Emilie Buchwald’s book of poems, The Moment’s Only Moment won a silver Benjamin Franklin Award. Her poems have been published in Harper’s, The American Scholar, Kenyon Review, The Lyric, Sleet, Sing, Heavenly Muse, When Women Look at Men, Rocked by the Waters, among others. She is the editor of the Poetry Society of America’s Wallace Steven Centenary Celebration, The Poet Dreaming in the Artist’s House, Mixed Voices, and This Sporting Life. Her award-winning children’s titles include Gildaen and Floramel and Esteban (Harper Collins), and Buddy Unchained.
Buchwald, PhD, Hon DHL, was the cofounder and publisher of Milkweed Editions, editor or coeditor of more than 200 books of poetry, fiction, and, nonfiction titles centered on social justice and the environment. Books she edited received more than two hundred awards or recognitions. When she retired, the press had more than a million books in circulation. In 2006, Buchwald became the founding publisher, editor, and now copublisher with Dana Buchwald, of The Gryphon Press, publishing children’s picture books about the human-animal bond, addressing the challenges real animals face and the impact of human kindness and caring.
Distinctions include The Lyric Memorial Award, The Kay Sexton Award, the McKnight Foundation Distinguished Artist of the Year Award, the A.P. Anderson Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award.
1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different? I’ve always written poetry; I’ve had poems published in various journals, but my first and second published books were children’s novels, and, after that, editing four poetry anthologies, all before my first published book of poems. Each experience was positive, but having a body of work together in a first book was thrilling and very positive.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction? Poetry came early and very naturally to me as a way of expressing my thoughts and experiences with people and especially about describing my thoughts about the natural world.
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? There’s a first rush of excitement when I’m smitten by an idea for a book. After that, the project takes a great deal of time because I draft and redraft until I’m satisfied. Sometimes I have to put the project on hold because I can’t see the best way to conclude it.
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? It usually begins with an image or an idea. I don’t begin by thinking about a book at the outset but about capturing what I’m seeing and feeling in each individual poem.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings? I very much enjoy communicating with readers in person. There’s energy coming from an audience during a reading, as well as in th questions and answer, and having conversations about the book afterwards.
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’m concerned that as a culture, we are deliberately shut off by business and government from what happens behind the scene, to animals as well as to people. Writing about the reality of being alive and in touch with the experiences of the residents of the planet is important to me.
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 one’s writing should express one’s personal values. If you can truthfully and persuasively share those values with readers, that’s a meaningful addition to the cultural conversation, and it means committing in our writing to what we really think and care about.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)? I have been an editor and publisher for much of my adult life. As an editor, I do my very best for a manuscript; that is, I speak truthfully about what would make it better and what I see as holding the work back from being as successful and energizing as it might be.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)? This is a very old piece of advice: After you’ve written something and you think you’re finished, put the manuscript away and don’t look at it for at least a few weeks. The Roman poet Horace suggested waiting two years! However, whenever you come back to your work, you will see it much more clearly, without the first rush of excitement. Tincture of time gives you the opportunity to be your own best editor and your own harshest critic.
10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to books for children)? What do you see as the appeal? I happen to enjoy writing in both of those genres, and I do think experience in one genre is useful in moving to another.
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? An idea for something I’m working on often comes to me unbidden. I jot down as much as I can of that initial thought until I have time to return to it. But, once I’m engaged in a writing project, I establish a routine for that work, and I give it as much time as I can.
12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration? I read—the writers whose work I admire in the genre I’m working in. That’s often just what I need to do before going back to the project— because I’ve observed ways and means to do a better job.
13 - What fragrance reminds you of home? Cooking fragrances like cinnamon, parsley, dill and of course, onions frying, the great TS Eliot objective correlative. These fragrances jog my senses into greater connection with the world around me.
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? When I see great works of art, I want to know how to admire them, what makes them unique. The natural world, however, is a constantly available resource. When I’ve been energized by the ever-changing reality outside my door, I feel recharged, and consider that I might have something worthwhile to say.
15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work? Like many writers I know, I’m always keenly interested in what’s new as well as what books I’ve missed over the years. I follow certain writers, especially poets whose work I love, like Wislawa Szymborska; their writing is nurturing. It’s also fun to talk about books with other writers.
16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done? Write a collection of short stories. I have a few that I continue to think are worthwhile.
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 have another occupation, as a publisher and editor, an occupation that keeps me close to writers and writing.
18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else? It was the only thing I wanted to do. I was drawn to writing from mu earliest years, because I wanted to see whether I could come up with something that I, as a reader, would find worthwhile. I’ve thrown out much, much more than I’ve kept.
19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film? Recently I’ve been reading nonfiction about the natural world we’re industriously destroying. I would recommend Ed Yong’s An Immense World as consistently enthralling and enlightening.
20 - What are you currently working on? I’ve started on my next book of poems. I’ve also gone back to the most recent draft of a children’s novel that I think could be more interesting than anything I’ve written thus far. One of the joys of writing for me is the constant opportunity to break through into new territory, to say it better.
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