1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
This is my first book, and it hasn't quite come out yet, so it's hard to say! Probably, it has been extraordinary for my self-esteem and self-perception as a writer.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I'd say I came to clowning first, and then critical theory, and then came to see experimental writing as the clowning of language. My poetry (and non-fiction) are also fairly hybridized, lyrical forms: I'll write an essay, and people call it a poem. For me, various forms are just part of the process, and I don't know until the last edits what genre the final form will take.
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?
It depends on the context. Am I writing on contract, with a set deadline? I'll take notes for 90% of the time, and then write the entire thing in the last 10% of days. If I'm writing for my own process, well, it's even slower; there will likely never be a final shape because without an externally-imposed deadline, I'll likely never finish a thing. I think I could pull 4+ books out of all the half-writings I have tucked in notebooks in my bookshelf.
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?
I'm someone who loves puzzles. I love the chaos of a pile of pieces which, in their pile-form, are meaningless and frustrating. I get immense pleasure from the slow process of organizing the pieces, finding the similar shapes and colours, and painstakingly organizing them into shapes that make sense.
The same is true for my writing. Things start as a feeling, an image, a colour blooming in the chest. I write on sentence/paragraph at a time, and then eventually I collect all the little fragments, cut the pieces of paper into squares, and arrange and rearrange them until I like the final shape. (Yes, I literally print things off, cut them up, and arrange them all over the floor. To my cat's delight.)
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
If all I did was talk into a microphone, I would be so happy.
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?
There is so much I could say here. I am obsessed––obsessed––with language. I see language as the meaning-making tool that translates the world around us into our minds, and mediates nearly all our experiences. Because of this, it's also a meaning-making tool in the context of power, oppression and freedom. I'm heavily influenced by Foucault in this way (like I said, I came to poetry through critical theory.)
Orwell's 1984 is a great example of how a government limits the thoughts of its people through language; the way news and media outlets attach specific words to marginalized people is another one (see: comparisons of how the war in Ukraine and the genocide in Palestine are described differently). Words shape how we think about things, and how words create oppression versus freedom is my main concern most of the time. I think as we move into an increasingly-online world of increasingly partitioned media, AI-generated (false) information, and low media literacy, this will more and more become a question concerning everyone.
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'm not prescriptive about this. I think my own role as a writer in larger culture is to help people see nuance––beauty and violence––in the mundane.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I prefer it! I love being in collaboration, and hearing how an outside mind perceives what I'm communicating. (Please, someone, invite me to your writing group.)
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
This is the Anne Carson quote currently sticky-noted to my desktop: "The things you link are not in your control...But how you link them shows the nature of your mind." It gives me a sense of confidence and peace about my writerly impulses. I think the nature of my mind is pretty interesting, so why wouldn't I want to share it?!
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 mostly do contract work, so my routine shifts every couple of months based on what's going on in my life. Which is to say, routine is a fantasy that mostly eludes me. The ideal would be: wake up, short meditation, coffee while writing morning pages, and then on with the day.
11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
I research! Sometimes that looks like reading, other times it's making people talk at me on the topic at hand.
12 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
The warmth of cooking in the air. Nivea chapstick. Home Depot.
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?
For me, everything is rooted in relationship. I had a huge "aha" moment when reading T. Fleischmann's Time Is the Thing a Body Moves Through, when the author described Felix Gonzalez-Torres' art practice as always making things for his lover, Ross. Everything as a love letter. I am a very romantically-inclined person, and my art practice became much clearer to me when I considered every word on the page to ultimately be a love letter with a specific recipient in mind.
All that said, I think any productive material (a book, a tapestry, a leaf-covered tree) can inform me. What is this all if not some form of information?
14 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Anne Carson and Edward Said are everything to me. Jeanette Winterson has done a lot. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Dorothea Lasky. Hera Lindsay Bird.
15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Currently I'm seeking a 2 gallon jar to make my first batch of kombucha (10 years late, I know).
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 are alternate universes where I am a contemporary dancer, a lawyer, a business mogul, a house spouse.
17 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
Ah, but I do both/all! But I would say that having financial stability is what has allowed me to dedicate so much time to writing. If I had to work more, I would never have enough space in my brain to let the words bounce around.
18 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson; Piaffe by director Ann Oren.
19 - What are you currently working on?
Besides my own web copy? lol. Fragments about my summer garlic farming with friends. Specifically, about managing our group chat :)
12 or 20 (second series) questions;
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