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?
Both lyric and speculative, this
poetry book imagines a human mission to Mars, the consequence of climate change
and environmental ruin. The landscape of Mars is a canvas on which the trespasses
of the American Frontier are rehearsed and remade. The collection is mostly
concerned with the danger of the colonial mindset, as well as how environmental
destruction and gendered violence are linked.
Which poem/s did you most
enjoy writing? Why? And, which poem/s gave you the most trouble, and why?
Poems that I found especially
pleasurable to write include the sonnet crowns: “Deep Space Crown,” and “Backflash:
Seven Catastrophes,” and “Fugue for Wind and Pipes.” I love the incantatory
quality of a sonnet crown, how the last line of the previous sonnet becomes the
first of the next, the calculation and geometry involved of making complete
thoughts legible inside the form.
I also had so much fun with the less
“traditional” forms in the collection, such as the poems that use
question-and-answer templates: “Red Planet Application,” and “Lost Exit
Interview.” Mixing registers of language—bureaucratic
jargon and the diction from standardized tests with the elusive moves of lyric
poetry—that was a great pleasure to me, very playful and freeing.
I don’t remember any poems being
more troublesome than others, but putting together a book structure that made
sense was maddening. The original
manuscript had three sections with the “Backflash” poems—those poems that give
glimpses of the ruined earth, the consequences of climate change—all in their
own section, midway through the book. In the end, I scattered those poems
throughout the book instead, thinking of them as brief associative flashbacks, glimpses
that occur fleetingly and with warning, more the way memory actually works.
With the new structure, I had to shorten the book to make the temporal balance
work, cutting a couple of poems I still kind of miss.
Tell us a bit about the highs
and lows of your book’s road to publication.
The process for this book was
difficult, sadly. The manuscript started
finalizing or placing in contests as soon as I begin to send it out—a good
sign!—but took forever to land. There
was so much interest from many presses, but it took a very long time to get a
commitment: this is a big problem with the poetry contest model.
Then, I finally got the book
under contract, but I had a bad experience with that publisher; I ended up
pulling the book from them after some unethical behavior on their part. Finally,
my manuscript ended up in the hands of Lisa Ampleman and Shara Lessley, who
went wild for it. I’m so glad I ended up in their hands; working with Acre
Books (the micropress at The Cincinnati
Review) has been terrific so far.
What’s your favorite piece of
writing advice?
“Don’t write what you know;
Write towards what you don’t know.” Even when you are using content or forms
that you’re familiar with, I think pushing your focus towards what is
mysterious or strange—about language, about people, about an event or
experience—is the most important thing you can do. In this book, I really exaggerated
this approach by creating a whole world and set of circumstances that were
wholly imaginary.
My favorite writing advice is
“write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of
this book?
Honestly, I can’t believe I got
away with a lyric poetry collection that’s mostly set on Mars, and that some
people are taking it seriously. Have you ever heard of such a thing?
How did you find the title of
your book?
The title of the book comes from
a fairly unremarkable two lines in the last sonnet sequence, “Wind for Fugue
and Pipes.” I like it for its lyric
strangeness—how can you tear the tilt from the seasons, exactly?—but also for
the ways in which it hints at climate change, the possibility of a planet
thrown off-kilter, violently and irrevocably.
Inquiring foodies and hungry
book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any recipes I
might share?)
I wish! Food is very difficult
and rationed on Mars. Any recipes are
probably vegetarian, too, since animals can’t really survive there.
I think the only drink mentioned
in the book would be whiskey in the first poem: alluding to the genre of the
Western, those frontier cowboys are always getting drunk. And one of the poem
sequences, “Flashback: Seven Catastrophes,” taking place in Indonesia, mentions
eating fried rice and coffee, as well as American pizza topped with
hallucinogenic mushrooms. Sorry, I don’t
have a recipe for that! Too bad.
*****
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