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If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
I’d love to cook for Flannery O’Connor, though would worry about her dry comments regarding my lack of skill. Cornbread, sweet potatoes and chicken. Coconut cream pie, my Grandma Rose’s recipe. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? The fear of time. Nothing about my writing process is linear or structured, so it takes great amounts of time to complete a story or project. The only way to combat this fear is to accept it and to keep writing. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Chekhov What books are on your nightstand? Blue Nights by Joan Didion; Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout; Love Poems by Pablo Neruda; The Little Virtues by Natalia Ginzburg Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The question mark; literature and stories should ask us questions about ourselves and lives. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Ha! I don’t remember. If it was assigned, I most likely read it. Was one of those students. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My many little notebooks that I kept with me with jotted down observations, odd thoughts, and some of my children’s notes and drawings when they were younger. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? I write to discover what I know. Flannery O’Connor Does writing energize or exhaust you? Mostly it exhausts me. What are common traps for aspiring writers? I believe the most common one is the grand one that also trapped me - wanting to publish before your work is ready. What is your writing Kryptonite? When I allow the outside world’s opinion of what life should look like to come before my own. Have you ever gotten writer’s block? I’m not sure if it’s writer’s block or writer’s doubt, but I’ve certainly had those moments. My remedy is to get something on the page, even if it’s a few sentences or thoughts, or to work on edits. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? I met Kelly Simmons, author of Wives of Billie’s Mountain and a number of short stories, at Queens University of Charlotte when we were earning our MFA’s. Kelly’s insight and tireless eye have been a constant part of my writing process. Kelly’s continuous support was crucial to the publication of this novella, and she’s a kick-ass kind of friend. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? My first writing class. It was a general fiction class, an eight week course, a couple hundred dollars. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? W.G. Sebald and Richard Yates. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? When I was young, we’d go to my father’s softball games (he was on three teams). I had been playing with a black kid around my age and I remember an adult, not sure who he was, telling me I shouldn’t be playing with him. This adult was trying to use language to influence a child. But that didn’t make sense to me and I kept on playing. We don’t have to let other people’s language have power over us. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? The Third Man by Graham Greene As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? A bird, one that soars high and can see the view from far above, capturing the full picture. What does literary success look like to you? Readers taking something of emotional value from what I have written. What’s the best way to market your books? In a perfect world hire a publicist! What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? Many authors write authentically and beautifully about characters of their opposite sex. I find most everything about it quite difficult. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I’d be a dress designer or a therapist. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? I’d roast a chicken for Guillaume Apollinaire. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? It used to be the blank page. Now, I enjoy the creative act too much to be afraid of it. If the result sucks, then so be it, I’ll try again. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? The brilliant Mary Ellen Solt. What books are on your nightstand? Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The hyphen, because it can break as well as unite. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? The Catcher in the Rye: Too whiny! What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? The stars. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Get over yourself and write! Does writing energize or exhaust you? Definitely, energizes. What are common traps for aspiring writers? I wish I knew! What is your writing Kryptonite? The myriad little responsibilities and obligations of adult life. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? I can’t say that I have. There’s just too much good stuff out there. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? I don’t think writers are any more or less sensitive than anyone else. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? The validation from wonderful poets such as Michael Sikkema, Megan Burns, and Derek Beaulieu, who have all published my work at one time or another, has been invaluable to me. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? It relaxed me a bit and gave me confidence to continue to try new things in my writing. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? The money I spent to purchase a copy of Emmett Williams’ Anthology of Concrete Poetry. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? I struggled with Pound for a while when I was young. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? I remember reading The Hobbit as a boy one summer evening. Dusk was falling. I was outside on the patio and utterly transported. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? Fiasco by Lem As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? The firefly, for sure. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? As a poet focused on issues of language, I don't really create characters.do this. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? Too many! What does literary success look like to you? For me, literary success is simply being able to contribute to the world of literature. I am honored and humbled to have been given the opportunity to publish a number of poetry collections. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? As a poet focused on issues of language, I don't really do this. What did you edit out of this book?” The bad poems, I hope. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
I’d like to make homemade pasta for Joan Didion. I can see her influence in my meandering sentences, my sense of place, and the way I want my readers to feel my words as much as read them. I don’t know if she likes pasta, but the alchemy of making dough out of flour, oil, and egg, then the meditative repetition of rolling and cutting it is the sort of zen prep work that would feel appropriate for the moment. I’d serve it in a cacio e pepe style with a big, bold red wine because everything’s better with a glass of assertive Bordeaux. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? Like many authors, the blank page is my biggest enemy. Getting started is always the hardest part for me, especially when I don’t have an external deadline to hit. My writing group is a great antidote to that. For the past three years or so, a group of five women and I have met every other week (virtually, lately) to read and critique each other’s work. The impetus to have something to share with them gets me past that blank page barrier, and their supportive feedback keeps me going. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? This changes constantly! It seems that every time I read a new book, I fall briefly in love with that author and those characters. But one writer I’ve admired since grad school is Lidia Yuknavitch. Her book, The Chronology of Water, was the first non-traditional narrative I’d ever read and I immediately felt at home there. Before I read her work, I was pursuing a poetry concentration, but reading Yuknavitch showed me that there didn’t have to be firm lines, or any lines at all, between poetry and prose. It broke open those false boundaries in my own work, and it’s never been the same. What books are on your nightstand? Ask me on any given week and that’ll change! Because I cover books for Good Housekeeping, I’m always reading something new and exciting. But these are my 2020 favorites (so far!): “Every Bone A Prayer” by Ashley Bloom “The Death of Vivek Oji” by Akwaeke Emezi “Anxious People” by Fredrik Backman “Deacon King Kong” by James McBride “True Story” by Kate Reed Petty” “Memorial” by Bryan Washington “Luster” by Raven Leilani “The Disaster Tourist” by Yun Ko-eun Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I love the em dash. I tend to write very long, meandering sentences and I daisy chain clauses together in precisely the way that would drive my high school English teacher up a wall sideways. The em dash lets me write like I think: circuitously. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I was a big nerd in high school (still am!) and would never have skipped a reading assignment. I went to a very small Catholic all-girls high school, and there weren’t many options for different classes. My senior year, I actually took both AP and regular English, because I just couldn’t get enough. That said, I absolutely hated A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. I did read it, because we had to, but I could never think of anything incisive to say about it because I couldn’t get my brain into it. I tried to read it again a few years ago, and still can’t. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? I’d thank the field behind my parents’ house, as it existed in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, before the developers came and started building cul de sacs there. Back then, you could look out from the little concrete patio and stare all the way to the treeline, easily a half-mile away. That field was my oasis as a child. I spent weeks of hours wandering through the buttercups that seemed to grow shoulder-high, picking Queen Anne’s lace flowers and coming home coated in pollen that made my eyes swell into golf balls. When I think of solitude, I remember how I could escape my child-sized problems, the ones that took over my entire insular world, by losing myself in a place where I never saw anyone but me. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? The same quote I have on one of my favorite notebooks, “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” So many of us are stymied by fear, and we only create our best work when we push past it or work through it. Does writing energize or exhaust you? Both! I tend to do my creative work in spurts; I won’t write for ages and ages, and then it all pours out of me at once. That burst is like its own adrenaline, but I’m always completely spent when it’s over. I liken it to mania: You’re on top of the world while it’s happening, but the crash from that height is a hard one. What are common traps for aspiring writers? I think a lot of starting writers misinterpret the old adage, “Write what you know.” Because of the way our education system is structured, most of us are only exposed to a very narrow canon, and it’s overwhelmingly white, cis, straight, and male. I think that’s beginning to change, but it wasn’t until my MFA that I began to read more widely and deeply about experiences that weren’t my own and that led me to think more broadly about what my writing could be, and could tackle. That lack of exposure leads to a lot of early writers’ books being very homogenous, with characters, narrative structures, settings, and even plot points that don’t step outside the realm of the expected. Many of my students also just don’t know where to start. It’s daunting, first getting started in the literary world and the way the system works just isn’t taught. That leads to a lot of confusion and a lot of missteps, especially for writers who don’t come from traditional MFA or creative writing education backgrounds. What is your writing Kryptonite? That little voice inside my head that says, “You shouldn’t be sharing this.” I write a lot of deeply personal narratives, and share a lot of very intimate details that can be scary to put out into the world. If I think too much about what my readers will think, I can’t get as honest or as raw as that sort of story requires. I have to cast off my natural inclination toward shame and realize that my story is as worthy of stepping into the sunlight as anyone else’s. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? If you mean have I ever had a hard time reading, I have not. There are times when I’m only inclined to read memoir, or fiction, or certain genres. But because reading is part of my job, I don’t have the luxury of not being able to read. Even if I’m having a hard time getting into a book, I owe it to the author and to my own readers to push through it and interrogate why I’m having that experience and whether it’s a fault in the writing itself or an internal problem. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Yes, of course. I think anyone can be a writer who wants to be. I’m not in the business of gatekeeping who has “what it takes” to be a writer. If you’re inclined to write, you’re a writer. Period. I know lots of writers who consider themselves highly emotive people, and I know writers who are deeply pragmatic, logic-driven people who would consider themselves more thinkers than feelers. I think those who are more logic-driven than emotive write different kinds of books than those of us who are deeply in our feelings, but I think the only “requirement” for being a writer, if there is such a thing, is the drive to do so. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? I have so many writer friends, and like all of my friends, they all challenge me to be the best version of myself, both on and off the page. Kira Jane Buxton, Lisa Konoplisky, and Rebecca Wallwork are three amazing women who I met at Vortext, a writing retreat at Hedgebrook. They challenge me to think outside the box and write fearlessly. Keisha Thorpe, Brianna Johnson, Adina Zerwig, Jess Jarin, and Lisa Lutwyche were members of my MFA cohort at Goddard College who helped lift me up as I established my voice, and continue to be vital parts of my support system. Megan Giller, Elizabeth Michaelson, Kate Knowles, and Julia Evanczuk are my writing group warriors who keep me honest and accountable to my writing, even when I’m inclined to let it take a backseat. And Kenny Fries, Reiko Rizzuto, Douglas Martin, and Nicola Morris all helped me develop and refine my first book when it was in its infancy at Goddard College, and I’m forever grateful for their guidance, as well. There are so many others, but those are the ones that come most readily to mind. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? I think each of my books, and my creative work that’s appeared elsewhere, all live independently, but that readers can get a more cohesive picture of who I am as a writer by reading more of it. There are common themes that emerge within all of my creative work, like the impact of organized religion, family dynamics, geography and culture, and socioeconomic strictures on a person’s development, as well as body politics, mental health, and the unreliability of memory. I do think much of my work has a lot in common stylistically, as well, but everything I write more or less stands alone. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? I wouldn’t say publishing it changed the process of writing, but it did open my eyes to how the business of publishing works and what I wanted out of my publishing team. I think I approached the pitching process more intentionally with my second book, and looked for different things in my second publisher than I did with my first. That’s not to say that publishing my first book was a bad experience, far from it. But now that I cover books and the publishing industry as a journalist, my eyes were more open about my options than they were when I had less information to work with. This time, I wanted a more collaborative, mission-driven process and I think I was more cognizant of the type of publisher that would best serve a book of this style, now that I know more about the avenues I could have taken. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? I started bullet journaling a couple of years ago, and it’s been a game-changer for my workflow and organization. I’ve always been a big list-maker, but bullet journaling helps me keep track of tasks, events, and notes in a way that’s really effective for the way my brain works. I’m a very competitive person, even with myself, so having a method to track my progress in everything from writing, to reading, to exercising and meditating, keeps me on track. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? I don’t know that I’ve ever disliked an author, whole-cloth. I will say, it took me some time to appreciate deep fantasy and sci-fi, since I naturally gravitate more toward realism and literary fiction. But the more I read genre fiction, the more I appreciated it. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? I was bullied a lot as a kid, and some of the words the “mean girls” tossed off at me have seared themselves into my brain and significantly influenced the way I move through the world, even as an adult. Kids can be unspeakably cruel because they don’t yet have the ability to grasp just how much of an impact their words can have, so they don’t temper themselves the same way adults do (or should). I was a very shy, very anxious kid, and I both yearned to be seen and considered by my peers and to disappear into the background entirely. So when bullies showed me that not only did they see me, but they took issue with it, that made an indelible mark. I remember one incident in particular, in which I overheard a gaggle of my fellow cheerleaders whispering about me. I remember pacing the hallway afterward, my heart in my throat, thinking to myself, “I’ll never be able to forget this.” It felt like something had irrevocably changed, not only in my relationship with these girls, but in the way I thought about myself. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? Aren’t most of them? I think “Every Bone a Prayer” by Ashley Bloom deserves more buzz than it’s getting, at least at the time I’m writing this. Her language is so searing and her story so imaginative and, at the same time, disturbingly familiar that it’s stuck with me even months after reading it. Sarah Manguso’s “The Two Kinds of Decay” also broke me open when I first read it in 2011, and helped me recognize aberrations in my own body and tendencies in my writing that I hadn’t previously been able to name, so hers is another one that I think should be more universally beloved. It’s hard to say what’s under-appreciated, because I suspect the book-loving circles I move in are talking about books and authors that the wider world wouldn’t recognize. We’re all so siloed in our own little echo chambers, that it’s almost impossible to break out of our own and into others’. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? I think I’d be a fox; a little wiley, rather shy, and more comfortable scampering through the underbrush than strutting out in the open air. I’m a bit of scavenger, often a redhead, and only occasionally domesticated. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? Insight into the human condition, I think. Every person in my life, and person I’ve come across even briefly, for that matter, has taught me something about how people live and breathe and move through the world. I’m constantly observing others for what drives them, what breaks them, what makes them cry or laugh, what makes them tick. What they’re hungry for, and what happens they don’t get it. I find mannerisms, physical and mental quirks, personality aberrations, even storylines in the people I come across, like we all do. We all create the world for one another, and I wouldn’t be able to turn that into story without them. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? More than I can count! Every year, I participate in National Novel-Writing Month, and have for the past 10 years. So right there, that’s at least 10 manuscripts I’ve powered through and (for the most part) never looked at again. I always take November as a chance to experiment on the page, with genres, forms, and styles that I wouldn’t normally attempt. Because those novels aren’t necessarily aiming for publication, there isn’t as much pressure to make them, well, readable. But I am about ⅔ of the way through my third book that I do want to publish eventually, and I probably have at least 50 pieces in various draft stages, too. What does literary success look like to you? Success is a marker that’s always moving, and one I’ve actively tried to stop measuring for myself. It’s such a false idol for me, because I’ve found that every time I achieve a new career milestone, there’s another one right over the next crest. I could say that I want to write a book that appears on the NYT bestseller list, that I’d like a starred Kirkus review, or an excerpt in the New Yorker, but would I be satisfied if I hit those goals? Probably not. For right now, continuing to produce creative work that finds a home on someone’s shelf is success to me. What’s the best way to market your books? My work is generally a hybrid of poetry and personal essay, so I think readers who enjoy memoir and disjointed poetic narratives will likely find something to resonate in my work, too. The most recent comp authors would probably be Carmen Maria Machado, Juliana Spahr, Jeannie Vanasco, and perhaps Sophie Mackintosh. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? I think writing any character who has lived experience that’s different from my own is challenging, because it requires me to step outside my own skin and imagine what it must feel like in someone else’s. I don’t believe that gender is a binary, and I think there are very few aspects of a character that are necessarily tied to their gender. I try to approach all characters with two central questions: What do they want and what do they need? Once I find those, I try to stay very honest to those motivations, regardless of where they fall on the gender spectrum. What did you edit out of this book? Typos, I hope! This book came together in fits and starts, and those weren’t at all linear. It was sort of like putting together a puzzle, where I had all of the pieces there on the floor and had to determine where they fit best. And because it was a nonlinear process, there were a few times where character descriptions, anecdotes, or inconsistencies appeared that had to be resolved. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I ask myself that question all the time, given the instability of media. I’d always be a writer, since it’s both my career and my hobby, but I’m also an educator. I spent some time as a full-time professor at Canisius College and currently teach as an adjunct professor at New York University’s School of Professional Studies, and teaching innervates my writing in a way that nothing else does. Seeing my students’ work evolve, sharing the ins and outs of the media and writing world with them, and talking about writing and reporting gives me such life. It feels like a responsibility in a way, as someone who has found some degree of success in it, to pass on the lessons I’ve learned to those who will come after me. I’d love to get back to teaching full-time someday. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? I would want to cook dinner for James Baldwin and it would be baked ziti since that is a speciality of mine. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears?For me, it’s really about time and energy and how to harness both for writing project and I often fear I never have enough of either to complete the projects I have in mind. I have both chronic pain and illness and as a result, my bandwidth is limited. I do also have to work, and so sometimes there is little motivation or ability leftover for my own independent projects. I know sometimes writers feel a lot of pressure to not only “write everyday” by dedicate X hours and create X amount of words on the page by the end of that time block and to stick to a schedule. I just don’t have that privilege between my health issues and other needs. So, I have liberated myself by carving out time when it works for me to write and not pressuring myself to keep up with what society tells me I need to do and be. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Right now, I am crushing big time on Baldwin. But I’ve been enamored with Audre Lorde for the better part of two decades. She not only gives me glimpses of what I would strive to be as a poet and essayists, but as a better human being. What books are on your nightstand? Currently I am reading Another Country, which is a novel by James Baldwin, a book of short stories by Anne Beatie, and a book of collected poems by Mary Ruefle (Trances of the Blast) Favorite punctuation mark? Why? Without a doubt, the em dash. Admittedly I don’t use it very often in most of my poetry, but I use it frequently in my prose and especially in my personal essays. I like it because I like it it allows me to form long and complex sentences that are not run-ons and how it lets me make side notes and observations within a given sentence. People who are familiar with my work definitely note it as a characteristic of my literary “style.” What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I did not read Crime and Punishment all the way through as at the time the topic was so dark and disturbing for me and it gave me nightmares. So I skimmed it and used the Cliff Notes to fill in what I needed. However, I did read it on my own shortly after I completed college in my early twenties and I list it among my favorite all-time novels. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? I think it would be a tie between my bed and my bathtub. I am not the most Zen person, but being able to have a good night’s sleep or take a deep nap can be amazingly restorative. But more than that, once the weather cools down, I love taking long Epsom salt baths once a week. I light candles and play some of my favorite music and just soak, think and allow myself to feel my feelings. It’s a cheap and easy way to pamper and I find it helps clear my head and relax me in a way few things can. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? I would borrow from George Eliot: “It is never too late to be what you could have been.” I don’t think that actually applies to everything, but I think it can for writing. Does writing energize or exhaust you?I think it can do either (or both simultaneously) depending on the type of writing I am doing, the circumstances under which I am writing and what else is going on in my life. If I am writing something for work or school that does not speak to my soul or inspire me, it can sometimes be like pulling teeth to put words on the page. It becomes a slog. Also, if I am having a pain flare, writing under tedious circumstances or in forms or about subjects that do not interest me, can exacerbate my fatigue. But if I am writing about something I love or in the form that I love (in other words, creatively), it can completely energize me. In fact, writing freely about the things I care about and in the forms that matter most to me or are most natural to me, act like an elixir for me. What are common traps for aspiring writers?I think a common trap is that people get caught up in the sexiness or romantic view of what it means to be a writer, and also sometimes have impractical perceptions of how it will pan out. The truth is, writing is hard work and a lot of it isn’t sexy or romantic. It is lonely and publishing can be an uphill battle full of rejections. While some people can and do find wild success with it, the vast majority do not. I make my income writing, but it took a long time and my income is extremely modest. If you are serious about being a writer, you need to understand that it really needs to be about loving it and doing it because you need to, and not because you have illusions of wealth and granduer. Because that rarely happens. What is your writing Kryptonite?I definitely tend to write very long, sometimes meandering sentences (hence my love for the em dash). While I can appreciate my own proclivities, I realize I can get carried away. My editors will often spend most of their time cutting up my long sentences into shorter ones. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? Yes, and I get it quite often nowadays. I often find that after I finish a book--particularly one that I really loved--it’s hard for me to switch gears and take up another book right away. I seem to still want to live in the world of the book I just left behind. Sometimes if a book doesn’t immediately capture my attention in the first few pages, I find that I am more reluctant to pick it up again until it hits its stride with me. However, I make a point of persisting until I am absorbed in that book as well. Or, if it still doesn’t appeal to me, I look for one that does. I used to force myself through books even if I couldn’t stand them. But I rarely do that anymore. Luckily, it’s very rare that a book I am reading doesn’t eventually pique my interest by the time I am a quarter of a way into it. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? I write in many different genres and so not everything I write is connected except by a greater thread that underscores my interest in justice. My poems do seem to follow similar themes: love, sex and illness/death tend to be their primary concerns. Many of my essays also explore a lot of the same topics: my family, my own past traumas and conflicts, and how to try to create a brighter future for myself and others. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?While I am an admitted Luddite, I have to admit getting my first laptop in college really catapulted my writing to another level, even in just the way it enabled me to write more--so I’d have to say that was my best buy. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into?While I thought Hemingway was just okay, I grew to appreciate him more as I read more of him. When I read the “Fire Next Time” my freshman year of college, I couldn’t get into it (I think I was too young/immature to appreciate it), but now I adore Baldwin, having become acquainted with his work later on in life through his shorter essays and fiction. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?If you had asked me this question a couple of years ago, I might have said a wolf, simply because I love their loyalty and sense of wildness while still being relatable. However, I now think it would be my black cat Cokey. He’s been with me almost all my adult life and so has been nearby as I’ve created almost all of my writings. He’s been a constant source of support and compassion, of love and loyalty. Many times, he’s laying next to me while I write. I also like the subversion of the stereotype of the black cat as bad luck: he’s brought me nothing but love. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? I have four unfinished books right now that have yet to be published but I hope will be one day. What does literary success look like to you?To some extent I feel like I have already achieved what I considered my baseline for literary success in that I support myself solely through either my writing or teaching writing. I have a long list of publication credentials in reputable online media outlets, literary journals and other publications. I mostly happy with what I am doing with my life and stood by my principles. However, I would love to have some of my books published to completely fulfill my ideas of success. What’s the best way to market your books?I think identifying audiences that my book would appeal to and approaching them is an especially effective method, such as finding those who like similar works. I am big about interfacing with the media--conducting interviews and guest posts on blogs and journals--as well as putting myself out there with the public. This doesn’t just include formal readings at bookstores, but book clubs, etc. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?I think whenever writing a character that is of a demographic one is not a part of, that one needs to be very careful about that and sensitive to the fact that one cannot appropriate firsthand experiences that aren’t one’s own. However, I do think that is more critical when depicting demographics that have been historically marginalized--so women, people of color and the disabled, etc. As a woman, I have less qualms about depicting white (cis) male characters due to this power disparity. That being said, I tend to write my fiction mainly through the lens of female characters.  If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? Thomas Wolfe—often confused with Tom Wolfe. I used to work at the Wolfe Memorial in Asheville. Admittedly, I’ve read more biographies on Wolfe than I have his fiction. He had a voracious appetite. I would love to cook him three New York strips, ten pounds of potatoes and a basket of cornbread and just watch him go to work.
What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears?Not writing causes a lot of anxiety. I combat it by writing. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Lady Brett Ashley What books are on your nightstand? Currently, Jeni McFarland’s The House of Deep Water, A. Scott Berg’s Wilson, Kevin Young’s Dear Darkness, Frances Justine Post’s Beast and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The semicolon is my favorite punctuation mark; Michael Parker’s essay “Catch and Release: What We Can Learn From the Semicolon (Even If We Choose Never to Use it In a Sentence),” changed everything for me. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I played by the rules. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? All the coffee mugs that joined me during my writing sessions. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? As long as you’re writing, you’re doing it right. Does writing energize or exhaust you?Energize What are common traps for aspiring writers?Everyone’s unique in their delusions. What is your writing Kryptonite?When my 2-year-old daughter refuses to sleep. And the NBA playoffs. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly?Absolutely; but emotions help. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?Most of my writer buddies come from my time in grad school at the University of Houston, but I’ve also kept in touch with a few writers I met at summer workshops. Zach Powers, Aja Gabel and JP Gritton are a few friends that recently celebrated their debut novels. I’ve also got plenty of folks who are working toward publication. All the writers I’m friends with know how to sit down and write. That’s admirable. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?Stand alone. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?It confirmed that I have no idea where commas go. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? Ha! What authors did you dislike at first but grew into?In the 11th grade I read The Great Gatsby. I hated The Great Gatsby. And so by extension I hated Fitzgerald. Then as an English major at the University of Florida I had to revisit the novel a few times for a few different classes. And it came up again in graduate school and now I pretty much read the novel every few years because if I don’t I start to miss it. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?My love for language began with music. When I was around ten or eleven, I started writing down the lyrics of my favorite songs and taping them to my bedroom door. And soon thereafter I started writing new lyrics to the songs’ music. This would have been in the mid-90s. So the bands I was listening to were The Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Rancid, Green Day and Bush. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?John Williams’ Stoner is pretty damn great. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?My 16-year-old dog, Patapouf. He’s some kind of spitz-mix that my wife rescued from the pound. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters?Every character I create probably has traits from at least three or four different people I know or have met. I’m not sure what I owe them. Maybe a beer? How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?Three. In my freshman year of college I wrote a knock-off version of Catch-22. After college I wrote this strange book that was kind of like The Sopranos meets Catch-22. By graduate school I let go of Catch-22 as an influence and wrote a novel that I may have workshopped to death. I think I wrote about 20 drafts of that thing. By the end, I could hardly recognize it. What does literary success look like to you?Being able to continue to write and publish novels. What’s the best way to market your books?This is my first novel, so I’m still trying to figure that out. In college I played in a band and we learned early on if you didn’t promote your shows you’d play to empty rooms...or to your one buddy and die-hard fan Chase. (Thank you Chase for coming to all our shows!) Most people are busy, so reading an unknown author might not be on the top of their wish list. Meaning, as awkward and strange as it is you’ve got to find as many ways to get your book out there. For me that’s been through writing essays, working on a book trailer and doing some visual art projects that I plan to release before the book comes out. Hell, I might even kick it old school and hand out flyers like we did before shows. Otherwise you’re just playing to an empty room. And God does that suck. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?I don’t know. I’ve always had a lot of female friends and I’ve always read female authors. That’s not to say I understand what it’s like to live in this world as a woman. I kind of just think of all of my characters as lonely, complicated people trying to connect wherever and however they can. It also helps to share your work with members of the opposite sex. They’ll let you know if something you wrote is way off. What did you edit out of this book?”About 25,000 words. There was a subplot about a mailman at one point. The Lenny character had a much more prominent role in earlier drafts. I explored the Burnett family in greater detail in a previous round. Oh, and I let Uncle Al and Bethany ramble for far too long in past versions. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work?I’d like to be next Ken Burns, though I suppose that too involves writing. Oh well!  If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? Lin Manuel-Miranda. I’d spare him my cooking and order delivery, though. I overcook everything. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? As I reflect, I think the most consistent recurring fear is being wrong/misstating something and either not realizing it or not being able to correct it. I combat this not-so-irrational fear in two primary ways: by checking and revising facts/phrasings, and by reassuring myself “I’m human. If something is wrong, I won’t die. It’ll just feel awful for a while.” Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Did I say Lin Manuel-Miranda already? Oopsie. Repeat answer. Love him. (Hamil-geek here.) What books are on your nightstand? Psychology books because there’s so much to learn in the field of psychology/mental health. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I love the dash. It’s rebellious, bold, versatile, and less formal than a colon. To me, the dash reads like people speak. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I was a really good student. Yet I've always read slowly. So I did a few CliffNote versions. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My laptop. “Computer, thank you for coming back after dying twice during the process of finishing MeaningFULL.” If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Passion + Persistence = Possible. Does writing energize or exhaust you? ENERGIZES ME! What are common traps for aspiring writers? Giving up. What is your writing Kryptonite? Imposter Syndrome. Sometimes it freezes me. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? I threw out MeaningFULL at least once. At least. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Yes. It depends on how we define writer. If we mean “someone who writes,” then the person could find a niche that doesn't require them to convey strong emotions. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? I’m friends with a number of people who have published articles or books. Every bit of feedback helped me become a better writer--whether from a published author or not. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? I haven’t decided yet if this might become a series. I wonder what readers would like to see, and welcome suggestions. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? I changed my writing process a great deal since I had previously done primarily academic writing. Conversational stories were foreign to me and required a mentor. Some narratives came from recorded interviews and transcripts, which helped capture the storyteller’s voices. Other stories required editing only. Either way, the process evolved and was quite collaborative. This book changed nearly everything about how I write, and I’m grateful. It's what I wanted to read years ago. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? Money spent for a mentor helped me to be a better writer. Consultation with lawyers taught me about publication. And if MeaningFULL helps people, then it all was the best money I ever spent as a writer. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? It’s been years since I read for pleasure, and I refuse to say anything negative about any author I have read while trying to grow and learn as a clinician. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? My parents had a plaque in the house with this Calvin Coolidge saying, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence…” Once I knew what persistence meant, I watched for how persistence showed up in the world. That passage has influenced me ever since. Most recently as a therapist, I see how important the way I say something is; it can have real influence in how people can recognize their best choices. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? Ethan Frome. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? Chunk the Groundhog (check YouTube). Day after day after day, he shows up. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? I owe them gratitude for their generosity, protection of their identities (where appropriate), and honor. From the bottom of my heart, I’m touched they trusted me with their life-experiences. What does literary success look like to you? Reaching and positively impacting people is literary success to me. Would I love some nice reviews, to earn an award, or to make a list? Heck yes. But when I started this journey, I promised to do my best to reach and impact the most people I could with this book and the messages contained in it. And that will be enough. What’s the best way to market your books? Let me be direct here: “Readers, if you enjoy MeaningFULL or if it means something to you, please tell your friends about it and share it on social media.” Those are the best ways to spread the word. What did you edit out of this book? I tried to give enough pain to feel for and with the storyteller, but not get mired down in the heavy content. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Eating Disorders Specialist in private practice in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles. To learn more about my practice, visit www.TherapyHelps.Us About Alli's Book! MeaningFULL: 23 Life-Changing Stories of Conquering Dieting, Weight, & Body Image Issues is a blend of motivational self-help, memoir, psychology, and health and wellness. Alli Spotts-De Lazzer is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, an expert in eating and body image issues, and a woman on the other side of her own decades-long struggle with food and body.
 Available for purchase wherever books are sold. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
Kurt Vonnegut, though I have a feeling we’d skip dinner and cut straight to the bottle of whisky. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? The scariest stage in my writing is transporting a good concept onto the page, and into good, compelling writing. There are endless ideas for stories floating around in my mind – the question is always: which ones will translate well into fiction, and which ones will result in a great waste of time? And while it’s impossible to tell in the moment, the way that I always overcome that block is by remembering that there is no wasted time. If I write 9 terrible stories for every decent one, my one good story isn’t the best despite those other stories – it’s the best because of them, and the time that I spent writing all ten. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? It’s a kind of man-crush, but I’d have to go with George Orwell. His reckless idealism and embedment in the Spanish Civil War screams of the same kind of lust for adventure and stupidity that led me to jump on a 36-foot sailboat for Cape Horn. That, and 1984 might have been the first book I ever really, truly read. What books are on your nightstand? Right now, it’s The Overstory by Richard Powers and Awakening Osiris – the Egyptian “Book of the Dead.” Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I love the double dash. Bordering a non-essential clause with “—” is a habit I’ve yet to break, and I often have to go back through my writing and limit myself to one dash-distinguished clause per page. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. I just read the sparknotes (and sped-read them, at that.) I regretted it so much later in life that I went back to read it, and then I read Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath AND East of Eden (which is a behemoth of a book). What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My thermos. It followed me across three continents, and more journeys and adventures than I care to recount. While I was scrapping by during the first year of my PhD, it was how I drank my coffee slowly at coffee houses – ensuring that I could wring a good 6-8 hours out of a single 16-ounce cappuccino, without having to buy more (I am the bane of every cafe manager’s existence). If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? There are probably enough inspirational quotes for aspiring writers on twitter and Instagram. I’d probably just write what I’ve found to be true – “abandon comfort.” People adjust to their circumstances, and there’s no paved road forward. You just have to carve your own path. During the first year of my PhD, I lived off of 50 GBPs a week. Before that, I lived out of my car – travelling the country and working part-time jobs in 10 different states. I’m not saying you have to be prepared to starve in order to succeed – just that, when you find what works for you, trust it, and roll with it. Does writing energize or exhaust you? Writing fiction energizes me. Writing almost everything else drains me. (Except for this Q&A, of course.) When I’m in the middle of creating and writing a good story or scene, it becomes a force of its own. I’ll lie awake at night thinking about my characters and their journey. I’ll walk right past a giraffe in the road without looking up, I’m so engrossed in their world. And yet, it’s invigorating. Writing, and getting into flow, is one of the most life-affirming experiences that I’ve ever practiced. What are common traps for aspiring writers? Believing in the artist mythos. Creative geniuses don’t exist in a vacuum. Originality and craft comes from practice, experience, and study. I always told my students that writing is only 33% practice. The other 67% is reading, work-shopping, and research. What is your writing Kryptonite? I often get inside my own head about flow. If all I have in a day is one hour to sit down and write, I’ll sometimes convince myself that it’s not worth it. That, unless I’m able to dedicate the entire day to writing, and getting into a flow, than it might as well be a waste. The truth is, however, that writing anything is better than writing nothing at all. Even answering these questions is better practice than forfeiting an afternoon to menial tasks and busy work Have you ever gotten reader’s block? Oh, definitely. Readers block can be tricky, because reading on some level feels like a luxury, or a past-time. If you take the morning to read, you’re wasting time that could be better spent writing or working or being productive. The reality, of course, is that reading is a crucial part of writing. And that, sometimes the best way to break through writers block is simply to read. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Absolutely. See my previous comment about the artist mythos. Artists often aren’t as they’ve been portrayed by romanticists, or the eccentric “creatives” who wander production houses/advertising firms/etc. More often than not, the individuals who propagate those myths have serious insecurities about their own creative process. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? My best “author” friends were my peers and supervisors during my PhD. And I believe it is essential to surround yourself with writers, creatives, or storytellers of any form – to learn, to listen, and to talk through your own ideas. But you don’t necessarily have to be “friends” with them. Relationships are complex, and while I thrive in creative environments, etc. I often find myself connecting more with non-writers about non-writerly things. The key, as with all things, is balance. If you’re in an MFA, and the only people you surround yourself with are writers, you’ll exist in an academic bubble. But if you have no writers in your life, you’re probably not challenging yourself or work-shopping your writing like you should be. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? A little bit of both, I think. From the Land of Genesis was actually the catalyst for my idea behind Hell or High Seas, the documentary that set me sailing for Cape Horn two years straight. While FTLOG explores a variety of narratives from various veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, Hell or High Seas is a deeper, more involved investigation of a single non-combat veteran, former-navy-rescue-swimmer Taylor Grieger. The two compliment each other, I believe, and moving forward I might build on those themes. But I’m also working on projects that are completely outside of the military experience, and I’m really looking forward to fleshing those out. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? Publishing my first book has been really helpful in terms of affirmation. It took over two years from when I completed From the Land of Genesis to when heard back from my first publisher. After two years of crickets, I got offers from three different publishers… within the same week! Before that week, I was really struggling with self-doubt and whether I should abandon my efforts to publish FTLOG and just move on to my next book. And I did move on from FTLOG, and I began writing for the documentary and for magazines about our journey, and I started writing a memoir of our sailing journey around Cape Horn. But I didn’t stop querying agents or submitting to publishers. So I learned that you don’t have to give up on one book in order to move on to the next. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? When I got accepted to the post-graduate creative writing program in Glasgow, Scotland, I received a scholarship that covered my tuition for the first year. It was a gamble, because accommodation alone in downtown Glasgow was going to cost more than I’d ever had in my bank account. But I sold my car, bought a one-way flight, and signed a year-long lease with graduate-student housing. It took me three months to find a job bartending in Glasgow, and even afterwards I was only earning minimum wage. I scraped by that first year, working weekends, teaching undergrad courses, and completing mandatory courses for my masters of research course. Then I received a studentship with an additional living stipend to complete my PhD. Those three years ended up being the most formative in my life. So I think the best money I ever spent was that one-way flight to Scotland. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? Oh, there are plenty of those. Shakespeare and Chaucer, to start. Then there was Hemingway, who I despised at first, then idolized, then eventually settled on the middle-ground of respect. Steinbeck was another I grew to love. Stephen King I grew to admire, though I think I was only ever put-off by the genre of horror and not really his style as a writer. Countless short story authors. I think the trick is to give them a chance. Once you get into the rhythm and style of their writing—especially the more traditional, historical authors—the craft itself falls to the side and you’re able to absorb and appreciate the message and themes at the core. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? It must’ve been my junior year of high school, when I started taking my English assignments seriously. We learned the ethos, pathos, and logos of arguments, and at that time I thought the powers of persuasion were limitless. It didn’t take long for that view to falter, and so I returned to writing stories to expand the mind, rather than trying to change it. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? Probably “Treats” by Laura Williams. I bought the book from a small, independent publisher based out of Glasgow that has since gone out of business, and I bought it for about five quid. I really didn’t expect to like it, and then I was instantly pulled in by the humor, wit, and sharpness of tone. The book itself was a collection of vignettes and flash fiction, and I can’t tell you what half of them were about, but I remember savouring the entire book. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? I had to ask my fiancé about this one, since I don’t know much about spirit animals or avatars. She said my spirit animal is a brown bear, though I was kind of hoping she’d say “turtle duck,” in reference to The Legend of Korra cartoon series. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? More than most authors, I imagine. My situation is unique, since most of the inspiration for my characters and their experiences are drawn directly from interviews that I conducted with veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. To them, I owe my sincerest gratitude: for being who they are, for enlist to serve on our behalf, and for sitting down to help me, and all of you, better understand what they’ve endured, and how their difficulties in transitioning home have been disregarded and misunderstood by the public at large. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? Fortunately, just two. One of which I wrote while I was in middle-school (yes, it’s a 600-page handwritten fantasy novel). The other is underway, and the rest are still incubating. What does literary success look like to you? Being able to tell meaningful stories as my career. What’s the best way to market your books? No idea. I imagine, most of the time, that’s the publisher’s responsibility. I think as an author, maybe the best marketing technique is to be kind and gracious, to express gratitude to the people who have supported you, and to be proud and confident in – not bashful of – your book. A large part of your early audience is going to be your community. And the best way to reach your community is to serve them. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? Not allowing my own biases or diction to slip into the prose. But, honestly, it’s no different than writing any character that’s from a different background or culture than yourself. As an author, you must constantly be exercising empathy, immersed in backstory, and reminded of the subtle cues that give yourself away. What did you edit out of this book?” More than half of the stories that I wrote. That, and a lot of clichés and adjectives. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? Anything that allowed me to create. Stories, ideally, in whatever medium I could. But if not film / writing / radio, I’d probably be an architect or craftsman of some kind. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
I’d have to say Edgar Allen Poe, because he had so much tragedy and sadness in his life, and I think I’d like to provide him with a moment of warmth and kindness. No better way of doing that than with good food. I’d probably cook him some nice Hungarian goulash, if only because it’s delicious and hearty and he likely wouldn’t have had it before. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? The inner critic is merciless. Makes you wonder if everything you’re doing is crap. I keep thinking about that scene in Funny Farm (starring Chevy Chase) in which his character hands a copy of his novel manuscript to his wife to read, and she reads it and then starts crying. My wife is my first and best editor, and so that reaction is something I dread, almost irrationally. Plus, some of my ideas are a bit out there and are largely execution-dependent. I get past it by recognizing that I have to be true to my own imagination and aesthetic, and just doing it--if I blow it, I either start over or fix it. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? This is probably a somewhat obscure reference, but the most recent crush I had on a character was Mrs. Singh, Ray Singh’s mother in The Lovely Bones. She’s a peripheral character, not really that important to the plot, but she’s a beautiful, elegant character who carries herself with incredible grace even as her life is falling apart. What books are on your nightstand? Too many—one at a time would be better, but I like to sample and flit. David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Karen Russell’s story collection Vampires In The Lemon Grove, the reissued Miracleman series by Alan Moore (a revisionist super-hero series wherein the titular character ends up setting up a theocracy with himself as God), and Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s collected edition of Monstress (a fantasy comic that is very dark and strange and features talking cats). This will probably tell you a lot about me. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? I get ideas from so many places—sometimes it’s things my wife tells me about her work day, or my interactions with students and/or other faculty. My son, who is what you’d call high-functioning on the autism spectrum but who will probably have close to a normal life, has given me tons of material to work with—“The Sound Of His Voice” was directly inspired by some of the early intervention we did with him, and my current novel project is largely inspired by him and the life I want/foresee for him, but transformed into subte science-fictiony terms . And sometimes it’s a combination of a great many things—“Minutes Of The Pine Valley Residents’ Board” came about at a time when I was a committee secretary (a pretty typical service activity for new professors) and was also very actively annoyed by my neighbors’ children (seriously, I was thinking of setting up glue traps for them on my back porch). Really, they can come from anywhere. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I try to avoid too much fancy punctuation simply because it feels too much like diagramming sentencings to me. So while I do like the semicolon and the em dash, I’d have to say the period, because there’s nothing like a simple, short, declarative sentence that falls like a hammer blow. Case in point, from Faulkner’s “A Rose For Emily”: “The man himself lay on the bed.” It’s creepy, and there’s a finality to it because it confirms what we were already led to believe. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? The Grapes Of Wrath. Sorry, Mrs. Thome. I did read it as an adult…and still didn’t care for it. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My height-adjustable swivel chair. Not only am I tall and so need the increased height, but sometimes when I get stuck on a particular passage I spin around in it like a small child. Helps clear the noggin. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. To exorcise my bountiful demons. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Two words: “Commit Yourself.” This is what sets publishing writers apart from those who merely call themselves writers and have umpteen unfinished manuscripts in their desk drawers or flash drives. You really do have to commit to a project fully and wholeheartedly, even when enthusiasm for it wanes (it will), even when you think what you’re writing is absolute shit (some of it is), when it seems too daunting (it often is). You have to power through and finish a draft first, even a shitty one, then go back and make it less shitty, then hit it again and actually make it good. Each draft teaches you how to write the next one—you have to let it.  If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
Without question Hunter S. Thompson, and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind I can’t cook and would be cool with a couple burgers and a lot of beers. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? The editing process has got to be the worst. It’s like looking under the rug at all the crap you overlooked. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Does Elektra from Marvel Comics count? What books are on your nightstand? The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe and Mario Puzo’s The Sicilian. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The question mark. Just because it makes the reader unsure if what they are reading should even matter. It’s almost like the writer and reader are attached by handcuffs. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? 1984 by George Orwell What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? The inanimate carbon rod. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Do whatever the hell you want. Does writing energize or exhaust you? Energize. What are common traps for aspiring writers? The Internet, noisy neighbors, and the worst of them all….overthinking. What is your writing Kryptonite? In terms of process, it will always be writing a beginning. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? Yes and no. It’s more that I’ve written myself into a corner and need some time to figure out how to escape. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? I’m sure they can. But it must be a whole lot harder. But try and think of those serial killers walking amongst us. They can put on a smile too. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? My friend, author Benjamin DeVos, who basically told me to submit my poetry. But other inspirational creatives that write in other forms are: - musicians Jon Carlucci and Phill Lien - rapper Internal Rhyme - writers Angelo Ciccio and Adam Mitropoulos. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? I think the style and themes are the overall connection. Besides that they simply stand on their own. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? The very first book I wrote (which was not, and never will be, published) was me trying too hard. Overthinking, and adding in bits of nonsense that I wrote off as “flavor” or “style”. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? With the very first check I got from writing I put gas in my car. I guess that. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? If I disliked them, they pretty much never entered my life again. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? Probably around the time I got into hip hop. Everything from the use of graffiti to rap itself. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? The Rum Diaries by Hunter S. Thompson. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? Probably a tortoise. Maybe like that one in the old Guinness ads. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? A beer or two. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? I have 2 novels and 4 poetry collections. What does literary success look like to you? Freedom. What’s the best way to market your books? When I figure it out I’ll get back to you. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? I try not to think about it and just write. What did you edit out of this book?” I think there was a suicidal poem that I deleted. Who wants that? If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? Probably still have my current job and be a weekend bartender. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? I would choose Parijaat, a Nepali author (Blue Mimosa). I would make aloo paratha (potato stuffed roti). What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? Not saying something important in an original, crystal clear way. I also feel like anytime I am not writing, I am thinking about writing again while being scared of the process at the same time. I read good poems, edit my poems that have been rejected, and most often, I look for submission calls and one theme or another triggers me to write. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Currently, Francie Nolan of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is my most favorite character. Her flaws, strength, ordinariness and endurance moves me. What books are on your nightstand? Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Letters to a Young Poet” and Layli Long Soldier’s “Whereas” Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? I think the sources of inspiration keep changing yet remaining the same for me. Politics, life events, (after motherhood) big questions about raising children, and some signs from the universe give me ideas for poems. Sometimes, it is as clear as a conversation with a neighbor about her recently deceased mother, a mute man in the grocery store begging for cash, or a news headline about a pedophile abusing children in Nepal. Listening to the universe inspires me. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I like commas because they can link the unexpected together sometimes. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I don’t have one. But, I was told everyone cries upon reading this lyric book Gauri and my tears didn’t come. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My Macbook. My husband gave it to me as a gift after our second child was born. I have composed, edited, and submitted most of my poems while having it on my lap. My corner in the couch where I sit with my Mac are definitely on my acknowledgement list. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. To feel and record life If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? The way you remember the world matters.  KATHMANDU is available for preorder on August 1, 2020 and releases on September 8, 2020. Copies are available directly through the publisher or wherever books are sold. An ebook is available directly from Amazon.
 If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? I would begin by preparing brunch for Maya Angelou. I have eaten her quiche lorraine, and I would like to return her kindness. When I was a girl, my parents brought me with them to an epic loft party in San Francisco that lasted for three days with musicians, poets, artists, and activists. We celebrated all day, slept at night, and it would kick off again the next morning like a train with different stops. During the party she read from And Still I Rise. I should say, she sang it. Witnessing her recite, dance, and cook made me believe that growing up to be a woman could be a phenomenal thing. She danced with me, and whispered “If I was still teaching dance, I would teach you for free!” The words we say to each other can do tremendous good. Their ripple effect can go on, long beyond the living. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? Writing is a practice. I write everyday, and am not afraid to do it. Turning writing into something for other humans to read is more challenging. That’s when fear can creep in. I can be afraid of how my writing might be received. Do I want people to know this about me? Is it something that should be shared? I can’t reason with fear. Fear would always win. Instead, I tell myself that fear may, or may not, be accurate. Avoiding taking risks would prevent me from experiencing the unknown. Write anyway, I tell myself, even if you are afraid. Especially if you are afraid. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Crush is exactly the word. When it comes to writers, my crushability is polyamorous. I don’t always know how to act around writers I’ve crushed on literarily. I kissed Sonia Sanchez’s hair once at a book signing. Inappropriate. I’ve taken selfies with Eileen Myles and Patricia Smith because it turned out we had friends in common. Not so bad. When Donika Kelly complimented my shoes after a reading I swooned right in front of her partner. Relax. I almost levitated during a reading by Terrance Hayes, Ocean Vuong, and Rita Dove. Pure enthusiasm. When Nikky Finney and Natalie Diaz read at AWP I positioned myself in front of the podium. Face the music. I hugged Naomi Shihab Nye after one of her readings. Necessary. How to deal with a literary crush? Remind yourself — just because you’ve read someone does not mean you know them. It just means that a total stranger was able to reach you in a very personal way. What books are on your nightstand? Toni Morrison’s The Source of Self Regard has been a kind of torah for me. I’ve dreamed many nights with Adrienne Rich’s Collected Poems, Lucille Clifton’s Collected Poems, Eileen Myles’ I Must be Living Twice, and Mary Oliver’s Devotions close at hand. I like to read different things simultaneously. Poetry and prose. The current stack is Camille Dungy’s Black Nature, Arecelis Girmay’s Teeth, Billy Ray Belcourt’s NDN Coping Mechanisms, and Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste. The books are mixed with notebooks, one arm’s distance from my pillow. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I love this question. It makes me think of Aracelis Girmay and the ampersand. It belongs to her. She also used dots like bullet holes in The Black Maria which was painful and visceral. Girmay made me reconsider what punctuation can do emotionally, and, also, graphically. I love the hand-slash-space-making-movement of a good em dash. S.A. Sukop turned me on to em dashes. An em dash is a gesture that the Orisha Ogun would make while dancing. It slices the line without stopping the flow. It is more assertive than a comma. If I had to choose just one, I’d settle on the simplicity of the period for its finality. It is a hole, a circle, and the end. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? In high school I learned that literature was the materia prima for theater, music, and social change. My English teacher, Peter Sawaya, was also my Theater teacher. Once he taught a rock poetry class where we analyzed lyrics. John Prince asked us to blow up our TVs and eat peaches. Find the simple pleasures. Create a home to nourish your family on things that you all make. That’s what I did with my kids. Home became an antidote to the world outside where women and children were not often taken seriously, and where racism and patriarchy were consistently troubling. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? Blue ink. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? “Write. I want to read you.” Does writing energize or exhaust you? Writing humbles and excites me. Stepping up to the page is like accepting a dance with the eldest salsero on the dance floor, and knowing you have to fully commit to keep up. Listen in 360 degrees. Flow. Editing is more laborious, and can be exhausting. When the work is finally done, and it reaches readers, it re-energizes me again. Re-energizes sounds too mechanical. It feels more like glow. Writing is the glow left inside my body after the words come through. What are common traps for aspiring writers? There are myriad traps. Self sabotage. Lack of time. When I was a young artist, I made a bonfire and burned a stack of diaries as tall as my body. I turned my voice into ash. This event inspired the last poem in the collection “esh.” At the time, I was afraid that writing was distracting me from being a serious dancer. I’d bought into the limiting notion that I could not do more than one thing. The burning was an act of violence against my creative self. I burnt the languages and collages I’d made on the train riding from home to rehearsal and back again. Now, I know better. Don’t start fires, especially not inside yourself. Many years later, a friend taught me a new word. “You are a polymath,” he said. Over time, I have relaxed into my multiplicity. What I could not burn out of me became a defining trait. What is your writing Kryptonite? That would be time. The pull between living and making a living. My creative life has always had to coexist with the responsibilities of being independent, and heading a household. I’ve been the trunk of the tree. This next phase of my life will include more time to write, and more of my sustainability derived from writing related pursuits. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? Yes. I will put a book down and leave it, but I’m learning to give books a chance. Be patient with them. Once I set down Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things until my daughter told me it was one of her favorites. My daughter is a bibliophile, and one of my favorite writers. I trust her opinion, so I picked it up again and read it with new eyes. The icky orangedrink lemondrink man made the book one of my all time favorites. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Emotions are powerful, disobedient things. Strong feelings can make for empathy, care, and good storytelling. Like many writers and artists, I have a rich emotional life. Writing and performance have given me an outlet to express strong emotions in a fruitful way. Meditation practice has also been centering for me. I was raised in an immigrant household where you were supposed to be strong and not let anything stop you, much less feelings. My friend Michelle Talley taught me that one can’t rationalize emotions into submission. They are what they are. Feel them. Find the message. They are important information. I’ve learned how to move around inside them, and let them flow through me. Your emotions are there for a reason, and can help guide you toward a more fulfilling life. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? Glenis Redmond had a catalytic effect on my writing life. I met her in the state capitol when I was doing advocacy work. I don’t know how a poet wound up at an arts advocacy conference, but there she was. She had us harvesting words from gemstones and trees in her workshop. She wanted to make us rich with language. After class, she came over to me and said, “so, you are a poet.” I always had been, but I was undercover. She saw me, and said something. That sparked a pivot in my life, and we’ve stayed in contact ever since. Gayle Brandeis has been a catalytic force in my writing life. I worked with her during my MFA studies. After graduation, she pushed me into the ring and published my work. She is an outstanding teacher. As an educator myself, I know great teachers when I see them. I have learned a tremendous amount from her as a writer, activist, mother, and a mentor. Adrian Cepeda has been my poetry buddy for the past five years. We read and provide editorial support for each other, and are in each other’s writing corner. Deena Metzger is a writer, and auntie, who reminds me of the bigger picture of writing and living. I sit in her writing circle each month with writers who are my elders. This helps me imagine a life in writing over time, and how I can grow into myself as a small elder. In her presence, I feel I am sitting at her feet and learning how to age as a writer and facilitator. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? My mother is a visual artist who worked in series, so I know what that looks like. You knead the materials for years until you have had enough, or you get excited by something else, and then you shift. I pay attention to what wants to come through me. I’ve written about family and parenting, teaching and learning, immigration and migration, polylingualism and diaspora. My imagination wants to trouble overly simplistic narratives about family, identity, nationalism, and belonging that never fit me or mine. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? Putting together this poetry collection placed a microscope on a specific period of my life. Selecting and sequencing the work was an existential process that revealed a larger journey. Each poem is its own experience, but, together, I noticed the story of a single mother raising her kids, and herself, in an intercultural, multifaith, transnational family. My daughter told me she saw the book as a story of radical truth and self acceptance. I can see that. It is a book I needed to get out of me to welcome the next phase of living. Dance and writing use different materials, but they are similar. The process of choreographing a full length concert resembles the making of a book. You take what you have been making, and spread it out. You listen to what the different works might want to say to each other. In dance, a standard mainstage performance lasts 90 minutes. You have two 45 minute acts to fill with work with an intermission in between. In the book, I divided the collection into sections. In performance, you experience the journey of the story with the audience at the same time. In writing, it’s a delayed response from readers that is spread out geographically. Different times. Different spaces. In dance, the art object is your body and you remake the work anew every performance. You can’t hold it and reread it, like you can a book. There are no flipping of pages back and forth. There are no margins to write notes in. I did try something that resembles performance publishing once. It lasted seven days. Placeholder Press published a flashbulb chapbook I made during the pandemic called Endless Bowls of Sky. It was available in print internationally for one week only. People posted photographs of the chapbook on social media, and I got to see the chapbook travel all over the world like I wished I could. It was fun watching people receive their special editions in the mail during quarantine. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? The best money I’ve ever spent as a writer has been every tax dollar invested in our public library system. Public libraries made it possible for me to raise my kids to become literate and curious. They made it possible for me to keep studying and learning. I do daily walking meditations listening to audiobooks on the LA Public Library App. I appreciate the added benefit of hearing writers read their own work. Toni Morrison. Thich Naht Hahn. Kiese Laymon. Sandra Cisneros. Louise Erdrich. Amazing. My son is a musician and an audio engineer. He was able to turn Even the Milky Way is Undocumented into a sound object — an audiobook. I hope that listeners enjoy the print and audio versions, and I’m happy that the audiobook will make the work more accessible. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? Participating in theater taught me that language has power. Once I was cast as Alice in a school production of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. I remember looking out across the checkerboard stage at a boy pretending to be a Caterpillar smoking a hookah. “Who are you?” he asked. My voice left my body and floated out into the space. The audience was listening. Rows and rows of blue plastic chairs with human beings inside them, listening. That was my first memory of ever feeling like I was heard as a child. It is so important to listen to kids. The arts can do that. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? I am a dragon. It chose me. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? Their forgiveness. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? I try to finish what I begin. I have a list of book ideas written in blue light on the inside of my skull. I keep track of them in my sleep. I’m slow, but persistent. The next one up is a collection of essays that is nearly done. I can’t wait for them to live next to each other inside of one book. What does literary success look like to you? Literary success means living a life nourished by reading and writing, and being able to participate in the world of publishing and performance as a creator and collaborator. It means having writing in the center of my creative process, what I do for a living, and my activism and public service. Literary success means being able to speak to these times and be heard, to help other people find and use their own voices, and to generate better futures for our children, grandchildren, and the planet. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? I don’t see genders as opposites. I prefer the notion of gender identity as personally inscribed along a spectrum. Do it your own way. That is true to my experience. I have never felt that I quite performed my gender correctly. I learned this at six when I was called a tom boy because I wanted to play ball during recess. Once a grandfather gave me a Barbie. I cried. I exchanged it for a football and was happy again. Gender norms have always seemed a bit absurd to me. I am the kind of woman who likes to move, sweat, think, and play. I aim to write compassionately about all living things. My writing has focused on the worlds of women and children. My son appears as a male character in Milky Way. I write about his sound. His form. He is depicted as a possibility, as beloved, as a loving brother, as a person in danger of racist violence, and as an inventor of music. My father also has a cameo in the book. He walks across the page with a granny smith apple. There are male spectres in the book. They have ghostly presence. I don’t like corruption and our future depends on disrupting dominant hierarchies. In “Naked Congress” I ask the senate to undress. I use a similar approach in an essay about my paternal grandmother where I introduce the dead members of the House Un-American Activities Committee in a courtroom scene. I wanted to dispel the negative spectre that McCarthyism and xenophobia staged around my family, and countless innocent people. I wrote about their bodies, their pencils, their coffee, and their XY chromosomes. These white men were empowered by Jim Crow, and were not held accountable for the damage they did through any process of reconciliation. In this case, I didn’t care much what the characters might think of my depictions of them. I did hope that my grandma would find it funny. I laughed while I typed. It was a kind of literary vengeance. What did you edit out of this book?” The seed prayers and meditations I wrote to myself to help me keep going, and grant my imagination permission to continue. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? Not writing isn’t an option for me, at least not now. I wrote quietly. Now I write publicly. I will keep on writing, and creating spaces for more people to do so. 
 If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? I think I’d be embarrassed to cook for anyone, actually. I’m not a terrible cook, but my cooking isn’t usually Instagrammable. I guess, though, I’d make coffee and some sort of baked good for Walt Whitman. For some reason, I feel like Walt might like strong coffee and biscuits? What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? I write a lot of things that belong in the political realm that I am way too afraid to even move from my journal to Google Docs. I almost view these journal entries as just me venting… but I wonder if I’ll ever get serious about revising these fragments into something. For now, I’m a little afraid of that process. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Oh, 100% Carl Phillips. His poems got me into poetry. What books are on your nightstand? Poetry and the Anthropocene by Sam Solnick Why Poetry by Matthew Zapruder Real Life by Brandon Taylor Homie by Danez Smith Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval The Museum of Disappearing Sounds by Zoë Skoulding Heaven’s Thieves by Sue Sinclair Favorite punctuation mark? Why? Em dash is my favorite. I was often called out in Grad School for overusing it. I also fell for that rumor that the Em dash was named after Emily Dickenson… I think I even told my comp students that! Then my comp instructor told us that it’s simply the width of an “M.” Let’s see: “M” “—” To my eyes, the Em Dash looks a bit wider than the M. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I didn’t read much of anything in high school. I didn’t go to class much either… I dropped out. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? I would thank the serpentine stone I keep in my pocket, which is worn with worry. I found it on the beach near where I live. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? “Roll your cart and plow over the bones of the dead” — William Blake, from “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” Does writing energize or exhaust you? Energize. What are common traps for aspiring writers? As an aspiring writer, I’m sure I don’t know… maybe worrying too much about acceptances? Or perhaps not reading enough? Probably not writing enough... What is your writing Kryptonite? My phone. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? Yes - and that’s when I know it’s time to switch to something else, or just take a break. My conception of what “reading” is, is not limited to traditional texts like books; I think we are always reading the world, and we get tired of it! Meditation helps. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? Yes, I think plenty of people are. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? I have some poet friends… at lots of different levels. The best thing is sharing work and having the sort of relationship where you can be completely honest in the comments. My cousin Lucretia and I swap poems regularly (she is an undergrad at Columbia College in Chicago) and my friend Josh, who is in the MFA at Oregon State also work on each other's work. It’s very important to me to have some people I trust to work with; and I find working with them to be very generative as well. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? I think the former. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? This is my first chapbook and I’m very happy that Unsolicited Press thought it was worthy of publication. It’s given me a bit of confidence, just like each acceptance has. One way my process is evolving is that I’m learning to trust my instincts more; sometimes the first idea is the best idea. Sometimes workshopping gets in the way. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? On books. Buy all the books. Subscribe to some journals. It’s never money wasted. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? Some of the older poets… 19th century stuff (mostly) took a very good teacher in grad school to get me to appreciate. I love the British romantics now, and definitely wouldn’t have bothered if not for studying literature with a good teacher. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? I understood from a young age that one way to get ahead was to read and write well. I grew up in a poor family who wasn’t very book-oriented, but I could see that the successful adults around me all had one thing in common: a love of books and writing. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? I really love a novel called “Remainder” by Tom McCarthy. I never hear anyone talk about it. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? My spirit animal is 100% my dog, Millie. She is my luck dragon. What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? Honesty— or a beautiful lie. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? I have a lot of poems. I have a lot of fragments of poems. Not sure how that translates in to books... What does literary success look like to you? Being read and understood. What did you edit out of this book?” The lunes in my chapbook are comprised of fragments from perhaps a dozen longer poems about the same subject. So, I suppose a lot got erased, but I think of each stanza as an excavated piece of the story. Caleb Nichols is the author of 22 Lunes, a poetry chapbook.
If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? Right now I’d probably say Marilynne Robinson. Of course, if you asked me any other day you’d get any other number of answers: Cormac McCarthy, David Foster Wallace, Michel Faber. But I just read an interview where Marilynne Robinson said something to the effect of, “You have to live with your mind your whole life, so you ought to make it a good place to be,” and I find that such a profound and beautiful and necessary thing. I feel like I would benefit from that. As far as what I’m cooking, I think I know myself well enough to admit I’d fall back on grilling something, steak tacos maybe, or doing that awful thing where I tried to pass off whatever I’d made as something I “just threw together,” even though I hate that. Religieuse for dessert, maybe, though it would probably take me three tries. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? There’s definitely a fear of finality, and the inevitable disappointing reality that what ends up on the page falls short of what began in your soul. In response to this, I’m a devotee of what Anne Lamotte calls “shitty first drafts,” where I’ll do dozens and dozens of passes over a given piece, which more or less tricks my brain into always believing there will be another opportunity to make it less lame. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? There’s a character I’m working on right now who seems to keep echoing my wife. I keep discovering facets of her in the way this character behaves. She’s a fire, for sure. What books are on your nightstand? Right now, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (no relation) and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mendel. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road seems to always be there, and The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence isn’t, but ought to be. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? Madeleine L’Engle likened the creative process to a pregnancy, and that rings true for me (at least I imagine, having never been pregnant). I’m not sure the point of genesis for any ideas, but I often feel it as something within that gradually takes on size and shape until it’s ready to take its place in the world. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The em dash—it feels clean, and more organically similar to our natural speech and thought patterns. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Frankenstein, which I now teach, ironically. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? The author would like to thank the barstool at his kitchen island, whose backlessness prevented him from getting comfortable to the point of sleepiness while writing and editing these pieces. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Because art shapes our lives. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? “Make a place to sit down. Sit down.” From “How to be a Poet” by Wendell Berry Tyler James Russell is the author of TO DROWN A MAN, a collection of poetry available on August 4, 2020.
A Joint Interview with Scott Poole and Rob Carney, Co-Authors of THE LAST TIGER IS SOMEWHERE7/15/2020
If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? RC: Anne Sexton and grilled cheese. We’d eat standing up in the kitchen. SP: Emily Dickinson and Hemingway. They both have to be there. I want to see those sparks fly. We’d have Whiskey and White Cheddar Cheez-Its for the appetizer. Then, with a nice Sangiovese, I’d make my Chicken Piccata. For dessert, my wife’s coffee brownies. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? RC: I wouldn’t say “scares” or “fears,” but I can get jumpy and impatient if long stretches go by where I’m not writing anything, and I have no strategy to combat that. It would be nice to have one, but no. SP: I like that I can write on my phone. It’s less intimidating. I dash off a few lines and it’s saved. I can come back to it at a moment’s notice. Later, I'll open it on the computer. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? RC: Not a “crush,” but Mary Shelley’s creature in Frankenstein is vivid as hell and deserved a lot better. SP: Santiago, in The Old Man and the Sea. “I have seen Lions on the beaches.” That’s a badass catch-phrase. What books are on your nightstand? RC: None. They’re on the floor or shelves or my desk or in my bookbag or somewhere I can’t remember, which is driving me nuts. Mostly, they’re books I’m teaching in my lit. classes. But right now there’s Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich and Paradise Earth by Amy Barker too. SP: I’m always reading many things at once, indulging my love of art, literature, comedy, and science. Cezanne by Alex Danchev. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Okay Fine Whatever by Courtenay Hameister. Seven Eves by Neal Stephenson. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? RC: The question mark. Because questions are more interesting than ready-made answers. SP: Definitely the m-dash. Nothing is sexier at the end of a line — What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? RC: Are you kidding, I read them all, and I was shocked when other kids said they didn’t do the homework. I lived in a small town, and my dad and mom were both teachers, and every teacher in my high school knew me. College, of course, was a different story. Freshman year, for instance, I thought Madame Bovary was in a contest all by itself for “Sucks the Most” and couldn’t read more than 40 pages. SP: All of them. I hated reading in high school. I was a jackass that was always telling jokes and getting in trouble because of my mouth. My love of reading flipped 180 when I finally got into a creative writing class in college. Everybody seemed to be reading those V.C. Andrews books in high school. I especially didn’t read those. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? RC: I write longhand and type it up later, so “Thanks to all you pens for being so helpful and nearby.” SP: Collections of paper and, by extension, books. I love the smell of it, the possibility of it, where it comes from, how it feels in the hand. Nothing looks better in a room than a stuffed bookshelf. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? RC: “One could do worse than be a swinger of birches” (Robert Frost). SP: “A year ago, six months ago, I thought I was an artist. I no longer think about it. I am” (Henry Miller). Does writing energize or exhaust you? RC: Can I say it does both? SP: It’s absolutely exhausting to think about doing it. I pretend I’ve been hit by a frying pan when I start — just dumb and willing. Once the first few lines are flowing, it energizes like no other activity and it’s hard to break away. What are common traps for aspiring writers? RC: Too much aspiring and not enough writing. And mistakenly thinking that revision is boring or a burden instead of where the real stuff happens. SP: Word salad. Nothing to hang your hat on. Throw a live rattlesnake in your salad! Write your way out of that! What is your writing Kryptonite? RC: Teaching a 4-4 course load and grading 700 papers. SP: Not writing. Writing begets writing. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? RC: Yes, from being sent long policy changes to long university policies, or anything having to do with tech and tech training. That junk wins the Super Bowl of Boring every time. SP: If I read the first line of a poem and there is no tension, no intrigue, no new information, I have a very hard time finishing it. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? RC: Probably, but they’d still have to feel strongly about finishing the work and doing it well. Writers have to be attentive and empathetic, but maybe being strongly emotional can turn your writing into a mess. SP: Sure, look at Henry James and Wallace Stevens. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? RC: Lots, but I’ll stick to just one here: Simmons Buntin. He’s the Editor-in-Chief of Terrain.org, and after I won their poetry contest (which got me started on my collection The Book of Sharks), he asked me to write a guest blog. I told him no thanks. I told him I didn’t know what a blog was exactly, or how to go about writing one, but he wouldn’t let me off the hook until I wrote him something, so I gave up and did, and he liked it. He liked it enough, in fact, to have me keep doing it as a regular feature with its own series name: “Old Roads, New Stories.” That’s the material I subsequently drew from, revised, and turned into my book Accidental Gardens. So I hadn’t planned to, as you say, become a better writer; that’s just what happened because Simmons saw something in me--more than I did--and gave me a place for this new prose work to be published, which was very generous of him. Simmons is the man. SP: I am a very lazy writer, as Rob Carney can attest to. However, I’ve never known a more loyal friend and reader. He always pushes me to stay true to my voice. I can’t thank him enough. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? RC: Stand alone. But then again, maybe not. Or maybe both, because recently I wrote a sequel poem that brought back a woman from my first book (Boasts, Toasts, and Ghosts) named Madame Kafelnikov. The first poem with her was called “If I Hadn’t Drowned in My 30s, She Says, Today I’d Be 73.” And now she’s back after seventeen years in a poem called “Best Healing Witch in Louisiana” (Facts and Figures; Hoot ‘n’ Waddle, 2020). SP: My voice has been my ticket. Without it I’d be sunk. I’m lucky to have discovered it early as a writer. I let the books form as they want, I trust my voice will hold them together. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? RC: Well, it didn’t change my process as much as it changed, I don’t know, my belief. Like yes, a small audience is out there. Which didn’t mean the writing got easier--how magic would that be?--but I did feel a little more certain about it. SP: I began filling up a folder with poems. Whenever I collected over 50 poems, I’d keep replacing the poems with better ones. I’d take the folder to readings and try stuff out. After a year or so, a book of solid poems would emerge. It began a daily process of living as a poet. I finally had license to just live the life of a poet. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? RC: The entry fee for the Robinson Jeffers/Tor House Foundation Award because I love Jeffers, so winning was a huge honor. Plus, it meant I got to do a reading at Tor House. That was somewhere I’d wanted to go just as a pilgrim someday, so to get to read there? Hallelujah. SP: The first money I made off a reading. I think it was twelve dollars. I had been writing for ten years. I had two kids, a wife, and our household income was like $25,000 a year. I went to Wendy’s and bought a six piece Chicken Tenders. What a victory! What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? RC: When I first read Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas at age 18, I didn’t see why it was such a big deal. Then I read it again at age 29--at a coffee shop/diner/tavern in Salt Lake City that’s since been razed to make room for this Federal Building that looks like a Star Trek Borg Cube; seriously, it’s the ugliest building in the Mountain West, and not the best message for a democracy to be sending: “Resistance is futile”--anyway, when I read it again a second time, I got it and was laughing so hard I thought I’d drop dead off the bar stool because I was no longer breathing. SP: Shakespeare. I think it will be a life challenge. But I keep returning for more punishment. The writing is so thick, it kicks my ass and leaves me bleeding in the gutter everytime. It’s the only writer where I carefully open the book so it won’t hit me all at once. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? RC: I loved reading. It could make me forget that I was reading. And it took away awareness of time and could even make me cry sometimes (Old Yeller). I’m not sure I thought of that as “power,” but I knew it was amazing. SP: When I wrote my weird thoughts down instead of saying them out loud. Instead of people looking at me like I was a freak, they looked at me with a smile and acceptance. That was absolutely life changing. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? RC: Anything by V.C. Andrews. Just Kidding. A Friend of the Earth by T.C. Boyle. SP: Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? RC: Great White shark. SP: A cinnamon colored micro-poodle. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? RC: Let’s call it three: There’s the book I mentioned earlier, Accidental Gardens. The publisher--Stormbird Press in South Australia--was destroyed (the publisher’s house too) by the continent’s worst-ever wildfires. Total devastation. So many animals dead, ancient rain forests now hanging on precariously. Then add a global pandemic and shutdown, and no wonder the book release is behind schedule. So that’s one. Two is a children’s book with no home yet: What Would You Do with a Mini Canoe? And third--not to jinx it--is I’m working on a collection called Lightning Factories: New and Selected, a hundred poems total. My eighth collection is forthcoming this February, so to think about the big picture after that seems hopefully not too presumptuous. SP: I have two. A novel and a book of poems. The novel was written so I could say I wrote a novel. It was written three years ago, but it’s about a couple stuck inside because it’s too dangerous to go outside. With the current pandemic happening, I didn’t know I’d be living it. If you want to find out how we escape this situation, you’ll have to publish the novel. What does literary success look like to you? RC: Horizontal. And sort of bluish-gray. SP: Not being able to stop rereading a poem I just wrote. What’s the best way to market your books? RC: Maybe this’ll sound too “analog,” but I’m a big believer in radio and think people who listen to NPR are the kind of people who buy books and enjoy hearing authors on the air. SP: Using my public radio connections. Doing readings. Mentioning it on Facebook. Getting a good review in the New York Times Review of Books, Library Journal or one of those. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? RC: I’m not sure there’s a most difficult thing about having women appear in or speak in my poems. I mean, feeling and voice are feeling and voice regardless. Whatever their gender, if their voices and actions and characterizations aren’t convincing and authentic, then you’re cooked. SP: Not talking about my penis. What did you edit out of this book? RC: Well, I didn’t edit out of as much as edit into. What I mean is, Unsolicited asked me if my essay collection was still available, and I had to say no, but then I suggested a different book instead: new work by me and by my friend Scott Poole, both of us together. I hadn’t asked Scott in advance, and then I had to ask him pronto because Unsolicited wrote me back with an immediate yes. How lucky is that!? Very lucky. So Scott said he was in, and I dove like a scuba diver into his uncollected work and came up with a working Table of Contents we could kick back and forth--emailing and changing and shaping--and this went on for a manic three days, and that was the manuscript. Why so fast? Because we were pleasantly stunned to have an acceptance in advance and didn’t want to disappoint. SP: There were a few news poems that I really liked that just didn’t work outside of the context of the news event that birthed them. Save an Author; Buy a BookIf you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
Tough choice… Let’s assume it’s a dinner party, and seated at the table are Virginia Woolf, Flannery O’Connor, Elizabeth Bishop, and Elfriede Jelinek. Let’s also assume they like vegetables, since I’ll be serving my specialty, a casserole of onion, broccoli, squash, white cabbage, chickpeas, rice, barely, shredded coconut, dried mango, dried plums, middle-eastern spices, grated ginger--delicious! What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? The fear I share with most writers is the fear of not being good enough, or not going deep enough, and the only way to combat such fears is going over the manuscript and revising, not once, not twice, but as many times as it takes. Faulkner, one of my most favorite authors, revised and rewrote The Sound and the Fury fifteen times. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Thomas Bernhardt. What books are on your nightstand? Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset, translated by Tiina Nunnally God on the Rocks by Jane Gardam Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston Oroonoko by Aphra Behn Yosef Haim Brenner—a Life by Anita Shapira Anatole France Himself--a Boswellian Record by His Secretary Jean Jacques Brousson translated by John Pollock Esau & Jacob by Machado de Assis, translated by Helen Caldwell Diary of an Unknown by Jean Cocteau, translated by Jesse Browner Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? I don’t actually like the word “inspiration”; same with “muse”--another term I don’t find helpful. Concentration is the word that works for me. When you sit and concentrate, ideas come. An incidental image or phrase, or something that nags at you, may trigger something in your brain and get you going. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The comma. Used properly, it allows you to go on and on... What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I was raised in Tel Aviv, and the books we were assigned were all Hebrew authors, and I read them… In English class we were assigned Macbeth, and I loved the teacher (a small British woman in her sixties with beautiful gray braids) who obviously loved teaching, loved Shakespeare and made Macbeth fun and accessible, especially so when we read the play in class, playing all the parts. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? A pencil. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Writing engages my brain. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? READ! If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? I would ask first, of course, but I sense Anne Sexton was a red meat kind of gal (a term at home and allowed in the 1960’s). After marinating a flank steak for 24 hours with a teriyaki base marinade, it would be grilled and left cool and red in the middle. Surely this is how Anne preferred her meat. I would slowly saute mushrooms in butter until they were black. I suspect Anne turned up her nose at green vegetables, just guessing. So, mashed new potatoes with the skins on with lots of butter and cream, and maybe some garlic added in. She would have to pick the wine, and I would need to acquire lots of it. Then something chocolate for dessert - as with the wine, I fear she may be a snob about this. Mohr im hempd might work, but I better practice in advance. Candle light, but not too cheesy; and jazz, not too avant garde. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? Poetry is surrounded by a host of parental voices gathered like a cloud of mosquitoes with high pitched screeds, and they suck blood and spread infection in addition to being insanely annoying. Those voices are in my head but I heard them spoken first. Some pronounce judgment, issued from rolling eyes and cast down long noses. Others issue rules for the boundaries of good and awful, most of which I cannot understand. While I have long loved poetry, I also feared those voices. They were louder than my own voice, lost underneath them. There are some things I can do to mitigate against the primacy of those voices,, like asking for feedback and reading my poems aloud to others - I watch their eyes. But mostly, most importantly, it is a matter of acting in spite of my fears. In spite of, because the fears never truly leave. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Author? Anne Sexton. Character, Miss Love Simpson in “Cold Sassy Tree.” What books are on your nightstand? The Overstory, by Richard Powers and The Plague, by Albert Camus Favorite punctuation mark? Why? Always the dash - it lets me go on. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? So many! What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? Mountains and lakes, both of which are crawling with life. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? An inspiration or muse is no substitute for truly seeing and feeling the ordinary life in the world around you. Does writing energize or exhaust you? It satiates me - more completely than just about anything. What are common traps for aspiring writers? I wouldn’t know, I continue to be aspiring. I suppose getting demoralized by how difficult it is to get published, and then how awful it is to sell. What is your writing Kryptonite? The desire for approval. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? Yes. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? I suspect everyone feels emotions strongly but some people find ways to numb themselves precisely because of how strongly they otherwise feel them. The writer will write differently when in tune with him or herself. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? I now live a fair distance from most of the people I know who write and feel poorer for it. I am only in the beginning of ferreting out the writers in my region and look forward to being part of another writer’s group. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? That’s a fascinating question. I bet the readers of my works see connections I am not aware of but the body of work, regardless of genre, will point to the sacred hiding in plain sight. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? It kept me going. I was on the verge of giving up and wham, the road opened up. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? Probably for the production and maintenance of my website. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? Ken Follett and Niko Kazantsakis What was an early experience where you learned that language had power? At a retreat with my first congregation, the facilitator asked those present what my preaching themes were. I was stunned that so many had an answer, and a sermon they could point to that meant something to them. From then on, I took preaching seriously and got the best training I could find. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? Cold Sassy Tree As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? Crow What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? Everything. I don’t just write about them, I write about what I learned from them. While it is less apparent in my poetry, it is no less true. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? Ooh, half a dozen or more. What does literary success look like to you? An independent publisher, not self-publishing, producing my work and people reading it. What’s the best way to market your books? To my own network, and interconnecting networks What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? Facing the inevitable critique from the opposite sex, in addition to a bunch of research that is otherwise unnecessary and second nature when writing from within your own frame of reference. What did you edit out of this book?” A whole bunch of poems that didn’t seem ready for prime time. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I’m doing it, preaching and pastoring. It supports my writing habit among other things. Cameron Miller is the author of CAIRN: POEMS AND ESSAYS and THOUGHTWALL CAFE. Both book are available through our website and through all major retailers.
If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? Ernest Hemingway. Ruffed grouse with asparagus. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? Running out of ideas. Writer’s block. From experience, I know the urge to write will always return. I plan to write on my deathbed. Right now, I am in a lull and welcome filling out this form. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Lady Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises. She is aristocratic, beautiful, a lush, and, according to some critics, a nymphomaniac. What books are on your nightstand? Islands in the Stream, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Huckleberry Finn. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? Life. I was called a student of life. My autobiographical stuff is instructional. My fiction reveals more of me than my creative nonfiction. I like to sit at a table in the community room of my hi-rise and drink water. This elevates my mind to a spiritual level and gets me thinking along literary lines. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? Exclamation mark. It works. Like expletives,I use them sparingly. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? History, world history, and geometry. I hated all my classes except English, where I studied and did well. I did well in chemistry, too, only because I liked my teacher. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My laptop. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. I can’t help it. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Write every day, even if it stinks.
If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
I would like to have dinner with Mary Oliver -- one where we go to the nearest farmer’s market together to buy fruit, vegetables, and meat we wished to eat. Then we would cook something delicious together, such as a thick stew with mushrooms, lamb, and beans. For dessert, perhaps we might have blackberries drizzled with coconut milk and honey. I would want Mary to be very happy, so I base the bulk this menu off a poem; how better to determine what meal to serve a beloved poet? What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? I write drafts of poems in a Mead composition notebooks. After I fill a notebook, I read through it to look for poems I want to develop further. I am always afraid to read through my notebooks, perhaps because I worry I will not find anything I value. My fear embarrasses me, but it is real and powerful. I compel myself to work through it somehow, but it never leaves me. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Since I already mentioned Mary Oliver, I will say Sylvia Plath for her imagery and craft. What books are on your nightstand? I was reading Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry collection Book of Hours (Translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy) and Maurice Manning’s collection Bucolics nearly every day that I was working on this manuscript. Both collections are still on my night-stand for regular reference along with Hafiz, Elizabeth Bishop, Mary Oliver, Sylvia Plath, as well as whatever novel my book club is reading, psychology text-books, the Bible, and probably some Brene Brown and Louise Hay. When on vacation, I will read fantasy novels. I am currently obsessed with NK Jemisin. Since my night-stand is a shelf on the headboard just above our pillows, my husband often worries my book stack is becoming too tall and might fall on our heads while we sleep. I thin out the stack occasionally, but many of the same books migrate back again eventually. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? People inspire me with their messy, mean, and gorgeous lives. Complicated feelings inspire me. Pain inspires me. I suppose I am deeply influenced by the romantic poets, whether I acknowledge it consciously or not, in that the external world tends to reflect my internal state of being. Sometimes the prospect of an audience inspires me, but that can terrify me as well. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The dash may be my favorite punctuation mark because of Emily Dickinson, my first poetic love. Although, I also have a deep love for the semi-colon. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I rarely read my any of my text books for classes in high school. (except the English literature text books -- I read all of those.) I’d rather tell you what book I wasn’t supposed to read, which was Sibyl. It was the only book that I recall my parents banned me from reading in high school. I promptly found it on my grandmother’s basement bookshelf and read it one afternoon after school. I tended to be a fairly compliant daughter in most areas of life, but apparently not when it came to books. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? I would like to thank my tea pot, which may have held more green tea than all the lakes in Minnesota. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. To understand my existence. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? “What I can do -- I will -- / Though it be little as a Daffodil -- / That I cannot -- must be / Unknown to possibility --” -- Emily Dickinson  If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
I would invite Anna Akmatova and Osip Mandelstam, who continued to write even when threatened with exile and death. On the menu, I would serve them Southwestern food—chili, guacamole, and jalapeño cole slaw—to fill their bellies and warm them up; and to drink, we’d have Moscow Mules (made with Tito’s Vodka), which might be new to them. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? If I am in the throes of making bad poetry, I calm my fears by convincing myself that it is just a phase, that I have to get the bad stuff out of my system to be able to write better. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? The late Seamus Heaney. What books are on your nightstand? Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, The Stories of John Cheever, and The Carrying by Ada Limón Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? Most often an image will inspire me to write. At other times, someone says a word or phrase that takes me on an imaginative detour. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The dash is my favorite punctuation mark because there’s usually a surprise after a dash. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Any history textbook (although I love to read history now). What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My coffee cup. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Desire, beauty, catching the echoes If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Whatever your obsessions are, lean into those and find the poetry in them. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
If I could tape the dinner, I would invite Samuel Johnson and feed him plenty of roast beef, sausage, pudding, eel pie (if I could get the eels), bread pudding, and plenty of wine, preferably a tasty Bordeaux. Although Dr. Johnson would likely espouse on any topic, I might prompt him for his views on current politics and the state of the English language in the days of social media. My ideal dinner would also include my nineteenth-century heroes, Percy Shelley, John Keats, William Makepeace Thackeray and Charles Dickens, along with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsburg, who might all hold their own with the doctor. This is beginning to sound like a compelling screenplay. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? I greatly enjoy writing and could not imagine a life where I did not write, but every time I finish something I worry that it might be my last poem or story. Sometimes I have another idea or project to distract me, but the scary moments are those when my cupboard feels empty. At those times I continue to write in my journal every day, even if it’s just a word or a dream or something that happened the day before. Eventually I strike an idea I can mine, but I still worry about the next time. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? My biggest literary crush is probably Jack Kerouac, though I have several, including John Keats, Percy Shelley, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Jane Austen, George Eliot, and a large number of modern poets, beginning with T. S Eliot. I credit Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg with inspiring me to write poetry, but Kerouac as a unique artist and character stole my heart. You might say my feeling for Kerouac is more than a crush—I want to be Kerouac. That said, I have also gone through similar attachments to Wallace Stevens, John Ashbury, Ted Hughes, Ernest Hemingway and others. When I love an author, I tend to read their entire canon, and I feel a sense of loss when I finish. What books are on your nightstand? Lately I have been trying to reground myself by cycling back to the masters of modern poetry, including T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens and more recent poets like Ted Hughes, Pablo Neruda, and Seamus Heaney. The post-WWI poets in particular seem to echo the current state of the world, or maybe it’s just my own dark imagining. Even if Eliot’s vision of the Wasteland sprung from the no man’s land between opposing trenches, it feels like an apocalyptic image of global warming and renewed social and international tension. Poetry has the power to frame our fears so we can move past them. It also helps me to realize we have survived dark days before, and not all memories of the past are positive. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? Most days I write in my journal, which began as a series of spiral notebooks and now continues as a word file. I enter observations and ideas from my life and people I know, sometimes science or events, maybe condensed to a thought with multiple implications. Many of my ideas come when I’m walking outside, reading, or sleeping. I often find a word or phrase that stays with me and festers. A poem might begin as one idea but the best poems tend to attract other ideas like lint. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I like commas because they can be abused in so many ways, substituting for articles and conjunctions to let nouns breath, tying gerunds to sentences with fewer filler words to dull the impact of a verb. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? My reading confession is from graduate school where I took a course in Milton and failed to finish reading Paradise Lost. I read most of it, enough to write a term paper, and I managed to pass the course. I have great admiration for Milton and the creativity and detail of his poem, and I wish I could say I would like to go back and read it one day, but I don’t. I figure we can only read so many pages in our life, and there are too many other pages I would rather read. As Dr. Samuel Johnson said, no wishes Paradise Lost were longer. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? The typewriter. It probably seems wonky in these days of computers and WYSIWYG word processing. The first time I saw words flow from my mind through my fingers to the individual keys and rolled sheet of paper it felt like magic. The mechanical transformation of idea to type seemed like the epitome of creativity. I love writing with a computer because it’s so easy to compose and edit, but I sometimes miss the effort and sense of transmutation embedded in a manual typewriter. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. breath, birth, oneness, understanding, death Borrowings of the Shan Van Vocht by Catherine Moore is set to release on April 14, 2020 and we are excited about it! Who wouldn't be? It's about bog bodies. Given the upcoming release, we'd like you to get to know Ms. Moore a bit better, so we interviewed her, and here is what she had to say: If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? Despite my book’s subject matter, I don’t find dining with a dead person appealing. This narrows the field to the alive, which should make it an easier choice, but it does not. After much too much reflection, I would invite Margaret Atwood to dinner. She is seemingly a genius in every genre and she’s fierceless in her approach. I will dazzle her with my chicken curry and, most liking, bore her with my pedestrian observations on her poetry. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? I’m not sure I experience fear about the process. The most difficult part of it for me is in the final editing—when to stop pruning and polishing, and call it done. Having an honest and encouraging critique partner helps. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Is this a guilty-pleasure question? A first literary crush was Robin Hood. Brave, generous, daring—a master of archery, disguises, and dashes through forest thickets (without even getting a run in the tights.) This crush probably remains and extends to all Robin Hood-esk characters, outliers who defend the common good, roguish fighters of injustice, altruistic rebels. What books are on your nightstand? All the Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr), The Thirteenth Tale (Diane Setterfield), and Webster's Crossword Puzzle Dictionary. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? The ordinary. The weird. Mostly, the weirdness in the ordinary. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The em-dash—it connects—leaves room for breath—and thought. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? Wuthering Heights. I’d already seen the BBC version on television and could pass the quizzes, so I skimmed the novel. I know there are not the same, and I make an effort to read the book first nowadays. Though, sometimes I come across a story and watch it before knowing a book existed first, such as in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? The bog bodies, naturally. Once living, once of spirit, of warm human experience. My intention is to honor them; to give them voice. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. It is like fresh air. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Live in the “place” of which you write. Catherine Moore is the author of three chapbooks and the collection ULLA! ULLA! (Main Street Rag). Her work appears in Tahoma Literary Review, Roanoke Review, Southampton Review, Appalachian Heritage, Mid-American Review and in various anthologies. She’s been awarded Walker Percy and Hambidge fellowships; her honors also include the Southeast Review’s Gearhart Poetry Prize, a Nashville MetroArts grant, inclusion in the juried BEST SMALL FICTIONS, as well as Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations. Catherine holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and she teaches at a community college. She’s tweetable @CatPoetic
 If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? James Baldwin. Shakshuka with avocado, homemade challah bread, and a bottle of Maker’s Mark. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? That my writing will be misunderstood and hurt someone. I read something that hurts or offends me and sit in that experience. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Jhumpa Lahiri What books are on your nightstand? The Girl On the Fridge by Etgar Keret New York 1, Tel Aviv 0 by Shelly Oria The World Without Us by Alan Weisman Numbers In the Dark by Italo Calvino Traditional Astrology For Today by Benjamin Dykes The Moon Is Always Female by Marge Piercy Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? My dreams at night. They are almost always magical realism and create a perfect starting place for a story. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? Period. It is clear and direct, never wavering, always constant. A period is a boundary. When you come across it, you can start again anew. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? The Scarlet Letter What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My salt lamp, whose glow keeps the magic alive. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Love. Engaging. Art. Quiet. Inside-out. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Rejection is subjective.  Raki Kopernik is the author of THE THINGS YOU LEFT, a thirty-seven story collection built on magical realism and seemingly inconsequential moments between sweet and strange loners that meet in the space between the heart and the mind.
 Adam Gibbs is the author of Dumb Luck, a novella about seeking a thrill after tolerating plenty of banality. Here, Gibbs tells us about his favorite things, secret writing idiosyncrasies, and more.
If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? I always enjoyed David Goodis’ books, but I’ve also read that he wasn’t a great person to spend time around. Maybe if he was filling his face with my renowned French Toast, he’d be happier. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? I don’t like the thought that no one will ever read what I’ve written. I combat that fear by always assuming no one will ever read what I’ve written. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? I’ll go with the movies here--Jane Greer as Kathie Moffat in Out of the Past. Femmes fatale. What books are on your nightstand? The only novel there is Hark by Sam Lipsyte. My friend Michael Goroff sent it to me when I was still in the hospital recovering from my cerebellar stroke. There are presumably books there for me to read to Augie and Elliott, my sons who are seven and five, respectively. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? I like the semi-colon. No one seems to understand how it’s used, including me. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I always read the assigned books. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? Does someone’s butt count? If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Don’t listen to anyone. Does writing energize or exhaust you? Both, equally. What are common traps for aspiring writers? Listening too much to other writers. We all work in unique ways. What is your writing Kryptonite? Expectations. Have you ever gotten reader’s block? Not really. Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly? I suppose it depends on what they want to write. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer? I don’t really like anyone. Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book? I will assume no one will read any subsequent books of mine. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing? Publishing didn’t change anything. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer? Google is free. What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? This is a good question, but I can’t think of anyone. What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel? James Hynes’ truly wonderful Next seems to have been forgotten. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal? Any caricature of an Italian cook from a pizza box. I’d prefer that the cook be saying, “You gonna like it!” What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters? I’d like any of them to read the story or book in question. I hope they’d be flattered. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? What marks something as “half-finished?” What does literary success look like to you? Seeing one’s name in print feels like nothing else. What’s the best way to market your books? I’m a 90s kid, and I still love alt-weeklies. The more alt-weeklies I can speak with, the better. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex? Remaining respectful without being too obvious about it. What did you edit out of this book?” I removed some chapters that seemed too tangential to the central narrative. If you didn’t write, what would you do for work? I will defer to This is Spinal Tap here: Nigel Tufnel: Well, I suppose I could work in a shop of some kind or... or do um... freelance... selling of some sort of... um... product, you know... Marty DiBergi: A salesman, you think you... Nigel Tufnel: A salesman, like, maybe in a haberdasher, or maybe like a... um, a chapeau shop, or something... you know, like: "Would you... what size do you wear, sir?" and then you answer me. Marty DiBergi: Uh... seven and a quarter. Nigel Tufnel: "I think we have that...", you see, something like that I could do. Marty DiBergi: Yeah... you think you'd be happy doing something like-... Nigel Tufnel: "No! We're all out, do you wear black?", see, that sort of thing, I think I could probably muster up. Marty DiBergi: Yeah, do you think you'd be happy doing that? Nigel Tufnel: Well, I don't know, wh-wh-what are the hours? Chris Drabick is the author of THE WAY WE GET BY.
 Margaret DeRitter is the poet and author of Singing Back to the Sirens, a collection that explores the many ways that desire and love, loss and grief, can shape a woman’s life. The poems in this two-part collection look at the loneliness of a newborn for her sick mother, the first stirrings of sexual desire for a best friend, the treacherous leap from a sheltered world of faith into lesbian life, the frustrations of falling for straight women, the alchemy of falling in love, the aftermath of losing it. In the first section, the poet sings back to the many women she has loved. In the second, she sings back to the one who sang the sweetest and the saddest songs.
Margaret sat down with our team and revealed some of the intimate details about her writerly world. Read on! If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make? Emily Dickinson, because I’d want to be able to tell her how important she has become in American literature and in the lives of so many poets, including myself. I’d serve her anything she’d ask for, since she never got what she wanted from the literary world during her lifetime. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? I don’t think it scares me, but I do get frustrated if I feel I can’t come up with words that do justice to an idea I want to express in a poem. What I do then is just keep revising and doing the best I can, or I let the poem sit for a while and come back to it with fresh eyes. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? The casino worker Ann Childs in “Desert of the Heart.” by Jane Rule. She’s wild, sexy and full of life and not afraid to pursue the woman she wants. And Patricia Charbonneau, the woman who plays her character (albeit with a different name, Cay Rivers) in the movie “Desert Hearts,” is so beautiful that I found myself keeping an eye out for her on a vacation in my early 30s after finding out she lived in New York State. She never did materialize there, but I did see her once on TV. What books are on your nightstand? The Hours,” by Michael Cunningham; “Mrs. Dalloway,” by Virginia Woolf; and “Delights & Shadows,” Ted Kooser’s poetry collection. “The Hours” made me want to read “Mrs. Dalloway,” and I was not disappointed.. The writing style was different from anything I’d ever encountered, and many of the sentences read like poetry. Kooser blew me away with his ability to imbue everyday objects and activities with a sense of the sacred. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? I get my ideas mainly from incidents that make an emotional impact on me. I also get ideas from observing the natural world outside my windows or on woods walks. Really good writing, like that of my first poetry-writing teacher, Diane Seuss, inspires me to push myself harder as a writer. The women in my writing group, Poetry Dawgs, which I’ve been part of for 20 years or so, also inspire me with their enduring friendship, good humor and astute feedback. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? My favorite punctuation mark is the comma. It has so many uses, and its addition to or omission from a sentence can vastly change its meaning, as in “Now I must go and get on, my lover” vs. “Now I must go and get on my lover.” What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? I was a good girl then and always did my required reading. Now some friends seem to think I’m required to read the Harry Potter books, but I’m really not interested. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My Macbook Air, so light I can take it anywhere to write. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. To survive and make a mark. OK, that’s six. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? "Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good." — William Faulkner |
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