1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
It confirmed writing as a long-term vocation rather than a passing impulse. Though one knows since birth that the vocation lies within.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I only read and write poetry and essays. It is hard to read fiction. And harder to distinguish it from reality.
3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing come quickly at first, 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?
For me, writing always begins with reading. I read slowly and deeply, feeling the author's voice and allowing it to find its way into my life. No notes, just memory and previous experiences.
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?
A poem usually begins with a line, an image, or a rhythm. I like listening to Gregorian Chants. Dreams also start a project. This happened with Leve sangre (Unburdened Blood), translated by Curtis Bauer a few years ago as Image of Absence. That collection is sustained by music.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I’m afraid I’ve read too much of Job: If I speak, the wound bleeds. If I remain silent, it bleeds too.
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?
No theoretical concerns. I write questions for which I find no answers.
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?
The role of a writer is to create consciousness of our world, as scary as it may be.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
Working with an outside editor can be disturbing, as it requires letting go of certain attachments. In this book, we (Forest and I) discussed many lines. I am happy because he was much of an editor at his best, not only a translator.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
What I am doing new is writing by hand, eyes closed, allowing myself to see images inside the words I write, no matter how strange or extravagant they might seem. My fears, old and new, my desires, ancient and actual, flow along the ink in an endless drift.
10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to translation)? What do you see as the appeal?
Translation is (to me) the best way to learn how to deep read. I do not feel I am taking time out from my work; on the contrary, it is a way to nourish my own process.
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?
Not too much of a routine. Your eyes stare at poetic figures, and you learn to decipher the ones that will start-jump you into a poem.
12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Good cinema.
13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Face cream.
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?
Theatre, opera, woods, dawns.
15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Hölderlin, Trakl, Benn, the poetry of Kabbalah.
16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Drama. One actress. A soliloquy.
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?
Poets are born poets. No options here.
18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
My mother’s eyes and her way of reciting Hamlet or Kipling.
19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
Francesco Petrarca & Giovanni Boccaccio.
Film: Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother
20 - What are you currently working on?
I am working on two prose books that I started during COVID. Both are the continuation of Cuaderno de Chihuahua. They both relate to my ancestors, exile, and madness. And in a poetry collection, Abandonments.
12 or 20 (second series) questions;
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