Carrie Hunter received her MFA/MA in
the Poetics program at New College of California, edits the chapbook press,
ypolita press, is on the editorial board of Black Radish Books, and co-curates
the Hearts Desire reading series. Her latest chapbooks were with Little Red Leaves Textile Editions and Dancing Girl Press. She has two full-length
collections, both from Black Radish Books, The Incompossible, and Orphan Machines. She lives in San Francisco.
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?
My first book that I didn’t
self-publish was a chapbook published by Mark Lamoureux’s Cy Gist Press, in
2007. Vorticells. I’m not sure if it
changed my life, but it allowed entrance into publishing, which seemed
impossible at the time.
2 - How did you come to poetry first,
as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I was always a reader, but never a
writer, until a friend in high school introduced me to the idea of writing
poetry, and I’ve never stopped.
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?
Starting is easy. I have millions of
ideas all the time. It is finishing that is hard. And editing. Every project is
different. My first full-length book’s form did not change. It started out as
prose poems and ended much the same. The current new book Orphan Machines, started out as a rebellion from that form, takes
four different forms in all, with a desire for variety and multiplicity, and a
Guattari-Deleuzian “flow.” The format changed from being 3 big sections to
being 12 sections with multiple mini-sections. The title also varied from
starting as Anti-Oedipus, to being Anti-Oedipus’s Daughter, to being the
current title.
4 - Where does a poem or work of
fiction 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?
I do enjoy just sitting with paper or
computer open, and seeing what happens, what will the poem bring, but over all
I just love the project. I have a list of project ideas that just keeps growing
and growing. I will never get to them all.
5 - Are public readings part of or
counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing
readings?
I love doing readings, but don’t
consider them to be too much of my creative process. Although the performance
aspect can help you see what works and doesn’t work, writing for the
performance is always the danger, and I want the text to supersede the
performance, so I try to ignore that impulse. Although I do like to have a side
project going that is entirely for the performance, as well.
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?
Theory for me is an entrance into
poetry. I’ve never really felt much use for it on its own, although theoretical
concepts are good to think about for themselves. But really, I just use it for
my own devices. I mean there are philosophers who read philosophy for
philosophy, and there are poets who read philosophy for poetry. I think both
are valid, but I am the latter. I also do love residing in difficulty. I may or
may not understand it, but I like being in that space.
7 – What do you see the current role
of the writer being in larger culture? Does s/he even have one? What do you
think the role of the writer should be?
The Black Lives Matter movement has
really helped me see the sometimes conscious, sometimes unconscious narcissism
and privilege of white people writing poetry, and I’ve become more conscious of
my own problems in addressing that. So how to turn away from that solipsism,
and connected, the always romantic and pulling, hermitism. I think keeping oneself
far away from problems up in your room writing does nothing, naturally, and
probably harms by its lack of involvement. Thinking of “polite white supremacy”
and all of its detriments. Of course, the Emily Dickinson mythology prevails
and pulls, but I also think about the importance of acts of refusal, of
refusing to engage in the dominant cultural milieus that include capitalism and
white supremacy. I think often too of a refusal to publish as part of this, with
a focus more on teaching and activism through that, but am not quite there. I am
thinking more also as a curator and publisher, about how to maximize exposure
to poets of color. (Send work!) ypolitapress@gmail.com; hearts.desire.series@gmail.com
8 - Do you find the process of
working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I think it can be very cool indeed
when someone helps you see outside of your vision, new eyes so to speak. But I
also, after having taken 15 poetry writing workshops in my life, feel a bit done
with too many outside eyes. It’s not essential but can be interesting. The
problem is seeing your own vision too clearly that you can’t see outside of
yourself, which an editor can help with.
9 - What is the best piece of advice
you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Take every opportunity offered. Even
if it seems like it is not your thing, it can lead to other things and
opportunities that may be. My abovementioned hermitism sometimes wants to
retire and refuse, but that (I think) can often lead to stagnation.
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?
Every book seems to have its own
routine. The Incompossible was
written almost entirely on lunch breaks, and Orphan Machine was written largely on Sunday nights, to an ambient
music radio program.
11 - When your writing gets stalled,
where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
I’m actually there right now. I have
tons of writing ideas, that’s not the problem. The problem is its not pulling
me anymore. Advice?
12 - What fragrance reminds you of
home?
Menthol cigarettes.
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, art, theory, other literature,
and lately teaching ESL.
14 - What other writers or writings
are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
I used to say my strongest influences
were, together, H.D. and Hejinian, in a sort of collage experimental lyricism,
but my interests are moving more towards education than poetry these days. I’m
thinking more along the lines of Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Cornel West, and
Fred Moten.
15 - What would you like to do that
you haven't yet done?
Write a book of non-fiction of some
sort.
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?
Teaching. I love it.
17 - What made you write, as opposed
to doing something else?
Typical childhood dysfunctional
family where I had no voice.
18 - What was the last great book you
read? What was the last great film?
Just re-read H.D.’s Vale Ave, from New Directions, reissued as
a chapbook. Also enjoying and working through Fred Moten and Stefano Harney’s The Undercommons.
19 - What are you currently working
on?
My last two chapbooks (Scienza Nuova, Little Red Leaves, and Vice/Versa, dancing girl press) were two
parts of a trilogy riffing off of Finnegan’s Wake. Working on part 3. Also
doing a Tumblr poem (also a trilogy) that collages poetry quotes, Dante, literary
criticism on Dante, impressions from poetry readings, stuff from my journal,
stuff from thinking about yoga and spirituality, stuff from prose readings,
grad school, and now teaching. (http://perunaselvaoscura.tumblr.com/ and http://percorrermiglioracque.tumblr.com). (The first is loosely connected to The Inferno, and the
second to The Purgatorio.) Also have been working on another collage project
that combines a bunch of even different
things and different projects.
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