TBR
[to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors
of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books who will tell us about their
new work as well as offer tips on writing, stories about the publishing biz,
and from time to time, a recipe!
We don’t expect an elevator
pitch from a poet, but can you tell us about your work in 2-3 sentences?
My poetic efforts attempt to
honor the places and people who had, and still have, a deep impact on the way I view
the world. I often semi-jokingly borrow
the title (tweaked, mind you) of an NPR program
called This American Life. My version would be This African American Life.
What boundaries did you break
in the writing of this book? Where does that sort of courage come from?
I am happiest about the
continued emergence of my emotional honesty. We (and when I say we, I mean my
peers, my boys, my posse) taught ourselves how to sublimate (if not suffocate)
our “feels”, as the kids say these days.
I got really good at it. This
time around, there isn’t as much humor as emotional deflection. I pray it continues.
The Amir and Khadijah section of
the book is as close as I will ever come to playing
Ballads like Miles Davis. (Dear Diary- I fell in love.. once. Got some
poems out of
It… ) The hardest were the poems with references to
cancer. My body and my life
were too much in shock to delve
as much as I should have. But I wanted
the poems to be “a graph of me”— as Amiri
Baraka once said.
Tell us a bit about the highs
and lows of your book’s road to publication.
I never expected to publish a
book again…. When asked, I felt like
someone being asked to dance at the prom. The lows? The anxiety surrounding the book’s birth.
Would people hate it? Laugh as if it were an item of clothing from, say, the
late 1960s? I mean, it has been… ahem… 20 years…..
What’s your favorite piece of
writing advice?
Keep moving the thematic
furniture around. Revision is possibility!
My favorite writing advice is
“write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of
this book?
I would have to say the fact
that my longing (which has always been a kind of screaming secret) made its way
into a few of the poems.
How did you find the title of
your book?
Scattered Clouds came to
me after a walk in Central Park–early December 1989. It was my initial choice for the book which
became fingering the keys. People (which
includes editor-type people) thought the title was too somber. In retrospect, it is a better fit for the newer poems, which
don’t shy away from themes of loss and longing.
Inquiring foodies and hungry
book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book?
Would this include the bourbon I
consumed while assembling the manuscript?
*****
READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR:
https://alansquirepublishing.com/book-authors/reuben-jackson/
ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN
TBR STACK: https://alansquirepublishing.com/bookstore/scattered-clouds/
LISTEN TO REUBEN JACKSON READ
SOME POEMS FROM THIS BOOK: https://alansquirepublishing.com/book-authors/reuben-jackson/#1224
