12 or 20 (second series) questions with Jesi Bender

Jesi Bender is the author of the novel Child of Light (Whiskey Tit 2025), the chapbook Dangerous Women (dancing girl press 2022), the play Kinderkrankenhaus (Sagging Meniscus 2021), and the novel The Book of the Last Word (Whiskey Tit 2019). The Brooklyn production of Kinderkrankenhaus was a top-five finalist for the BroadwayWorld's Best Off-Broadway Play 2023.  Her shorter work has appeared in Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Denver Quarterly, FENCE, and Sleepingfish, among others. She also runs KERNPUNKT Press, a home for experimental work. www.jesibender.com

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 had a chapbook published in 2010 called Glossolalia by MFG Imprint Publishing.  I'm not sure how long they were around but I can't find any remnants of them online anymore.  It had a very small run and sold mainly to my friends and friends of my parents.  It was another nine years before my first novel, The Book of the Last Word, was published by Whiskey Tit, though I had begun that book at the same time as Glossolalia.  My novel felt more 'real'—it got reviews, had people besides my family read it.  But the most significant part of getting the novel published was that it connected me to many more writers.  As someone who thought it was more prudent to get an MLIS than a MFA, I've really cherish the community that came along with publishing with a small press, as I never had that before.

2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?

I'm interested in language, its melody and myriad meanings.  It seems to me that poetry is a more ready opportunity to play.  Poetry seems to have no rules, while fiction people really want to impose a lot of rules on you.  That's my experience, anyway. 

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?

My novel and plays follow the same path.  I start with a specific movement or event (Victorian Spiritualism for Child of Light) and do copious research on the elements and people involved.  From those notes, I etch out an outline.  Then, I fill each chapter in with notes and phrasings that I've come up with so far and flesh out each passage.  After that, of course, the editing begins.

4 - Where does a poem or work of prose 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?

The piece is almost always the piece, be it a poem or a novel, a play or a short story, from the get-go.  A single entity.  I very rarely piece separate items together to make one manuscript. 

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?

I do readings after publication usually, though I am not the best reader in the world.  As a child, I was 'pathologically shy' so it has taken a while to feel comfortable in front of a crowd.  In a similar vein, I've loved having readings and performances of my plays—it is so energizing to hear the words out loud and see different interpretations.  I think every poet and writer should write a play and see it performed.  It will change you!

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?

Yes, each work is asking a question and the novel or play or poetry collection is the product of my attempts to answer.  For Child of Light, a novel set in 1896 about a young girl trying to connect with her distant family through their interests (Spiritualism and domestic electricity), I'm concerned with meaning-making and epistemology and how they impact identity and reality. 

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, a subsect of the larger 'storyteller' group, will be important as long as there are people around.  We critique, we document, we advocate and struggle—most importantly, we connect. 

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?

I've yet to have a difficult encounter with an editor on a creative project (on academic articles, that's another story...).  Editors are essential for not only the mechanics, but as a litmus for how successful a writer has been with story, accuracy, and continuity. 

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?

Invest in yourself.  I think this is an important thing for women to hear, in particular.

10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to fiction to plays)? What do you see as the appeal?

I love moving between genres.  My writing style and ethos makes it so I'm never really straying far from any genre, even when I'm working on another.  Child of Light is a novel but some chapters are poems or songs or visuals or dialogue.  They are always together.

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?

I'm a mom and have a full-time job so writing happens 'where it will'—late at night, during lunch breaks, when I'm waiting at a doctor's office or my daughter's dance class.

12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?

I find arthouse films rejuvenating or I read small press books—I just picked up The Mothering Coven by Joanna Ruocco and The Maze of Transparencies by Karen An-Hwei Lee, both from Ellipsis Press.

13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?

I live in the woods, so leaves, grass, and dirt.  Rain and wildflowers.  If we're inside, popcorn.

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?

Music plays a big role.  I like books that 'sing' to you and hold a real musicality.  I also like modern art and breaking down form in new and unexpected ways.  I thought a lot about Victorian art movements while writing Child of Light, like the Pre-Raphaelites, Aestheticism, and Art Nouveau as well as burgeoning Impressionism, mirrored by phrasing and the use of Debussy's Clair de lune throughout.

15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?

Oh, so many.  I love Carole Maso, Thalia Field, Salvador Plascencia, Vi Khi Nao.  Kurt Vonnegut has been my hero since I was twelve.  I'm a Vonnegut expert. I love Charles Baudelaire, Rainer Maria Rilke, Amiri Baraka, Federico Garcia Lorca.  Finding Peter Weiss was revelatory for me.  So many. 

16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?

I'd like to film a full-length movie, probably from one of my plays.

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?

The other jobs I want would be like winning the lottery—I'd love to be a filmmaker or a curator in an art museum.  In more realistic alternatives, I think I would be a good support worker or autism advocate. 

18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?

I write, but I also paint, I make short films, I draw.  I'm an artist so I try out any medium that interests me.  But I think I keep coming back to writing because it lets me think. I feel like I can produce a more nuanced message in this form.  I can get close to expressing what I mean.

19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?

I have just re-read one of my favorite books of all time, Defiance by Carole Maso, for my book club.  I also read an incredible graphic novel from Fantagraphics, The N-Word of God by Mark Doox.  I've seen several great movies lately, too—Downfall has incredible casting (and is timely).  Sinners was beautiful and refreshing and I really enjoyed The Last Showgirl, too.  Pam Anderson does a wonderful job and I liked her character's complexity and single-minded approach to art. 

20 - What are you currently working on?

I'm working on finishing up a folk horror novel about Grace Brown.  Hopefully, there'll be a first draft by the end of the year.

12 or 20 (second series) questions;

12 or 20 (second series) questions with Lee Upton

Lee Upton is a multi-genre author of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and literary criticism. Her novel Wrongful, a literary mystery that deals with writers behaving badly, is due out in May 2025 from Sagging Meniscus Press. Her comic novel, Tabitha, Get Up, appeared in May 2024 from the same publisher. Another novel, The Withers, is forthcoming in 2026 from Regal House Publishing. Her other books include The Day Every Day Is (Saturnalia 2023); Visitations: Stories; Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles: Poems; The Tao of Humiliation: Stories; and the essay collection Swallowing the Sea: On Writing & Ambition Boredom Purity & Secrecy. She is also the author of an award-winning novella, The Guide to the Flying Island, as well as six additional books of poetry and four books of literary criticism. Her poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Southern Review, The Massachusetts Review, and three editions of Best American Poetry.

1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?

My first book was a collection of poetry, The Invention of Kindness. It opened up new and gratifying friendships for me. Wrongful is a literary mystery and, as such, differs a great deal from my previous book, a comic novel—Tabitha, Get Up. This new book, Wrongful, feels quite different because questions about evil animate the book. It’s a romance, in some ways, but there’s terror lurking.

2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?

Poetry came most naturally to me—the way rhythm and images unfold, the way associative links lead us through a poem.  It has taken me a long time to learn how to orchestrate fiction in which cause and effect propel at least some outward action. Writing both poetry and fiction is satisfying—you can’t help but find yourself inside mysteries within other mysteries.

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 tend to work on multiple manuscripts at the same time—and things move quite slowly. When I hit a wall in one area, I work on another manuscript. By the time I return to the original trouble-making manuscript, I may discover a solution. This way of working means that multiple manuscripts finish at roughly the same time. My final drafts often are very different from my first attempts.

4 - Where does a poem or work of prose 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?

My poems, short stories, and essays tend to have individual lives and often stubbornly resist becoming part of a collection. Or so I tend to think at first. And then I realize that the same obsessions are winding their way through much of the work.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?

I like readings. It’s only the hours before readings that tend to be problematic for me. I’ve hardly ever not been a nervous person. Once I begin reading, however, I’m often very happy to voice the work.

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?

In Tabitha, Get Up (2024) I was concerned with issues of self-trust and how we may attempt to defeat entropy and create sustaining meaning. In my new novel Wrongful I’m interested in questions of evil, how evil always has its “reasons” and a self-perpetuating vitality. Wrongful is not only about the temptations toward bad behavior that writers and all of us face; it’s also about readers and reading—the intimate romance of reading

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?

This is an individual matter, but it seems that writers should be profoundly grateful to whoever taught them to read and write and find their way to new adventures through the imagination. We can help others find their way by mentoring and by allowing ourselves continual freedom to be bold in our own writing.

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?

I’ve been able to work with marvelous editors and publishers and designers. Publishing takes a willing and devoted team, and I’ll always feel gratitude for those I’ve worked with.

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?

 “Relax.” It sounds so insulting, but it’s pretty good advice. If you can relax, your own mind will give you something to imagine and consider…

10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to fiction to non-fiction)? What do you see as the appeal?

Each form is difficult. Moving toward extended time and action frames in the novel was especially challenging for me, given my general proclivities. Each genre comes bearing its own gifts for discovering whatever mystery we might be avoiding otherwise.

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?

I’m now able to write full-time, and so my life is very different from the days when I was working full-time and had small children and many other obligations. Typically, now, my day begins with too much coffee, and then maybe with my making a list about what I want to do, and then—if I don’t have any larger responsibilities—I dive into working. Usually on my laptop first. Then I print out the manuscript and revise. Next, I put those revisions into my manuscript on the laptop, and the process begins again. And again.

12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?

I usually read poetry or fiction—to hear another voice. I might pace around the house…I might eat something, like chocolate. Chocolate needs no defense.

13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?

Lilacs.

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?

Visual art, flowers, trees, talking with family members, overheard conversations

15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?

I’m inspired by the writing of Muriel Spark, Iris Murdoch, Emily Dickinson, Tomas Transtromer, Anita Brookner, Tracy K. Smith, Margot Livesey, Timothy Liu, Charles Holdefer, Rachel Cusk….and so many others. I’m fortunate to have a number of friends who are writers, and they’re deeply important to me.

16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?

I think it would be nice to stay for a while in a cottage by the sea and take long walks every day. And have marvelous hot soup on those days. (I sound deluded. I’m actually serious. It would be so nice.)

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?

If I could pick up another gift and had the talent…I would still want to be a writer. For the freedom and the adventure of it. If I couldn’t be a writer and were suddenly gifted with ability, I’d want to be a singer who worked on original material. Which really means being a writer with vocal range…

18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?

I’ve wanted to be a writer since childhood. I also, as a child, wanted to be a spy. Now I don’t want to be a spy. Although writing is a little like trying to spy into the depths of the culture’s hidden life.

19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?

Last great book: The Sea, The Sea, by Iris Murdoch.

 Last great film: 1900, by Bernardo Bertolucci

20 - What are you currently working on?

I’m working on poems—always—and I’m redrafting a novel in which a younger visual artist believes her life has been dramatically damaged by her relationship with an older artist.  I’m also rewriting a couple of novel manuscripts that I lost faith in earlier. I’m now trying to give those manuscripts new and more exciting lives.

12 or 20 (second series) questions;