series</a>.
I’m also working on a series of poems called “Homewreckers,” which look at
disruptions to the home, both literally and figuratively, and which have been
surprisingly fun to write. It’s fun to bring down buildings. It’s fun to break
plates. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Do you believe that
poetry can create change in the world?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It depends on the world.
I’m unlikely to write a poem that makes the entire planet take notice – why
would it? I write out of a very particular set of circumstances and privileges,
and I’m fooling myself if I think my poems might fulfill some universal human
need. There are poets that have come to mean a lot to particular countries – I
think of Inger Christensen, or Pablo Neruda, but that’s rare, and often breaks
down under closer scrutiny. But. But. If we think of the world as a smaller
thing, if we think about the worlds we carry within ourselves – absolutely.
There are poems I can honestly say changed the way I thought about my life and
my place in it<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">******************************************************************************************</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Rebecca Hazelton</b> is the
author of <i>Fair Copy </i>(Ohio State University Press, 2012), winner of the
2011 Ohio State University Press / The Journal Award in Poetry, and <i>Vow</i>,
from Cleveland State University Press. She was the 2010-11 Jay C. and Ruth
Halls Poetry Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Madison Creative Writing
Institute and winner of the “Discovery” / <i>Boston Review</i> 2012 Poetry Contest.
Her poems have appeared in <i>AGNI</i>, <i>The Southern Review</i>, <i>Boston Review</i>, <i>Best New
Poets 2011</i>, and <i>Best American Poetry 2013</i>. Find more at <a href="http://rebeccahazelton.net/">http://rebeccahazelton.net</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">******************************************************************************************</span></span> </span>
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Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-17056953532897271872013-04-02T14:28:00.000-04:002013-04-02T15:05:20.070-04:00#68 - Joshua Robbins<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How often had you sent
out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Praise Nothing</i> before it was
chosen for publication as a finalist for the 2012 Miller Williams Arkansas
Poetry Prize?</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The manuscript
submissions process was, for me, as I’m sure it is for many, an anxiety-filled
labor of love. I obsessed over it: compulsively checking email, refreshing my
browser in hopes of even the tiniest update on press websites. I found that the
only way I could cope with waiting was to fashion my submissions neuroses into
an online spreadsheet. Consequently, I can answer your question with precise
numbers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I submitted <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Praise Nothing</i> sixty-two times between
September, 2010, and February, 2012. I withdrew the manuscript from ten presses
after I received “the call” from Enid Shomer, the Poetry Series Editor at the
University of Arkansas Press. I won’t divulge how much money I spent on
supplies, postage, and reading fees, though that’s part of my spreadsheet. I’m
also not going to count all the times I stripped the manuscript for parts and
submitted those parts as chapbooks. I will say that no matter how I crunch the
numbers, I feel fortunate to have been able to work with all the talented and
kind people at the University of Arkansas Press. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Tell me about the title.
Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Praise Nothing</i>?
Did it go through any other changes?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The manuscript had a few
other titles—“Collateral,” “Against Forgiveness,” “Field Guide to the Second
Coming,” among others—but those were really just placeholders and a way for me
to explore different organizational strategies. I only ever sent it out with
the title <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Praise Nothing</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My main concern was
placing the manuscript with a press I admired, a press that had published poets
I admired. The University of Arkansas Press’s Miller Williams Prize was among
the dream contests at the top of that list. Most presses offer contests and so
I entered them, but I also submitted to open reading periods.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">My only bit of advice is
to not fall prey to the temptation of settling for a press that you think might
publish your manuscript just because you feel the urgent need to get the book
out. That said, I was privileged to be in a position where I could send my
manuscript to what I thought were the best places, the best fits, and not
settle. My wife provided me support and had a steady income, I had some job
security as a graduate fellow at the University of Tennessee, and I had
manuscript submission money set aside from some earlier prize winnings. I had
it pretty good. And still do. Even now, and especially after publishing my
first book, I struggle to make sense of the crapshoot that is manuscript
submissions. There are so many deserving poets out there.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What was the process like
assembling the book? How many different versions did it go through as you were
sending it out?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I finally arrived at the
closest approximation to the book’s current form when I had the chance to leave
Tennessee and return to Lawrence, Kansas, for a period of concentrated work on
the manuscript during the summer of 2010. Before moving to Knoxville, I lived
and worked in Kansas for a few years and I yearned to get back to the Sunflower
State.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">For two weeks: just me,
the stack of poems, a tiny loaner cottage, and the Kansas summer heat. Getting
to the final order took a process of spreading all the poems out on the living
room’s dusty hardwood floor, assembling a draft, and then reading and
rereading. Wash, rinse, repeat. And repeat and repeat.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">In many ways, the
assemblage process was similar to my poem revision process: making pass after
pass over the draft, tinkering with the count and measure, culling superfluous
lines, improvising and moving the puzzle pieces around until I finally
recognize the picture. I was also fortunate to have a few poets read the
manuscript and offer their affirmations that I was heading in the right
direction.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A few months after “the
call,” I had several thoughtful conversations about the manuscript with Enid
Shomer. She is such a careful reader and she encouraged me to be certain I
could justify everything about the book: the title, the section breaks and
order, every poem, every line, every figure. I ended up taking out three poems
and slightly revising a few.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How involved were you
with the design of the book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As for design, I didn’t
have any significant involvement with the interior. I trusted the talents and
experience of the design staff at the University of Arkansas Press. They did an
amazing job.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Did you suggest or have
any input regarding the image that was used on the cover?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I was given the
opportunity to suggest an image for the cover, which ultimately came down to
two options. The first was an image from what is now known as the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Heidelberger Totentanz</i>, the first book
in which the dance of death was portrayed, published in 1488. The second was a
piece by Andrew B. Myers I’d seen in the journal <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sixth Finch</i> that summer I was in Kansas. After talking with Larry
Malley, Director of the University of Arkansas Press, I did a gut check of what
I really wanted and confirmed that the Myers piece was right. But picking the
cover art is only one step and so I am deeply grateful to Liz Lester for her
care and talents in designing the perfect cover.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Like everyone else, I
want my work to be read. Poetry ought to be written for the public sphere. I
can’t say I felt like I had to publish the individual poems before publishing
the whole manuscript. That wasn’t part of my strategy, but it did work out that
way.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What do you remember
about the day when you saw your published book for the first time?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I remember my wife said I
looked like I’d just had a baby: tired, overwhelmed, deliriously happy. I just
remember a feeling of profound gratitude.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How has your life been
different since your book came out?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There was a deep
satisfaction that settled on my heart once I held the book in my hands, but I
can’t say my life is any different. I think the publication line on my CV is
helpful in terms of the job market, but my main concern is working on the new
poems. Arthur Smith gave me some advice shortly after the release of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Praise Nothing</i>: “Enjoy the moment, then
get back to work.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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?”</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This actually happened to
me last year. I was flying to a funeral in California and was seated next to a
woman from Arizona who was traveling to examine some beachfront property she’d
recently purchased. She told me she’d just been informed by her doctors that
her breast cancer had gone into remission and that she’d decided to build an
artist’s retreat near Long Beach where she could pursue her printmaking. We had
an intense conversation about how grief and faith translate into art. When the
conversation turned to my work, I described my book as being about faith and
doubt, about the Problem of Evil, and about interrogating the differences
between <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what is</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what should be</i>. She later mailed me a
print and I sent her a book.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What have you been doing
to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Praise Nothing</i>, and what
have those experiences been like for you?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I created a new website
and try to reach as many people as possible via social media. I’ve sent out
many review copies and copies to contests. I’ve got some regional bookstore and
university readings lined up and I’m working on scheduling more. Hoping to get
back to Kansas for some readings. Also hoping to head back to the West Coast
where I grew up and to do some readings in the San Francisco Bay Area, L.A.,
and the Pacific Northwest. There’s also a signing at AWP in Boston.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What advice do you wish
someone had given you before your first book came out?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This is a tough question
because I received so much great advice from friends and mentors who’d been
through the publishing crucible before me. I don’t think I was sufficiently
prepared for the emotional ups and downs of transitioning from those first book
poems into the new work. I guess I wish someone had told me something like,
“Once your book’s out, you may feel compelled to pursue an altogether new
direction in your new work. This is good. Don’t worry about the old poems. They
can take care of themselves.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What influence has the
book’s publication had on your subsequent writing? Are there any new projects
in the works?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I still get up at 4:30
most mornings and write. I am trying, though, to push myself, to break away
from the formal constraints I place on my drafts, to free myself up to wander
and be more Negatively Capable. <a href="http://anti-poetry.com/anti/robbinsjo/">My poem “Exchange,” published in a recent issueof Anti-</a>,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>is a good example of what I’m trying to do now. I don’t think I’ll
ever be able to shake off suburbia or my Christian background, nor would I want
to. But I’m more aggressively pursuing, both creatively and critically, the
connection between lyric poetry and theodicy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Do you believe that
poetry can create change in the world?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I don’t know about
“change,” but maybe “resistance.” In her book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Suffering</i>, liberation theologian Dorothee Soelle offers a theodicy
that does not attempt to explain the acceptance of some suffering for the sake
of some good. Instead, she argues that Christ’s passion provides a model for
how suffering and doubt can be experienced in solidarity with others. Suffering
and doubt are not redemptive, but are forces that must be resisted. I believe
the lyric poem is a tool of such resistance.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">******************************************************************************************</span> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Joshua Robbins</b> is the
author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Praise-Nothing-Poems-Joshua-Robbins/dp/1557289972"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Praise Nothing</i></a> (University
of Arkansas Press, 2013). His recognitions include the James Wright Poetry
Award, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New South</i> Prize,
selection for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Best New Poets</i> anthology,
and several Pushcart Prize nominations. He received an MFA in Creative Writing
from the University of Oregon, and a PhD in English from the University of
Tennessee. He is currently a Lecturer in English at the University of
Tennessee, where he teaches literature and poetry writing.</span> Find more information at his <a href="http://www.joshuajrobbins.com/">website</a> and <a href="http://againstoblivion.blogspot.com/">blog</a>. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">******************************************************************************************</span>Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-26230036056910426812013-03-19T17:10:00.000-04:002013-03-19T17:41:50.536-04:00#67 - Jeff Simpson<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How often had you sent out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertical Hold</i> before it was <a href="http://www.steeltoebooks.com/submit.html">chosen for publication in 2011 by Steel Toe Books</a>?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I was extremely lucky.
Steel Toe picked it up in the first round of contests I entered.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tell me about the title. Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertical Hold</i>? Did it go through any
other changes? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">At one point I was going
to call the book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crybaby</i>, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertical Hold</i> was actually the first
title I came up with. Growing up we had this old TV set that had been struck by
lightning a couple of times, and you really had to fiddle with the v-hold dial to
get the picture right. I always loved the sound of those words together and how
the act of image stabilization is a perfect metaphor for writing poems: You put
language in vertically running columns and try to assemble this flood of images
into something steady and meaningful. Plus, I make a lot of movie references in
the book. For me, it’s a perfect title even if no one younger than 30 knows
what the hell “vertical hold” means. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I agree it’s a
misconception. There are a dozen or more ways to get a book published, and I
think you have to consider them all and weigh them against your expectations. As
much as we want to believe publishing is this romantic enterprise in which the
best work gets noticed and supported, it’s just not the case. Like anything,
publishing is a game, and every avenue of publication has its own set of rules
and practices and competing sets of outcomes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I was very concerned
about contests before sending the book out because that’s how most poetry
titles are published. I love independent presses, and the open reading model
that many of them use feels less dirty than the contest model. Still, most small
presses can’t offer advance money or marketing support, whereas a contest can,
on reputation alone, help market the book on top of providing a few dollars in
prize money that can be spent on shit like book tours, etc. It’s all about
looking at the pros and cons and choosing which route best fits your goals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What was the process like assembling the book? How
many different versions did it go through as you were sending it out? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">At least a dozen or more.
Besides editing on the screen, I spent three days looking at the page-by-page
layout on my living room floor trying to decide if poem A should come before
poem B or where to put the section breaks. I agonized over the smallest
details, trying to create these complex patterns that would work like a
concerto, knowing all the while that most readers wouldn’t notice the arrangements
(or give a shit if they did). Ordering is essentially an arbitrary thing, but
when you think of your book itself as a large poem assembled from its
individual parts, you can drive yourself crazy trying to create this intricate
design. Having gone through the process, I think I now know how to approach the
next one without wanting to kill myself. It’s like what they tell novelists
about learning to write a novel by first writing a failed novel. It’s the same
thing. You have to put together 37 bad versions of your book before you figure
out the right order…or at least the order you settle on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How involved were you with the design of the
book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I was heavily involved.
Steel Toe was super great about letting me have a say about the design. They
were fine with me choosing the cover image so long as the photographer didn’t
charge a fortune for the rights. After I picked the cover image, the designer, Molly
McCaffrey, sent me design proofs of the covers, interior design, etc., which
she nailed. Steel Toe has treated me unbelievably well, and the best part of
working with them was how open they were to letting me have a voice on the
design and editorial changes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There was a time when I
was really concerned about publishing as many poems in journals as I could, but
that was largely due to worrying about building a CV for future academic employment.
I think it’s important to publish early in your career in order to make a name
for yourself and start building an audience. Besides that, I don’t think poets
need to worry about publishing 80 or even 50% of the poems in journal form
prior to publication. There’s something to be said for creating an expectation
with your work in journals so you can exceed those expectations with the
quality of your book. There are a handful of poems I purposefully left out of
print prior to the book release so they’d stand out and offer something new to the
poems that had already been read. You want to create movements and rhythms and
moments of surprise within the book, and it’s tough to do that if all poems are
archived on the Internet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A ton. Another great
thing about working with Steel Toe was that my editor/publisher, Tom C. Hunley,
had me go through six or seven proofreading drafts, which gave us lots of time
to fine-tune and catch typos. I also wrote three new poems (about 10 pages)
that were not in the original manuscript, so there was a lot of writing and
editing happening before the final proof. I’m obsessive-compulsive about editing
anyway, so the drafting process felt right at home. And it’s great to have an
editor who’ll work so hard to make sure everything is as close to perfect as
possible before going to print.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What do you remember about the day when you saw
your published book for the first time?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I remember how surreal it
felt to open a box with 20 copies of my book inside. It took a good month or
two before the idea of having a book felt real. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How has your life been different since your book
came out? </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I have a slightly bigger
audience, and I get to say, “I have a book” at parties and social events. Everything
else is pretty much the same.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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?”</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This is a tough one because
the book is about so many things. I grew up in rural southwest Oklahoma
surrounded by farming and ranching, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertical
Hold</i> is broadly about growing up in a particular time and place with a
particular kind of family. I had one foot planted in this western, blue-collar
world of combines and cattle shoots and the other submerged in books, music, video
games, and HBO. I find the tension between high and low forms of culture—physical
labor and questions of ontology—and the ways in which these things intersect
our personal histories, endlessly fascinating. But my wife said it best in her
introduction for the book launch party: “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertical
Hold</i> sings not only of what we might have lost in this postmodern, media
world of our own creation, but what we’ve found, offering a space to move
forward, taking Bruce Willis by one hand and Barry Switzer by the other.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What have you been doing to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertical Hold</i>, and what have those
experiences been like for you?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I try to read as much as
I can to expose new audiences to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertical
Hold</i> and the poems I’m writing now. Besides readings, I have a website and
use Twitter and Facebook like every other writer I know. I love giving readings,
but I wish we still lived in the heydays when presses took care of the
marketing side of things. Even though social media is a profound tool for communicating
with readers and friends, most days I wish it were never invented. I’m a little
sick of the endless marketeering writers feel they have to be engaged with to
get noticed and sell books. I know it’s just how things are, but I’m careful
about not letting book promotion steal too much time from the actual ass-in-chair
writing I’m supposed to be doing. The poet Todd Boss co-ran a book promotion
blog called Squad365 for awhile that I think is now defunct. He argued that
book promotion should be a year-long event in which you’re always reading,
posting, and showcasing audio and video recordings of yourself. 365 days is
excessive and a little too Ringling Bros. for my taste, but I’d also say it’s
damn effective. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What advice do you wish someone had given you
before your first book came out?</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Start the promotion 4-6 months
before the book comes out. I wish I had lined up more reviews of the book prior
to its release, but I didn’t. No one sensible wants to be a ham about having a
new book out, but you also don’t want to treat it like a secret and wait until it’s
on shelves to start promoting. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What influence has the book’s publication had on
your subsequent writing? Are there any new projects in the works?</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">You always want the
second book to be different than the first. Most of the poems in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertical Hold</i> are longer,
narrative-driven pieces, which I guess is sort of my shtick. And while it feels
comfortable having the “Jeff Simpson formula” down pat, I want to push my work
into new territory. Even though I’m still writing longer poems, some of them
narratives, I’m trying to work my way out of the habits I’ve created…within
reason.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I have two manuscripts
I’m currently working on: One’s a typical poetry manuscript, and the other is a
giant, book-length poem that’s unruly and strange. It’s one of those projects
I’m not sure I’ll finish, but anymore I don’t get too excited about writing
unless the degree of difficulty or risk of collapse is pretty fucking high.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you believe that poetry can create change in
the world?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I believe poetry can
create change in an individual—change that may move someone to do good in the
world. But can poetry single-handedly change the world? Probably not. I’ve
always seen poetry as more a means than a means to an end—a way to communicate
about the things we don’t talk about socially. I don’t expect anyone to be
fundamentally changed by my work. I just hope readers get what I’m saying and
enjoy the ride.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
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<span style="background-color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Jeff Simpson</b> grew up in southwest Oklahoma.
He is the author of <i><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Vertical Hold</span></i> (Steel
Toe Books, 2011), which was a finalist for The National Poetry Series. His
poems have recently appeared in <i><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Forklift, Ohio</span></i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">No News Today</i>, <i><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Prairie Schooner</span></i>, <i><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Cimarron Review</span></i>, and
others. He lives in Brooklyn, NY, where he works for <i><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Poets & Writers Magazine </span></i>and edits <i><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">The Fiddleback</span></i>, an online arts & literature
magazine. Visit him at <a href="http://www.jeffsimpson.org/">jeffsimpson.org</a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="background-color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span></span> </span></span></div>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-75266041904073586242013-03-07T14:37:00.003-05:002013-03-07T18:12:02.108-05:00#66 - Alex Dimitrov<style>
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</style><b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How often had you sent
out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Begging for It</i> [view the trailer for the book <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuhImX9VK-g&feature=youtu.be">here</a>] before it was
<a href="http://www.fourwaybooks.com/contest.php">chosen for publication by Four Way Books as a Stahlecker Selection in 2013</a>?</span></b>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I had been seriously sending it out for a year and
during that year I was constantly changing it so different versions were sent
to different publishers. I tried to forget who I had sent to once I had. I
didn’t want to focus on my expectations for the book, I wanted to focus on
having exactly the book and the poems I wanted.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Tell me about the title.
Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Begging for It</i>?
Did it go through any other changes? </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The title was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American
Youth</i> for the first three years I was working on it—I began writing the
book in 2007 and I finished it in 2012, though it was taken in 2011. I wrote a
chapbook called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American Boys</i> during
that time period but I had changed the title of the book to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Begging for It</i> well before the chapbook.
And none of the poems in the chapbook are in the book—they are very different
projects. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">America is one of the big things I think through
in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Begging for It</i>, which is full of
lovers, America being one of them. So for a while, it just felt like I needed
to include America in the title. But ultimately I decided against it. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">America, You Darling</i> was also a possible
title. That’s a poem in the book. I don’t know, I’m not Andy Warhol so that
title didn’t quite work for me. I like what I went with.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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? </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I actually have always wanted an editor to take my
first book as opposed to having it win a contest. Obviously it’s an honor
however one’s book is taken. But I’m happy that it was taken by Martha Rhodes.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What was the process like
assembling the book? How many different versions did it go through as you were
sending it out? </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I was changing the book until the last possible
moment. I can’t tell you how many versions it went through—probably over twenty.
I took out many poems, it was originally a longer book, but I had a rule that I
needed to absolutely love every single poem in the book. No filler. No poems
that were a “bridge” from one poem to another or from one section to another. Every
line, every poem had to stand on its own and together with the others. And that
took a long time and was difficult for someone like me who is not patient at
all. But I knew I had to be patient because my poems are the most important
things to me. And so I waited until I had exactly the book I wanted.
You only get to debut once.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How involved were you
with the design of the book—interior design, font, cover, etc.? Did you suggest
or have any input regarding the image that was used on the cover? </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I wanted a photograph from David Wojnarowicz’s
“Rimbaud in New York” series. I knew that. When I first moved to New York, in
the summer of 2007, I would look at those photographs and think about Rimbaud
and being an artist and New York and Wojnarowicz. That series was very
instructional to me. Those photographs were an education. So for the book
cover, it was a matter of getting permission from his estate, and they ended up
giving us permission. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Everything about this book, from the design to
what’s in it, is very personal to me. It’s all been thought through really
carefully. So yes, I was involved in the design process. I can’t imagine not
being involved. I’m someone who’s concerned with both depth and surface. Visual
presentation and aesthetics are incredibly important to me. But I mean, they
are to most artists, right?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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? </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Almost all of the poems in the book have been
published in magazines, journals, anthologies. I never set out to do that, it
just happened. I don’t think it matters either way. The only thing that mattered
to me was that I was happy with the poems. There are a few poems in the book
that haven’t been published anywhere, and they are some of my favorites, and I
think some of the best. So what does that tell you. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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? </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I never stopped editing. Before it was taken,
after it was taken, a day before my final proofs were due. I have a hard time
letting go of work.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What do you remember about
the day when you saw your published book for the first time?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I was sitting at my desk at the Academy of
American Poets and just looking at the envelope. I sat there and looked at it
for a few minutes and allowed myself to have those last possible thoughts about
the book before it existed in the world, before it was real, in front of me.
And then I opened the envelope. And I loved it. I’ve worked so hard and for so
long on this book. If I don’t love it, what’s the point.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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?”</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Begging for It </i></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">is about
youth, love, and sex in America. It’s also about the past, religion, death, obsession,
New York. It’s about people. It’s about me.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What have you been doing
to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Begging for It</i>, and what
have those experiences been like for you?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I’m doing a lot of readings this spring at NYU, New
School, Harvard, Yale, Poetry Society of America, a lot of places. And I’m also
going to San Francisco. I want to go to LA and I want to go to Portland because
I’ve never been there and the poetry community there seems great. I’ll go anywhere.
This is not a New York book. So many different kinds of people from different
parts of the country have written to me, and I want to give them these poems,
physically, in person.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What advice do you wish
someone had given you before your first book came out?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I don’t really wish for things like that. Wishing
is mostly a waste of time. I’m lucky, my teacher in graduate school was Marie
Howe, who as well as teaching me how to make my poems better, taught me how to
be a person in the world. She’s one of my best friends. And I really value all
the advice and help Brenda Shaughnessy has given me. I love those women. They
care and they’re such role models. And so many other friends have helped me as
well.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What influence has the
book’s publication had on your subsequent writing? Are there any new projects
in the works?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I don’t think the book being published has had any
influence on my writing. I am working on a few projects—one is a series of
poems, some of which are portraits that I wrote about people I have never met
from the internet—people who answered a questionnaire I wrote, consisting of 26
questions, which I posted on my Tumblr, and which asked them about love and
death and what they really want in life. <a href="http://alexdimitrov.tumblr.com/post/30067992703/your-life-13-portraits-of-people-i-dont-know-from-the">Here is a link to it</a> if people want to
read it<b>.</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I am using their answers to write poems, to make
something out of the lives of people I don’t know, but also out of feelings,
their feelings, that I often relate to quite a bit, and other feelings I don’t
relate to at all. And I’ve also been seriously working on new poems, the
internet project aside. Right now I feel like the internet poems/portraits will
be a part of my second book, a section perhaps. I’m not entirely sure but I’ve
been writing a lot. I also throw away a lot. The world doesn’t need bad poems.
Or poems just for the sake of poems. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Do you believe that
poetry can create change in the world?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">If I didn’t believe that I would have a very
difficult, impossible time, justifying my life. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">******************************************************************************************</span> </span><style><!--
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Alex Dimitrov<span style="color: #343434;"> </span></b><span style="color: #050303;">is the author of <i>Begging for It</i>, published by Four Way
Books. He is also the founder of Wilde Boys, a queer poetry salon in New York
City. Dimitrov’s poems have been published in <i>The Yale Review</i>,<i> Kenyon
Review</i>, <i>Slate</i>, <i>Poetry Daily</i>, <i>Tin House</i>, <i>Boston
Review</i>, and the <i>American Poetry Review</i>, which awarded him the Stanley
Kunitz Prize in 2011. He is also the author of <a href="http://floatingwolfquarterly.com/9/alex-dimitrov/"><i>American Boys</i></a>, an e-chapbook published by Floating Wolf Quarterly
in 2012. Dimitrov is the Content Editor at the Academy of American Poets,
teaches creative writing at Rutgers University, and frequently writes for <i>Poets
& Writers</i>.</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />****************************************************************************************** </span> </span></span>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-28647761200662368362013-03-02T16:01:00.000-05:002013-03-03T13:22:18.181-05:00#65 - Noah Falck<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How often had you sent
out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Snowmen Losing Weight</i> before it
was <a href="http://batcatpress.com/submissions/">chosen for publication in 2012 by BatCat Press</a>?</span></b><br />
<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Snowmen</i>
was sent out about 3 times a year for about 5 years, in various incarnations,
before BatCat picked it up.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Tell me about the title.
Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Snowmen Losing Weight</i>?
Did it go through any other changes? </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The original title was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Snowmen Are Losing Weight</i>. Then it
was briefly called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Gods of Standing
Room Only</i>, and later <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Traffic Islands
of Our Youth</i>, but none of those gave off enough light. Eventually, I came
back to Snowmen, but decided to simplify it to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Snowmen Losing Weight</i>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Your book recently went
into a second printing, correct? What do you think are the advantages and
disadvantages to a more handcrafted book versus a collection with a more
defined press run?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Yes, it went into a
second printing in December 2012, seven months after the initial printing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The advantages of
handcrafted books are they feel more like friends than third cousins. Not that
there is anything wrong with cousins. Well, not really. When you hold a
handmade book it makes you feel good about yourself and the world. Like driving
in an eco-friendly vehicle or better yet, a bicycle. It gives you a completely
different reading experience. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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? </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Contests are catapults.
Winning one will put your name and work in certain circles, and I respect that.
I was not at all concerned about winning a contest, but I still sent <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Snowmen</i> on the contest tour in hopes of
getting noticed. And it was a finalist in enough places to make me smile. But I
don’t think you need to win a contest to generate inspired work. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The only advice I have is
to send your work to presses you admire, places that are publishing work that
excites you. I don’t think it matters if it is through a contest or an open
reading period.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How involved were you
with the design of the book—interior design, font, cover, etc.?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I had nothing to do with
the design. It was all BatCat Press. I didn’t actually see the book until the
release party in Midland, Pennsylvania. When I first saw the book my heart
skipped a few beats, similar to the way it did when I first saw my wife. It was
sexy, and beautiful, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands all over it. That
didn’t come out exactly right, but you know what I mean. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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? </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I like sending work out
and I like hearing from editors and presses no matter what news they bring. I
wasn’t concerned at all with publishing any percentage of the poems. I did want
to have some of the poems picked up, but there was no special number in
mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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? </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The BatCat crew and I
went back and forth over a period of 3 to 4 months discussing poems, order,
punctuation, and all that fun stuff. None of the poems were heavily edited or
rewritten. Working with the editors at BatCat was truly enjoyable. And it felt
particularly special working with BatCat because it is a student run press. The
student editors (Alison, Jane, & Robin) did a fantastic job. They were very
considerate in regards to the layout and thoroughly thought out how people
would interact with the book. And Deanna Mulye, who oversees the projects at
BatCat Press, must be some sort of saint teaching her students the art and
craft of bookmaking. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What do you remember
about the day when you saw your published book for the first time?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">There was a lot of sweaty
palms and more applications of deodorant to my underarm region. Also, there was
a nuclear power plant and margaritas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How has your life been
different since your book came out? </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">A lot has happened in my
“life.” I took a job in Buffalo, New York, working as Education Director for <a href="http://www.justbuffalo.org/">Just Buffalo Literary Center</a>.
Before I was teaching 4<sup>th</sup> graders in Dayton, Ohio. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">So I’ve moved to
a new city, which I am slowly falling in love with, and working a gig that puts
me in a more direct conversation with literature and the arts. I also am
writing more than I ever have. I am on more of a schedule that permits me to
focus my creativity energy. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">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?”</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Ha, people on airplanes.
I would tell them that the book is about you and me, and this shared air, and
the baby crying its body to sleep in the arms of a young mother ahead of us. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It’s about all those moments you want to remember forever. The moments you wish
you had on film so you could watch them again in slo mo. It’s also about the
moments you don’t want to remember, but are somehow thumb-tacked somewhere
inside you and you can’t shake them off. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What have you been doing
to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Snowmen Losing Weight</i>, and
what have those experiences been like for you?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’ve been doing little
interviews, and reaching out to reviewers and other writers to let them know
that the book exists. I made a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15sXSrO_co0&noredirect=1">book trailer</a>, which was fun. I’ve also been trying to participate in as many
readings as possible, though I haven’t had the time to really travel or “tour,”
but I’d like to. I like road trips of all kinds. Particularly, road trips that
are focused around reading poems. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What advice do you wish
someone had given you before your first book came out?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Be patient and believe in
the process. Keep at it. Don’t let it get you down. Never surrender. And ride
your bicycle near the river, the ocean, the greatest of lakes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What influence has the
book’s publication had on your subsequent writing? Are there any new projects
in the works?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The publication of the
book has only made me want to write another book. So that’s what I am doing. I
am working on a new manuscript right now. Mostly prose poems. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I am also shopping around
a chapbook collection about celebrity dreams, aptly called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Celebrity Dream Poems</i>. And I just finished a collaborative chapbook
with the poet <a href="http://inventionsofthemonsters.blogspot.com/">Matt McBride</a>, tentatively called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vocal Air</i>.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Do you believe that
poetry can create change in the world?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I think poetry can act as
a sort of communication vessel for the soul. A vessel that highlights both the
quandaries of the everyday, and shares the dreams of the intellect. Can such a
vessel change the world? Absolutely!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">******************************************************************************************</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://noahfalck.org/home/"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 12pt;"><b><span style="color: #0739c8; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Noah Falck</span></b></span></a><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 12pt;"> is the author of <i>Snowmen Losing Weight</i> (<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/batcatpress/home/snowmen-presale"><span style="color: #0739c8;">BatCat Press</span></a>, 2012), as well as several
chapbooks. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in<i> Boston Review,
iO: A Journal of New American Poetry, Jellyfish, Sink Review, Paper Darts,
Fact-Simile, interrupture,</i> and elsewhere. He works as Education
Director at <a href="http://www.justbuffalo.org/"><span style="color: #0739c8; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Just Buffalo Literary Center</span></a> in Buffalo,
New York. Visit him online at <a href="http://noahfalck.org/home/">noahfalck.org</a></span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">****************************************************************************************** </span></span></span></span></span> </span></div>
Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155784699779494022.post-84107236844795114282013-02-19T12:25:00.002-05:002013-02-19T12:26:53.107-05:00#64 - Seth Brady Tucker<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How often had you sent out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mormon Boy</i> before it was chosen for publication as a winner of the
<a href="http://www.elixirpress.com/guidelines.html">Elixir Press 11<sup>th</sup> Annual Poetry Awards</a>?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This collection went
through a couple of incarnations (and titles) before it made it into the
current form, so I have to guess that it was out there for about three years
total.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first year, I sent it
out to about ten contests, and didn’t get any responses from the
publishers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I gave the manuscript
a global revision, restructured, basically started from the ground up, sent it
to fifteen or so contests, and was a finalist in seven of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Man, I was over the moon!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I gave it another tightening revision,
made sure it was perfect, and sent it to twenty more contests, and…
crickets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember being a bit
down about it, to say the least, and on the very day that I was laid off from a
dreadful job in sales by a computer auto-call, I got a call from Dana Curtis
from Elixir with the great news. It was a terrific day. Who needs a job, right?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tell me about the title. Had it always been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mormon Boy</i>? Did it go through any other
changes? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Honestly, the title
changed a couple of times during the submission process—.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It started out as “Mormon Boy, then
went back and forth between that and “We Deserve the Gods We Ask For.” Actually,
that was the title of the manuscript when it won the Elixir Prize, and before
we went press I settled once again on Mormon Boy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For some reason, WDTGWAF seemed too, what, academic?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, I thought that Mormon Boy told a
better story of the book and the tenuous narrative thread meant to exist between
the poems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By that time, I was
also close to finishing my second collection (which is currently a finalist in
a couple contests), and the title of WDTGWAF was growing on me for that new manuscript.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I’m not sure I have any
real advice in this regard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
me, the choice for submitting to contests was a professional one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of my academic peers recommended
winning a contest with a manuscript as a way to shore up a CV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will say this: I’m seeing less and
less open reading periods from major and minor presses, and many more contests
from those same presses, so it may be the progress of the business model that
makes that decision for some poets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ultimately, it’s just about getting your book published, because it is
one of the hardest things a poet will ever do!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep working, keep writing, and someday the world will
notice.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What was the process like assembling the book? How
many different versions did it go through as you were sending it out? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I spoke a little to this point
earlier, but this is the most important aspect of getting a book published, in
my opinion—if you are a real writer, someone who studies craft, someone who
feels that writing is essential, my guess is that the poems are already
there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, when it comes down to
it, how do you assemble them into something that feels like a book?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The answer, for me, was through trial
and error.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had wonderful and
generous readers like Jane Springer (read her books), Matt Bondurant (read his
books), and Toni Lefton (someone needs to publish her book!), who all saw the
fifteen or twenty renderings of this book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I shuffled, I rearranged, I spread it on the floor, I hacked
it up, reassembled it from spare body parts, hit it with electricity,
everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And maybe that’s a
good metaphor for the process?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Maybe it should feel like creating Frankenstein’s monster-the love, the
hate, the isolation, the wild abandon, all stapled together and smudged and
blood smeared and reeking of amniotic fluid? My only hope was that it wouldn’t
have to hide under floorboards, be chased by villagers with pitchforks and
torches, all to die, alone and forgotten, in some frigid expanse. Holy
shit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That analogy got away from
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Readers of poetry:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>don’t let my book end its days drifting
away on arctic waters!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How involved were you with the design of the book—interior
design, font, cover, etc.?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Thankfully, I didn’t have
much required of me in this regard—-I did revise the whole manuscript again,
which Dana Curtis was happy to allow me to do, but once everything was in
order, Dana and I simply sent it on to Joel Bass, who did all the heavy lifting
for the design.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Personally, I
think the book is beautiful, and the quality of the paper and cover is exactly
what I hoped for—I couldn’t be happier.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Did you suggest or have any input regarding the
image that was used on the cover? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Again, credit Dana with
her confidence in her authors—she asked me if I had any ideas, and as soon as I
sent her a pdf of the artwork from a number of my favorite artists, she latched
onto Glenn Brown’s “Shallow Deaths.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I had stumbled upon Browns work while living and teaching in London in
2000, and I had a print of the painting in my office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I never imagined that Glenn would agree to let me use it
(especially considering there was no way we could pay for the artwork), but I
knew I had to try.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hardest
part was finding him—it took me about six months to track down his agent from
the dozens of places all over the world that his work was being hung, and then deal
with the language barrier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr.
Brown is from the UK, but his representatives are most often not!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ultimately, he couldn’t have been
nicer, once I did track him down—-he was happy to support a small press and a
new author with his work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He even
had a representative send a lovely, inscribed book of his work that currently
sits on my coffee table.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I think it helps to have
a good representative portion of a book already published in good journals.
Many contests allow for an acknowledgements page, which I suspect gets flipped
to in the early stages of selection—editors like to have their tastes
confirmed, is my guess, so some proof you are a serious writer helps move you
along, perhaps?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either way, it
wont hurt a manuscripts chances—I think maybe 50-60% of the poems from Mormon
Boy were already published, and I was happy to have a chance to thank all those
editors who gave my work a chance as I was making my way in the poetry
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What do you remember about the day when you saw
your published book for the first time?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I remember thinking, I
hope what is inside the book is as good as the outside of the book!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t believe it was finally there
in the flesh-all the hard work and love and despair and fear and doubt bundled
up and packaged for a real audience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I suspect most first books feel this way to their authors—will readers
see what I was trying to do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will
they like it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where is my Pulitzer?
Or, alternatively, will these books molder in some back room at Elixir Press,
until one day, they are all accidently thrown out on the curb for recycling? My
wife is always the voice of reason, however, and she carefully laid out my
author copies on our kitchen table, popped a bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte
champagne, and we sat there sipping wine and staring at the books, marveling,
proud, relieved. Then, when I woke up the next day, I started thinking about
the many ways I would revise it, if given a chance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The process truly never ends, if you love the work.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How has your life been different since your book
came out? </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I don’t feel like much
has changed, to be honest. I did start wearing a velvet robe around the house, and
I took up smoking a pipe, and I now call my students “minions” and my peers at
the University of Colorado seem ok with the fact that I address them as My Dear
Fellow/My Dear Lady. I tend to stare off into space thoughtfully when asked
direct questions. I fill my lovely and profound soliloquies to minions and
subordinates with long pauses. And then there’s the collection of boaters,
trilbies, and pork pie hats, and the bowties. I discuss my oeuvre, and refer to
myself in the third person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
was cute, Seth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Anyway. I do get asked to
do readings now, which I used to have to pursue on my own, and I have been
fortunate to be asked to get involved with some inmate literacy projects and
veterans affairs workshops, and I suppose it has given my teaching some
legitimacy. Personally, though, it has given my writing a bit of confidence and
momentum that may have been lacking—since Mormon Boy was published I have
finished a second collection of poetry, finished a short story collection, and
abandoned one disastrous time-suck of a novel for a creative memoir that feels
promising. Validation can be a great motivator.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">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?”</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The answer to this
question all depends on whether I want to be an asshole or not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I want to be an asshole, I would
tell them it’s a teleological treatise on the solipsism of the anti-book, spoken
through the dissonant voice of cultural ennui.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, I’d make up something to make them regret ever
asking the question, and settle back into my seat with the knowledge that they
would very likely not care to speak to me again. My great mentor and friend
Mark Winegardner once told me that if he didn’t feel like talking about his
book, he would simply tell them it was a love story, and that would be the end
of it. And maybe that is a bit closer to the truth, if I’m giving an honest
answer—the narrative voice within Mormon Boy is meant to resonate with Mormon
dogma and Mormon guilt, but it isn’t supposed to be about Mormonism in any real
way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a book about a
narrator who learns to forgive himself by finding love (sometimes in all the
wrong places).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like all great
books, it endeavors to be a love story in some way, even if it fails.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this sense, it is a series of poems devoted
to the tragic and the comic aspects of self-love, a journey through war and
loss and loneliness, ending with a cease-fire that I hope feels like forgiveness.
Rather than tell interested parties that it is a love story, like Mark does,
maybe I will just provide the short answer that it is a book about learning to
forgive oneself. Either way, I doubt they will be interested in the longer
discussion regarding whether a poetry book can be “about” anything.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What have you been doing to promote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mormon Boy</i>, and what have those
experiences been like for you?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It has been a lot of fun
doing readings around Colorado, and it has taken me a bit to get used to the
fact that people actually want me to sign a copy of my book. I had to develop a
signature! My handwriting looks like a five year old (with palsy) scribbling
with a crayon, so I had to figure out a signature that looked like something
authentic. Otherwise, I think I have had the traditional experience of doing
poetry readings that most (I hope) poets have—I’ve shown up to read for large
audiences one week, then I’ve read for an audience of three (counting my wife)
the next.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thankfully, poetry
readers are gracious and kind. I am also learning to be a proponent of my own
work (a requirement for poets given the lack of marketing money for the genre),
especially online (thanks again). I’ve built a <a href="http://sethbradytucker.wordpress.com/">website</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Seth-Brady-Tuckers-Author-Page/282320461802432">an author facebook page</a> and a twitter account I won’t bother linking because I still don’t understand
why the hell I would ever need to tweet something.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What advice do you wish someone had given you
before your first book came out?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I was lucky to have great
writers in my corner who also happened to be wonderful, generous, and
kind-David Kirby, Mark Winegardner, Julianna Baggott, Jane Springer, Toni
Lefton, Matt Bondurant, Roger Reeves, innumerable more, who all gave me great
advice on what to expect, how to prepare the book, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only thing I wish I would have been
better about had to do with marketing myself—I thought that it would be
premature to start a marketing campaign before the book came out, but I now
know that is when the bulk of it needs to be done. I didn’t know, for instance,
that you can send galleys to journals and magazines for pre-publication
reviews, which would have saved me a number of headaches.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What influence has the book’s publication had on
your subsequent writing? Are there any new projects in the works?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I believe I am a better,
more confident writer. I believe in my writing like I never have before. Again,
validation is a great motivator. I hope that’s a good thing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either way, I have been more prolific
than ever before, even while I devote huge amounts of time to teaching and
service projects, so I’m therefore as happy with being a writer as I’ve ever
been. My new collection is a finalist for the Philip Levine Prize, and my
fiction was a finalist for the Jeff Sharlet award from the Iowa Review, so I am
hopeful that there will be continued success. But as always, I am waiting for
the other shoe to drop—depraved Fortuna has had a good time finding ways to
teach me humility whenever I start thinking too much of myself!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you believe that poetry can create change in
the world?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It can and does. It
changed my world, anyway, in a shallow foxhole in an observation post on the
border of Iraq.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A tattered copy of
William Carlos Williams <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Selected Poems</i>
open next to my M-60, and the next morning I started writing stories and poems and
haven’t stopped. I love telling my students that poetry is the most important
thing in the world, even when it isn’t. Where our poetry fails, however, is
when it alienates and obfuscates. I can’t stand poetry that cares nothing for
its audience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thomas Lux once said
that, “poetry should entertain.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
don’t know if this is always the case, but I do believe that the poet should
give a shit about the reader, and should endeavor to enrich the world rather
than outsmart it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I often tell my
writing students that it is easy to write poems and stories about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you </i>that are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yours</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The difficult
task is to write poems about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">us</i> that
are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ours</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a ton of poetry out there that confirms for the
occasional reader their prejudice that poetry is, as Jane Springer has said, a “festival
of [and for] the dead.” I believe that those writers who write with an eye on
what is at stake for themselves, as well as what should be at stake for the
reader, are changing the world every day, a lonely character at a time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">******************************************************************************************</span></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Seth Brady Tucker</b> is a
poet and fiction writer originally from Lander, Wyoming, and served as an Army
82<sup>nd</sup> Airborne Paratrooper in the Persian Gulf. His first book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mormon Boy</i>, won the 2011 Elixir Press
Editor’s Poetry Prize, and was released in 2012.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His writing has been nominated for a number of Pushcart
Prizes, as well as the Jeff Sharlet Award, and is forthcoming or has appeared
in the <i>Antioch Review</i>, <i>Verse Daily</i>, <i>Connecticut Review</i>, <i>Chautauqua</i>, <i>River Styx</i>,
<i>Indiana Review,</i> <i>Rosebud</i>, <i>Iowa Review,</i> <i>Witness</i>, <i>Rhino</i>, <i>Crab Orchard Review</i>, and
many other fine journals and anthologies. Seth has degrees in Creative Writing
and Literature from San Francisco State University, Northern Arizona
University, and Florida State University (PhD).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Currently, he splits his time teaching veterans at the Light
House Writer’s Workshop in Denver, and at the University of Colorado at
Boulder. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">******************************************************************************************</span></span></span></span></span>Keith Montesanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04894963729123360757noreply@blogger.com