1 - How did your first book or chapbook change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
I've been trying to be a poet for like 30 years with little success, so it's been validating? Pleasing? I wouldn't say it's changed my life, but it's nice to feel like some small number of people are reading words I wrote.
I've always been a stylistically scattershot poet; Not Akhmatova is more formal/less experimental than some of my work, in part because it's sort of translations. But I've also written in this vein before...I wouldn't say there's a big line or anything, but I guess for people who prefer less experimental poems, this would be the place to start with my work.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I write a lot of non-fiction; that's my day job. And I've occasionally written fiction on and off over the years. I'm not sure there was one moment when I decided poetry was something I would do; I started really writing poetry in college, and then I guess I just kept going. I like the way that poetry can be short (my attention span is limited!) And I like the way it can be kind of anything you want it to be; rhyming quatrains, sonnets, collage, weird lists. It appeals to my twitchiness.
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 try to write at least a little bit of poetry every day, so I'm always working on something. When I first started writing poetry I was very slow—the first poem I wrote I'm really happy with took like 6 months to write 20 lines and I probably filled three or four notebooks with drafts. That was frustrating and I don't do that any more! Twenty years of writing on deadline every day, day after day, really knocks the perfectionism out of you, so when I returned to writing poetry a couple years ago I discovered that I can write really fast (as poetry goes anyway.)
Not Akhmatova came in pretty quick bursts; I wrote half the ms in probably a month. Then when Ben Yehuda press said they were interested, I thought I might write a few more poems to fill out the ms, and ended up writing like another 30-40 pages in a week while on vacation in Portland. Which was really fun, actually (the vacation and writing the poems both.)
4 - Where does a poem 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?
It can begin in a lot of ways; with a little phrase, or an idea, or a conceptual approach, or by being inspired by something I've read. (I'm working on a piece sort of inspired by John Ashbery's book Flow Chart, which I just read and loved.) I sometimes write one offs, but I also not infrequently have ideas that can be spun out into chapbooks or books. I've got...like four full length manuscripts sitting around, and maybe the same number of chapbooks? So I'm often working on books, though most will probably never be published, I'd guess.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I like doing readings pretty well; I don't get the opportunity very often, though.
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?
I have various things I'm thinking about in different projects. Not Akhmatova is about nationalism and diaspora identity in large part. My family's from Russia originally, and so Akhmatova is sort of part of my poetic heritage, or would be if my Russian Jewish ancestors hadn't fled Russia for the reasons that Jewish people generally fled Russia. So the book is thinking about who gets to lay claim to language and history, how translations connect you to tradition and alienate you, whether poetry needs to be rooted in tradition or what that expectation means.
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?
Writers have a range of roles I think. Since I write for a living, I'm very aware of writing as just another kind of work, producing things that people pay for (or don't.) Writing is also art, and art is a complicated thing; people look to it for meaning, distraction, entertainment, status, political validation, self-recognition. With my poetry, I'm generally trying to write things that seem truthful/meaningful to me and that might amuse the small number of people who read my poems. Not sure I can claim much more for it than that.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
It depends. I work with editors all the time in freelancing. Working with the editor at Ben Yehuda Press was helpful; they were very respectful and it was good to get a read on how alienating some of the more experimental poems in the collection were or weren't.
On the other hand, I just had a miserable experience with a press that accepted my ms and then the editor made a bunch of changes without telling me?! Like, cutting out words and changing line breaks, I guess because they felt readers of poetry would be put off by long lines?! Anyway, when I pushed back and said they did in fact have to at least mark any changes so I could sign off on them, they cancelled the contract. Which was for the best, but also wtf?
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
I always tell people that the best advice for a writer is to be born rich. If you can't manage that you're mostly screwed, so...
10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to non-fiction to journalism)? What do you see as the appeal?
I think there's a good bit of overlap. The appeal is first that you can't get paid for poetry, so if you're trying to make a living you better write other things! Also though I like taking on different kinds of projects and doing different kinds of writing; I get bored if I do one thing all the time.
11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
Well, I have to write essays every day for work pretty much. I usually do that first, and then try to write a little poetry in the afternoon or evening. Being a freelancer means that I just work all the time. Sometimes I take a break to walk the dog.
12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Again, after 20 years of writing every day on deadline, I don't get stalled out much. Reading poetry is usually a good way to kickstart writing poetry for me; I just read Robert Creeley's selected poems for example and wrote a bunch of creeley-ish things.
13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
I have allergies and barely any sense of smell, alas.
14 - 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?
I write a lot of movie/music criticism, so that influences my writing. I write a certain number of poems about the pets too (we've got a pitbull and four kitties.)
15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Well, the most important writer for Not Akhmatova was Akhmatova, obviously! James Baldwin is a big influence on my nonfiction and film writing. I love Adelaide Crapsey's cinquains; I've got an ms of cinquains I've been working on here and there for a year or two.
16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
It'd be nice to get some of these other manuscripts published! It would be fun to teach a poetry class, maybe, though I don't really see that happening. I'd love get a grant and just have time to focus on poetry; probably I'll have to wait for retirement for that though.
17 - 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?
I thought about being an academic. That would probably be the thing if I weren't a freelance writer.
18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
I just read too much as a kid. Broke me for anything else.
19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
I just finished John Ashbery's Flow Chart, which is amazing. I'm in the middle of Kate Atkinson's Shrines of Gaiety, which is really good. Before that read Saidiya Harman's Lose Your Mother, about her trip to Ghana and alienation and displacement as one permanent legacy of slavery; it's great. I'm still processing it.
The last great film...Drive-Away Dolls is my favorite film of the year I think. I saw the Blair Witch Project again this week. Elliot Page's Close To You is wonderful.
20 - What are you currently working on?
I'm farting around with this longish collage piece somewhat inspired by Flow Chart, with each stanza as a longish sentence. It's keeping me busy!
12 or 20 (second series) questions;
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