1 - How did your first chapbook change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
When I was writing Boyish, I rarely thought about audience/publishing. Like sure, in my MFA I was told it’s something you do, but I never really thought about how it would land or expected it to happen for me quite honestly. I was just writing what I needed to get out there & letting it take whatever shape it needed to take—I think the biggest joy I got out of it being put into the world was getting those poems into the hands of other TLGBQ+ folks like me who needed those poems, and the biggest growth came from the simultaneous shock of what it’s like to let such a personal work live on its own in the world…I see publishing Boyish as a book-end in my own path as a person--not just in the writing sense, but the sense of letting something go. Usually my writing is whatever I’m chasing down, whatever questions I personally need answers for or my own way of reckoning. The questions I’m stuck on now are much different, but the process feels iterative in that way—I’ve written my way out of this, so what’s next on my heart and mind? This next book I just finished wrapping up deals a lot with disability & abolition. Even though some poems in Boyish talked about madness and that aspect of my experience, I wasn’t quite ready to write through my experience with disability until recently. In this next book, the dam has broken, and the poems go deeper in that sense…Writing tends to pull the truth right out of me, over time.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I’ve always loved writing—in many genres. So it’s not so much that I’d say that I came to poetry first, as it is I stayed because I love the emphasis on language. I feel like poetry gives a density of sound & play that is harder to hone in prose. I also like the associative nature of poetry, and how that’s heightened in a way that’s not as common for me when I’m going to write an essay. I can create my own realm of connotation or specificity, versus trying to work with the language constraints that are given to me in the borrowed form of definitive prose. When I write a poem, I access an altered state, and none of the conventional rules of communication matter. I think poetry is uniquely suited for invoking experiences of madness. I think it’s the one form of writing for me where I don’t have to mask what I mean.
3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
I’m not sure I start with a project in mind, as much as the project finds me. When it comes to an individual poem, I usually write from a place of the subconscious & then find where the poem is. From there, the process could take days, weeks, or years, before I decide where it’s hitting. My first drafts are fast, the revision slow. I think longer projects come out of obsession—what I’m thinking on, what shows up over time, and then I intentionally lean into that direction once it appears to me.
4 - Where does a work of prose or a play usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
Prose usually starts with a concept for me. I’ve been writing more essays lately, and usually I have a thought out plan of what I want to communicate and write my way into it. I have a slow-going essay collection in my head right now, and I’d say I know what it is even though only a few essays are written. Prose comes the opposite as poems to me—I think first, write later. With poetry, I usually write first, and figure out what I’m doing later on.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I love going to readings, and sometimes being a part of readings, but more than anything it’s the community component I’m drawn to more than the actual performing—most of my favorite readings I attend are the ones I’m slumping against a wall listening to others, and chatting with folks between. I feel the same about art events in general—my favorite times I’ve read usually there’s another artistic discipline involved, whether it’s visual art or music. One of the favorite times I’ve read a poem to a crowd was at the Arkansas Capitol—it was part of a rally for trans rights, and we did a call/response with the crowd…I think reading poetry in places that aren’t just about poetry is where it’s at for me.
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
Disruption, questioning the status quo, and especially questioning the power structures as they are and how they show up in our language/syntax…My goal is often to upheave or challenge the reader, not to create a place of comfortability.
7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
I think that poetry is uniquely situated to interrogate how power shows up in our language. The English language preserves so many fucked up stories of our culture and history, from pithy sayings we take for granted to the etymology of a single word, and I think the poet can challenge or disrupt those spaces/narratives if they choose. Ultimately, I think the poet can be a conduit for conversation in the world and political education/consciousness building. I go to books looking for conscious dialogue, and all writing is political for me. It’s a matter of who is choosing to disrupt or disengage.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I think it depends! On how well they see the work. Working with Rusty/Omnidawn was lovely, but I’ve also been in situations where I’ve felt that we were speaking in two different worlds, and it’s hard to walk the tightrope in those moments so to speak.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Do the next right thing for the right reason.
10 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
I try to write as often as I can. Sometimes life gets in the way. But when I’m able, the best writing habits mean I’m churning out new poems several times a week. Otherwise, my brain feels clogged, and there’s this like backlog that causes my day-to-day to suffer until I put it out on the page again.
11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
A professor in grad school told us when we get stuck write a sonnet as fast as we can. I thought he was crazy for it, but now it’s been half a decade & it’s still my go-to method. Oddly, prosody?!
12 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Swamp water.
13 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
Music especially. I learned a lot about sound & musicality in poems by studying song lyrics. A friend once even tried to teach me how to battle rap, and I’m not saying I was any good, but I am saying that learning how to write a rap verse entirely changed my understanding of rhythm.
I haven’t tried to translate in quite some time, and I honestly doubt I could now, but working in translation & studying other languages completely changed how I see writing as well.
14 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Diane di Prima & the tao te ching.
15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
I would like to blend my poetry with visual art! I’ve been really tempted to get into printmaking, but so far haven’t found the time.
16 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
There was a time I thought I’d get into policy/law. I was a debate nerd as a child. I don’t think that’d be my route today, but I do think nonprofit work or social justice work is important to me. I could see myself diving into a justice org if I wasn’t teaching/writing now. I still spend time working in the community on the side wherever I can.
17 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
I can’t make it stop. It’s like a trance for me. I go somewhere I can’t reach elsewise.
18 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
DMZ Colony by Don Mee Choi. I hate to say it, but I rarely watch films. It’s been awhile, but the last one I really recall watching and changing me is Moonlight.
19 - What are you currently working on?
I just wrapped up revisions of my first full-length, The Patient is an Unreliable Historian! God-willing, it will be out with Omnidawn in 2024!
12 or 20 (second series) questions;
No comments:
Post a Comment