The first two official reviews of She Returns to the Floating World, a Podcast, and Feeling Grateful
Yesterday, I was so excited to see The California Journal of Poetics had a review of She Returns to the Floating World. It was written by a poet whose work I admire very much, Gina Barnard, and she’s obviously an intelligent and thoughtful reviewer as well. (And I know how hard it is to write those reviews! So I doubly appreciate it!) It was my first official review!
Then this morning, I looked at The Rumpus and saw the second official review, this time written by Jessie Carty. I am feeling overwhelmed and grateful!
And J.P. Dancing Bear has posted the podcast of our radio interview from Wednesday night. Here it is:
http://outofourminds.posterous.com/out-of-our-minds-wjp-dancing-bear-guest-jeann
I am also brimming with happy poetry news for a few of my friends, who have not been able to post up their good news on blogs yet, but I’m looking forward to helping them celebrate soon!
So, the economy may be going to hell, the apocalyptic weather may be keeping us in a rainy netherworld while the rest of the country bakes in 100+ heat, but still these little good things give us hope, keep us going, remind us someone is listening, someone is reading, despite, despite.
Radio Shows, Rain, and Renumeration
Back in Seattle, the sky cloudy and the temps hovering in the sixties, you might imagine that our 80+ degree drive home from Port Townsend on Sunday had all been hallucination. But to prove that the sun does actually shine here once in a while, here’s a picture from the Sequim lavender fields (about a 45 minute drive from Port Townsend, FYI, for you future tourists.)
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I’ll be on the radio tonight in California (so those of you near Cupertino, be sure to tune in.) I posted a link to the podcast as the interview will be up later for the rest of you!
Jeannine Hall Gailey will be interviewed (and do a reading from her new book, She Returns to the Floating World
) on JP Dancing Bear’s radio show Out of Our Minds on 91.5 in Cupertino, CA, from 8-9 PM Pacific time on Wednesday, July 27th. Podcast will be available afterwards at http://outofourminds.posterous.com/.
By the way, if you go to that site now, check out Dana Levin’s interview on Sky Burial from two weeks ago. Pretty great! JP Dancing Bear asks great questions. I hope I can come up with coherent answers!
I was thinking a little bit about our economy, on our drive home, seeing so many shuttered storefronts in Port Townsend, Sequim, and the surrounding small towns. This is the worst economic time I have ever lived through. Trying to make a living as any kind of writer in this era of closed bookstores and publishing revolution is tenuous at best, especially with academic jobs being cut left and right and states and the Federal government slashing arts funding.
On the other hand, I have been celebrating the good news of writer friends (a book taken here, a chapbook contest there) and have been so grateful for everyone who has bought a copy of my new book. I won’t stop writing because I am worried about paying student loans and balancing my checkbook. I won’t stop enjoying the occasional sunny day just because we’re having a frigid rain-filled summer.
Interview with Christine Deavel, Co-Owner of Open Books and author of Woodnote
Christine Deavel was raised in North Manchester, Indiana, and graduated from Indiana University and the University of Iowa. She is co-owner of Open Books: A Poem Emporium and lives in Seattle, Washington; her first book, Woodnote, is debuting from Bear Star Press in September.
Jeannine Hall Gailey: As someone who has been on both sides of the poetry bookshelf – as both a writer and someone who co-runs an all-poetry bookstore (Open Books in Seattle) – what kind of insight could you share about what puts a book into a reader’s hand? How do we poets connect with poetry buyers? I know one of the reasons I love Open Books is because of the generous insights and opinions of what you guys are currently reading, and you’ve helped me find a lot of new poets to love.
Christine Deavel: Let me put on my bookseller hat for this answer: If a poet’s goal is to get a book placed in bookstores, it helps mightily to understand how the book business works. In fact, before agreeing to let a publisher take on a manuscript, a writer would be well served to know how that book will be announced, advertised, and distributed to the trade. In other words, how would a bookstore learn about and order the book? Will the press be working to get the book reviewed? Will the press send information directly to bookstores? What is the press’s minimum order requirement for the store to receive a trade discount? Will the book be at a wholesaler? How does the press handle sales for author events? The more that poets know about the publishing/bookselling world, the better they can support their work through bookstore sales.
JHG: Christine, your new book, Woodnote, is unusual in its physical shape – and in the shape of the poems themselves, which range from typical lyric shorter poems to long pieces that incorporate paragraphs of prose and fragments – and I like that you sort of went outside of the usual range of what people typically think of as poetry. Could you talk a little bit about how (and why) you pushed the physical boundaries of the book, and of the poem’s shape?
CD: We have a quotation from the Polish poet Anna Swir up on the wall at the bookstore — “Every poem has the right to ask for a new poetics.” That’s what happened for me in the writing of the pieces that are in “Woodnote.” The material taught me how to shape it. The book’s publisher, Beth Spencer, suggested the square book to accommodate the long lines in several of the poems. I’m grateful that she was willing to give the work that space.
JHG: How do you think working in a poetry-only bookstore has influenced you as a writer? Besides getting to be around books all day, you get a perspective on the business-side of poetry that many of us rarely encounter. Do you think this has made you more adventurous in what you write and what you look for in a publisher?
CD: I have been incredibly lucky to have so many poetry readers in my life day in and day out. Not just readers of poetry, but lovers of poetry. And of all sorts of poetry. They have taught me an incalculable amount — introduced me to new writers, helped me articulate my thoughts about poetry, and broadened my understanding of it. What I read always affects what I write. I firmly believe that books talk to books. I’m extremely grateful not just to be surrounded by books but to be visited by ambassadors for those books. I do think I’ve become more open as a reader than I was as, say, a (too young) MFA student. I’m much more willing to venture into poems that I might not necessarily find to my taste or that might bewilder me. I don’t need to be reassured when I read the way I once did. I’d rather find vitality and risk — and that can be found in any aesthetic.
JHG: Okay, since I’ve got you in here as an interviewee, what books are you looking forward to this fall? Have you read anything lately that you got really excited about and would recommend checking out?
CD: I’ll start with a recent read — New Directions just published “Light, Grass, and Letter in April” by the recently deceased Danish poet Inger Christensen. She was a writer of remarkable clarity and depth, innovative yet grounded. Her volume “Alphabet,” which follows the Fibonacci sequence, is also a stunner. Coming up from Wave Books is a new translation of the Russian/Chuvash poet Gennady Aygi — another of my faves; a powerful, haunting voice. Copper Canyon will be bringing out “The Book of Hours,” a new collection by American poet Marianne Boruch, a writer with acute vision — and an unflinching eye. Those are just a few of the goodies on the shelf and coming this fall!
Video from the Port Townsend Writers Conference
Dear readers, while we are waiting in the horrific long ferry line – the bane of sunny Sunday people trying to get from one side of the water to another – enjoy this video footage of me reading at the Port Townsend Writers Conference. My intro by Dorianne, and the first few lines of the first poem were cut off by my adorable but inexperienced cameraman, husband G. Also, the podium is so big you can hardly see me behind it. I believe it was made for bigger poets than the likes of me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSvpKfdURGA
(The poems are: “Postcard from the Suburbs of Seattle to the Suburbs of Tokyo,” “My Little Brother Learns Japanese,” “The Husband Tries to Write to the Disappearing Wife,” “Anime Girl Delays Adulthood,” and, from my first book, “Wonder Woman Dreams of the Amazon.”)
Reading tonight at the Port Townsend Writers Conference
The sun is out once more and the Northwest is ablaze with sunshine, as though we had been swimming through murky depths of cloud for weeks.
Tonight is the final night of the Port Townsend Writers Conference, and the night of my reading with my personal literary heroine, Dorianne Laux. I hope it goes well. I hope people are still awake on the last night of the conference. This is really the first official outing of She Returns to the Floating World, so I hope I perform respectably. Wish me luck! Will report back tomorrow…probably while waiting in the ferry line to come home…
Port Townsend Writers Conference and a new review of Torn
I’m writing you this note from chilled, damp, but still beautiful Port Townsend. I snuck up yesterday to see Dorianne Laux talk about music and language and Erin Belieu read with Cate Marvin. That Cate! That’s someone you watch read and wish “I wish I was more like that when I read.” Then I went and met some new friends that I had only known by e-mail before, and that was fun. Saw lots of old friends too. I told Glenn I probably knew 80% of the crowd in the audience last night, from someplace.
We saw heron and many, many deer. The whole place was in a cloud, and I think the temp topped out at 59 degrees. Must remember to bring warmer clothes this weekend.
My new Rumpus review of C. Dale Young’s third book, Torn, is up! And I think it’s much better than that New Yorker review. But tell me what you think!
https://therumpus.net/2011/07/even-more-taboo-than-love/
I’m reading on Saturday with Dorianne and feel excited but nervous. I bet everyone will be exhausted by Saturday night. People are already starting to get the midweek “stare of doom.” Wish me luck!
Late July Happenings
I had so much to do the last week – we celebrated our 17th anniversary, Glenn turned 40, and of course, still organizing readings and such for my new book, She Returns to the Floating World. (Have you gotten your copy yet? I still have a few copies left if you want a signed copy…) New readings I’m putting together include the Richard Hugo House’s Cheap Wine and Poetry Series this fall and the new Northwest Bookfest in October. Excitement! The fall is filling up!
Remember to check www.versedaily.com tomorrow to see a poem from my new book! (Link to the poem will go live tomorrow…so excited to see which one it is! Thanks Verse Daily guys! – Here it is, “Advice Given to Me Before My Wedding”)
I’m going up to visit the Port Townsend Writers Conference this week as well, culminating in a little reading on Saturday night, the 23rd, at 7:30, with none other than my literary heroine Dorianne Laux. A dream indeed! And I am looking forward to catching up with lots of friends – after all, I used to live up there! (And here’s a list of readings in the local paper the Port Townsend Leader, including mine!)
Hope you’ve been enjoying the Summer Interview series feature on the blog! So far, we’ve featured Roland Kelts on Japanese literature, novelist Helen Phillips, Kelli Russell Agodon, Susan Rich, Diane K. Martin, Marie Gauthier, Collin Kelly on social media, Elizabeth Austen on radio interviews. Let me know in the comments if there’s someone you’d love to see interviewed!
I’m going to the rheumatologist down at UW today so if I have enough energy after, we’re going to go see the new Harry Potter (well, if it’s not sold out…lots of kids in capes around here!) I strongly believe in balancing time spent in doctor’s offices with time spent doing something more pleasant. There is so much to be thankful for, this gloomy rain-cloud-y Seattle morning…I’m thankful for my friends, for my husband, that my ankles and TMJ are slowly improving, that my allergy situation seems more stable…that I’m back in a place where I can visit doctors without worrying about crazy unexpected bills (our insurance didn’t transfer well to California…) and that I’m looking forward, in a hopeful way. I’m hoping for good things for this little new book of mine, for my two as-yet-unpublished manuscripts of poetry, for stable health, for dreams of maybe writing a little creative prose, for more work opportunities if if if the economy improves…
Interview with Kelli Russell Agodon on the writing life, balance, and more
Today’s Summer Interview series is with Kelli Russell Agodon, whose recent book (Letters From the Emily Dickinson Room) just won the Foreward Magazine Gold Book of the Year Award, is also a good friend and a constant encourager. Here’s what I said about her second book:
“Agodon’s book is a bright, funny, touching meditation on loss, love, and the power of words. Her genius is in the interweaving of God and Vodka, bees and bras, astronomy and astrology, quotes from Einstein and Dickinson, a world in which gossip rags in checkout lines and Neruda hum in the writer’s mind with equal intensity.”
Kelli Russell Agodon’s current book, Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room (winner of the White Pine Press Poetry Prize) was recently named Book of the Year in Poetry by ForeWord Magazine. She is also the author of Small Knots (2004), Geography (2003) and an editor at Crab Creek Review. She lives in a small seaside town in the Northwest where she’s an avid mountain biker, hiker, kayaker, and is a new fan of longboarding (stand-up paddle surfing).
She blogs about living & writing creatively here: Book of Kells www.ofkells.blogspot.com
Connect with her on Facebook here: www.facebook.com/agodon and find her on Twitter here: kelliagodon. Her main homepage: www.agodon.com.
Letters From the Emily Dickinson Room (White Pine Press Poetry Prize) (2010)
Small Knots (2003)
Jeannine Hall Gailey: First of all, congratulations on winning the Gold Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award in Poetry for your new book, Letters From the Emily Dickinson Room!
You’ve always inspired me by having a practical and hardworking approach to the impractical art of poetry. Could you talk a little bit about your goals over the past ten years and how you set them? What is your approach to the art of poetry submissions?
Kelli Russell Agodon: Thanks, Jeannine! It’s was incredibly exciting learning about the Foreword Prize, I’m still in disbelief of it, but feel very honored having been chosen.
As for my practical approach to the impractical art of poetry, I have always believed I go about things differently in my writing life because of my Capricorn nature. Many artists are right brain thinkers, some artists are messy and enjoy chaos, but as someone who has always been stronger at math and making lists, I have a lot of left-brain elements that have helped me organize my writing life, both in making time for it and setting goals.
My main goal for my poetry has always been to write a good poem, only to be followed by try to write a poem better than the last poem I’ve written. But I’m someone who looks at things in small steps—write a poem, submit a poem, put strongest poems together, write a poem in a similar theme, organize manuscript, submit manuscript, etc—and see them lead to larger projects.
Also, I have a great group of friends who I email my goals to as I realize I am more accountable to others if I have to report back whether I made my goals or not. It’s kind of a mind-trick, but it’s a good way for me to stay on track and get things done.
One way my goals have changed over the past ten years is that I’m not as attached to outcome as I have been in the past. My goal is write and complete good work. I am less concerned if these works go on to be published or win awards (though I do like this when it happens) and more concerned about the joy and satisfaction I get with the act of writing.
As for poetry submissions, my routine is random and haphazard, and I wouldn’t recommend it. I can go months upon months without submitting poetry. I believe in regards to submissions, the smartest writers have some sort of schedule like “submit one batch of poems every Friday.” This is what I’d recommend to poets who want to get their work published and out in the world.
My way is to neglect submissions until I realize I have nothing out to literary journals then send out a huge batch and neglect it again until I have nothing out. I find I become overly critical with my own work when I’m submitting it, so I have to put on my Personal Assistant hat and literally tell myself that I am Kelli Agodon’s assistant who is just submitting poems, not revising them. As I type this, I’m seeing a lot of the art in poetry goals and submissions are to play a lot of tricks on myself.
JHG: As one of the editors-in-chief of Crab Creek Review, could you tell us what the magazine is looking for, and what in direction you see it heading? What advice would you give poets trying to have their work published in literary journals? What’s the biggest mistake beginning poets make when they send work in?
KRA: Crab Creek Review is definitely working toward a more national presence. We’ve been in print since 1984 and have no plans of going out of print or becoming an online journal. We have a strong group of donors, subscribers, readers and writers who keep us going and we are so thankful for this. We’ve added some new features such as interviews (our current issue has interviews with Mark Doty & Todd Davis and our next issue will feature Nin Andrews), but we always focus on our goal of publishing the best writing from the Northwest and beyond.
For poets trying to publish their work, my advice would be—
1) Submit your best work and submit finished poems. That might sound funny to read, but you’d be surprised how many poets send off their poems prematurely. They are very close to being done, but had the poet done one or two final revisions before sending it off, it could have made the difference.
2) Learn about the journal you’re submitting to and what kind of work they publish, don’t just send blindly to places you’re not familiar with.
3) Don’t let rejections get you down. We all get rejected. If someone says they never get rejections, they are lying. It’s part of the deal with being a writer. Realize your work may have been rejected merely because the editor was tired when she read it or the issue was already full—don’t assume it was rejected because it was of poor quality.
As for the biggest mistake new poets make, here’s some do’s (and a don’t or two) I’d recommend (along with some mistakes I made myself when I was a beginning poet)—
1) Don’t trying to be cute, quirky, or whimsical in their cover letter or with their submission. As a younger poet, I have done very dumb things like handwrote “Enjoy!” with some weird cloud scene on a cover letter as if this is what would get me noticed. It probably did, but not in a good way.
2) Do start with your favorite regional magazines. Many times if you are published with them, you’ll be invited to their release party as a reader; this is a great way to learn about publishing and get a chance to read for an audience.
3) Do be humble and professional. Send a cover letter with any publication credits you may have, maybe something about yourself or something you like about the last issue.
I once wrote on my cover letter to The Paris Review something like, “I have returned to writing poetry and I wanted your magazine to be the first place I submitted.” I’m sure they were thrilled with this–Oh great, a new poet sending us her horrible poems. I never considered that this statement from me was probably a huge red flag that I had no idea what I was doing.
4) Don’t follow-up too quickly or be upset if it takes a while to get back to you. Remember that many literary journals are run by volunteers who are writers themselves and we have to balance our own lives, other jobs, family and our writing as well. We do our very best to respond in a timely manner.
5) Do read and follow the submission guidelines. If you don’t follow them, your work may not even be considered. Each journal is different and have certain ways they do things; they will look at your work with happy eyes if you’ve paid attention to these.
JHG: I ran into some recently graduated MFA students the other weekend, and I noticed a lot of them were a bit down and disoriented after graduation. They had stopped writing, stopped sending out, and felt discouraged and overwhelmed by trying to publish their theses. What three suggestions do have for post-graduate MFA students that you wish someone had told you before graduating?
KRA: One is that is okay to take a few months off and not write. I took quite a few months where I reconnected with friends, went out to lunch, and just enjoyed not writing. Getting an MFA is a lot of work and it’s okay to rest afterwards.
The second advice I’d give is to find a schedule that works for you and stick to it. You earned this degree for a reason—to be a better writer—now it’s your job to find time to do it on your own.
My final suggestion would be to find a group of writers who will be your support. They can be friends from your MFA program or other writers you know. Stay in touch, set goals, and hold each other accountable. Because the writing life is so solitary, it’s good to have a community after graduation to offer support and help each other out.
JHG: On your blog you often talk about trying to balance art with life. What advice would you give someone about trying to build more time for art into their already hectic schedule?
KRA: My main advice would be to simplify your life to what is important. I’m always surprised when writers say, “I don’t have time to write” and then in the next breath ask me if I saw The Biggest Loser last night or I see them posting on Facebook. It’s definitely challenging with all the distractions the world offers and the internet, while a very handy research tool, is also a tempting way for writers to lose a lot of time that could have been spent for writing.
But we each have the same amount of time and we each choose what we want to do with it. Choose your priorities. If writing is a priority for you, you’ll make time for it. It’s kind of tough love advice, but I truly believe it.
JHG: Any final words you’d give writers making their way in the world?
KRA: I recently read a quote I loved from Stephen Prossfield’s The War of Art—”If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), “Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?” Chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”
Doubt always exists in writers and artists. I read that John Berryman would wake up feeling like a genius and go to bed feeling like a fraud. It’s the negative voices we need to turn away from. But deep inside us, I have always believed that each of us knows exactly what we should be doing if we listen closely enough.
My inner compass has always been what’s directed my life and it’s always pointed towards writing. Every time I listened to my head, I was wrong. I chose the wrong jobs, the wrong everything. Every time I listened to that inner voice no matter how ridiculous it seemed, it’s always led me to where I needed to be.
As writers, we just have to trust that our paths can be quite different than the rest of the world. Sometimes we just have to trust it will all work out.
Thanks, Jeannine!
17 years and hoping for another 17…
It was our 17th wedding anniversary today (it’s the furniture anniversary, but we can’t afford any of that this year!) I woke to a beautiful spray of pink roses and lilies from Glenn, and we went on our planned trip to one of the four places I really missed while I lived in California…the Snoqualmie Falls, one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the States and part of the opening credits of Twin Peaks. (The others were the tulip fields in La Conner, WA, which I got to visit for my birthday, the lavender fields in Sequim, WA, which I will see when I go up to visit the Port Townsend Writers Conference for a little reading in about a week, and the little Canadian resort town of Whistler, which they have probably ruined by Olympics-ing it.)
It was tremendous, a cloudless blue sky and the mist of the waterfall a wonderful mix with the warm sunshine, the falls as big as I’ve ever seen them for this time of year (usually in the summer it’s reduced to a bit of a trickle) and the wildflowers blooming over the edges of the falls. The drive up, about an hour away, reminded me of my childhood in the Tennessee mountains – nothing but winding roads around trees for miles and miles. No fancy dinner, no piece of jewelry, could make me as happy.
Interview with Helen Phillips, author of And Yet They Were Happy
Helen Phillips is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, the Italo Calvino Prize in Fabulist Fiction, The Iowa Review Nonfiction Award, the DIAGRAM Innovative Fiction Award, the Meridian Editors’ Prize, and a Ucross Foundation residency. A graduate of Yale and the Brooklyn College MFA program, she teaches creative writing at Brooklyn College. Originally from Colorado, Helen lives in Brooklyn with her husband, artist Adam Thompson.
Links: www.helencphillips.com
To her book, And Yet They Were Happy, on Amazon And Yet They Were Happy (LeapLit)
Helen Phillips’ new book, And Yet They Were Happy, is a mad conglomeration of marriage fables, Biblical tales gone wrong, dead brides and regime changes. As those who read this blog regularly already know, she had me at “fairy tale characters combined with Greek mythology with apocalyptic overtones.” But I was as taken with her form as I was with her subject matter. I’ve asked her a few questions that I thought my poet readers might find interesting!
Jeannine Hall Gailey: Helen, amazing work in your book! You’ve already won the Calvino Prize for Fabulist Fiction, and I read one of the reviews that called your pieces “surreal miniatures.” When I picked up your book, I’m not sure what I was expecting, but what I recognized inside was about two-page pieces that I might call “prose poetry” and that others might call “short-shorts,” “fables” or “flash fiction.” I also read that people described it as “experimental fiction,” but I don’t know if I wanted to label it an experiment, more like a different approach to storytelling.
When did you start working in this form? Can you talk a little bit about how you developed it? It seems unlike what most people think of as a novel, but very similar to a longer, thematically-linked book of poetry.
Helen Phillips: First off, Jeannine, I want to thank you for your insightful and generous description of And Yet They Were Happy—I love the “mad conglomeration” articulation.
I started working on this book in 2007, after I’d gotten fed up with the novel I was working on. I had so many ideas for narratives and metaphors that it was frustrating to be bound to one project that didn’t enable me to throw in, say, a trash-talking mermaid out of the blue. I wanted a project that would enable me to pursue every crazy idea I had. So (at the urging of my husband Adam Thompson, a visual artist who’d recently taken a break from painting to do a series of simple line drawings), I decided to give myself a simple assignment: each day I’d write a 340-word story (approximately one typed page). That was the one and only rule. Beyond that, anything was fair game—Bob Dylan and Persephone could be sitting around the breakfast table with me, as long as I told the tale in 340 words (I’d usually begin by writing 800 or 1000 words and then spend the vast majority of my writing time whittling it down). Somehow having that lone rule ended up being extremely liberating—I felt more alive and alert creatively than I ever had before.
I’m honored by your description of the book as a “longer, thematically-linked book of poetry.” I consider myself primarily a fiction writer (and got an M.F.A. in fiction); however, I believe that poetry is the most highly evolved form of writing. I’ve been enjoying the ambiguity of the book’s genre. Some reviews call it a short story collection, others call it an experimental novel, etc. I don’t care how it’s labeled, and love the idea that different readers perceive it as being different genres.
JHG: What I loved about it, its genre-hybridity, its resistance to classification, made it difficult for you sell at first (I read this in your Goodreads interview here and your Huff post interview here ) – but now it’s been praised by outlets such as Publisher’s Weekly and Elle Magazine, surely not known for embracing edgy fiction. Are you feeling a little bit vindicated? And how much do you love your publisher now?
HP: Yes, it’s been quite shocking/amazing (and indeed a tad vindicating!) that some more traditional media outlets have embraced the book, particularly given the fact that all the big publishers in New York turned it down with comments like “these are just too experimental and I honestly don’t think I could get them the attention they deserve on our list.”
I think perhaps this speaks to your earlier point—ultimately this book isn’t so wildly experimental, it’s more just a different approach to storytelling. There are still clear sentences and paragraphs on each page. There are still recognizable characters and situations. In fact, one of the most common comments I’ve gotten from readers is “This book is so relatable!” It’s a very raw and honest book about love, death, marriage, anxiety, family, etc.—granted, those themes are explored via strange transformations and magical occurrences and contorted fairytales, but all of that serves as metaphors for these central human concerns.
And yes, I will be forever grateful to indie publisher Leapfrog Press for taking the risk none of the big publishers was willing to take.
JHG: The subject matter ranges from weddings to monsters to apocalypses, yet retains an astonishingly down-to-earth (and often humorous) voice and tone. “Fight #2,” for instance, contains language that could be considered Biblical but also references that I thought might be to superhero characters (“WonderTwin powers, activate?” I couldn’t help but be reminded…) In “Wife #8,” Snow White pops up; in “The Helens” section, Bob Dylan and Jack Kerouac. Mermaids and characters from Greek mythology pop up as well. What are your inspirations and influences? A little classical here, a little pop culture there?
HP: I love juxtaposing myths/fairytales/Bible stories with pop culture, because those age-old stories about basic human desires and frustrations are still so relevant. At the same time, combining these mythical images with contemporary ones can make for interesting tension (and, at times, humor). I’m glad you see the humor in the book—that was actually a very important part of this project for me. I wanted there to be the lightness of that to counterbalance some of the bleaker components. I love Ovid’s Metamorphosis, I love the Coen brothers, I love Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, I love Dylan of course …
JHG: Have you ever read Matthea Harvey’s book, Modern Life? It would make a great companion piece for “And Yet They Were Happy” – apocalypse, regime changes, a strangely chipper narrator for grim future scenarios. I just read another book, Monster Party by Lizzy Acker, that also features yes, monsters and apocalyptic scenarios. Do you think our generation (well, I think we’re all mostly in our late twenties to thirties) is particularly interested in the end of world? (I think it has something to do with the nature of the television shows and children’s books popular in the seventies and early eighties, personally…)
HP: I don’t read nearly as much poetry as I’d like to, though I’ve recently been thrilled by Mary Ruefle’s The Most of It and Maggie Nelson’s Bluets (also not sure what genre those books are). I haven’t read Modern Life (I did love Matthea’s recent prose poem, “The Straightforward Mermaid,” in the New Yorker) or Monster Party—I’ll be sure to check them out.
Yes, I’ve been thinking a lot about this apocalyptic obsession. Statistically speaking, the world is better off than it’s ever been. More people live longer, healthier lives. But because of the internet, we have more ability than ever before to know about all the different ways people are suffering and dying. We see scenes of apocalypse all the time—in New Orleans, in Haiti, in Japan, in Iraq, in New York, in Pakistan, in Indonesia. It feels so near at hand.
There’s also a sense now of invisible, unexpected threats. Are our cell phones going to give us cancer? Are our children going to be brain damaged by the mercury in fish from the poisoned seas? In what unsuspecting place will the terrorists strike next? It breeds paranoia.
I feel the paranoia, I feel the fear and instability and loss, and in writing And Yet They Were Happy I was trying to talk myself into a state of greater bravery by confronting those fears head-on.
(I’d be curious to hear more about your theory re: ‘70s and ‘80s books and TV shows!)
JHG: What advice would you give a poet who wanted to try a foray into fiction? After reading your book, I suddenly felt it was a strange but tantalizing territory…you’ve really married an attention to language and economy of expression with a fiction-writer’s broader palettes of character and plot.
HP: Thank you, Jeannine. I teach an intergenre creative writing seminar at Brooklyn College, and we talk a lot about the intersections between the different genres. It seems to me that exploring those intersections is a good place to start if you’re moving from one genre to another. For instance, if you’re a poet interested in writing fiction, try writing a group of three prose poems in which each has the same protagonist. It can be intimidating/paralyzing to do something completely new, like going from writing poems to writing a novel, but there are many intriguing in-between places to explore along that spectrum.
