Archive for the ‘Author Interviews/Articles’ Category

In celebration of the release of their new record, Eight Belles, the band Jessie Murphy in the Woods did something truly, impressively unusual: they interviewed a poet. More specifically, BOA’s own Keetje Kuipers.

Why, you ask, would a band do something like that? Good question. Here’s what they say:

“We – Jessie Murphy In The Woods – have just completed the great adventure of releasing our first record, Eight Belles. We’ve put it out, we’ve played shows in homage to it, we’ve been interviewed about it, and we’ve traveled in support of it.

Now it’s time for something new.

It’s time to turn our attention from out put to input. We are seeking new sounds, words, ideas and inspirations. Part of our process of doing that is conversing with other artists and persons of serious intrigue. We’d like to share some of these conversations with you, 10 of them to be exact, in a series we call Thank You, Please, and Welcome to The Woods. We will be interviewing ten artists who are (by our lights) total luminaries in their craft. During these late August nights, surrounded by tall pines and whistling winds, we will warm ourselves by the fire of their intellect and we will share that warmth with you.”

And they started their series with Keetje Kuipers! Wow – a band that’s so interested in poetry that they turn the focus away from their own project onto the work of a contemporary poet? Give those folks a prize! Or, at the very least, a hearty round of applause.

Read the entire interview here and gain some new insights into Keetje’s debut collection, Beautiful in the Mouth, even above and beyond the author’s favorite kind of ice cream (one small hint: it’s “Peppermint–the kind with the little chunks of candy canes in it.”)

[Keetje Kuipers interview by Jessie Murphy In The Woods]

The thrust of Wallace Stevens’ poem ”Not Ideas About the Thing But the Thing Itself” is often repeated as the hard nugget of a quote from William Carlos Williams’ poem “A Sort of a Song”: “No ideas but in things.” If ever a poet’s method could be distilled into five words, it is this.

 In the newest BOA translation, The Book of Things, (translated from the Slovenian and with an Introduction by Brian Henry), Aleš Šteger simultaneously adopts and discards this poetic advice. Each poem in the book is built around a single, simple noun (or “thing”). For example: Egg, Knots, Stone, Grater, Chocolate, Bread, Hand Dryer, Knives, Aspirin, Salt…

 In this way, Šteger hews closely to the notion of making poetry from the common “things” of our lives. However, once his subject is secure, Šteger launches into associative flights that make it clear that the noun, the object, the thing, is merely the start of his creative process. As translator Brian Henry writes in his Introduction: “In Slovenian, the poems in The Book of Things employ subtle sound play, puns, doublings, and echoes, which I have tried to transmute into English on a comparable linguistic scaffolding. Of course, the ideal translation of these poems would not be other poems, but the things themselves.”

Indeed. Here is one my favorite poems from The Book of Things that takes a carnivorous subject for it’s leaping off point: Sausage. While it may not be an actual sausage, or even the original Slovenian version of Šteger’s poem, it is a wonderous creation in its own right.

Sausage

Did you see? Two hundred thousand frankfurters

Demonstrated for workers’ rights.

 

Six million kosher salami gassed in the second world war

And a million hot sausages murdered fifty years later in the Balkans.

 

But at the same time, concern. The number of obese mortadella is rising.

It is necessary to take immediate steps against gonorrhea in the blood sausage.

 

And ooooh, some special sausage in a mini skirt.

And look at that Hungarian in high heels. Her stitch and wonderbra.

 

Meaty mixture of lies, fears, faltering and hope.

But why love, this frightening concept?

 

Is your stomach rumbling again? Come, put it in your mouth.

Between the anus and the mouth the appetite of a body for a body.

 

Bulimic mass, caught in the bowel of language.

Hurt it. Take it. Let the words burst between your teeth.

“There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”

That’s what they say, right? Even a terrible review usually includes a kernel of positivity – and, at the very least, there’s the chance that the reviewer’s revulsion will spark someone’s curiosity.

But the best thing about a bad review is that you don’t have to sit down to Sunday dinner with the offending reviewer. The best thing to do is read it (or don’t), recycle it, and move on with your life. I mean, it’s not like they’re your… mom.

Which brings us to one of the most nerve-wracking experiences an author can face: the presentation of one’s book to family members. How will they react? Will they see themselves in your pages? And, once they do, will they like what they see? And when they don’t… then what? 

As Barbara Jane Reyes says in this illuminating and funny blog post, “Critics, book reviewers, academics, po-biz H8ers got nothing on the fear I felt when I handed my mother her copy of Diwata.”

Barbara’s new collection, Diwata, is hot off the presses and delves heavily into her family history. Read how Barbara handles the “presenation of the book” to her family and also talks about the power of connecting her work back to her family:

 [Diwata: Telling and Writing Family Story]

Craig Morgan Teicher’s Cradle Book is in the running for the Story Prize. The Story Prize is a distinguished annual award given to a short story collection. We hope Craig’s book wins. He deserves it. While they’re making their decision, the Story Prize people are running brief interviews with authors whose collections have been submitted. Craig’s interview just came out and shines a little more light on his singular take on stories, fables, poems, and where Cradle Book lingers in the lands between…

What is your writing process like?
I write often. If I didn’t, I think I’d be pretty hard to deal with. Most of the “creative” writing I do (I work as a kind of journalist) is poetry; Cradle Book was a project I got obsessed with for about a year. I love fiction, but started writing poems as a teenager because I realized quickly that I didn’t have the attention span or patience to write fiction. The fables in Cradle Book are the closest I think I can get to fiction–they’ve got characters and little plots, but they also work a lot like poems, turning on phrases. Plus, they’re short–the longest one is about 7 pages, which took a lot out of me! So, to write the pieces in Cradle Book, I sat down with a sketchbook–my favorite thing to start writing in–and tried to get from beginning to end of the fable in one sitting. Then there was lots of revising…

Read the whole interview here [Craig Morgan Teicher's Short Attention Span]

In honor of Peters Makuck’s Long Lens: New & Selected Poems, Newsobsersver.com has a wonderful piece about the man and his work:

Bozena U. Zaremba writes about Cecilia Woloch in the new issue of The Cosmopolitan Review:

“Petite figure, dark brown hair – lush and curly. Her slightly slanted eyes are kind, attentive and wide open to people who have come to listen to her poetry. The moment Cecilia Woloch starts to talk, the audience falls silent. This extraordinary gift of attracting people’s attention immediately draws the listeners into the vibrant and powerful world of her poetic imagination. The emotional intensity, the meaning of each phrase and the rhythm of every stanza come across through her reading so forcefully that her poems assume a new, farther-reaching life. Her commentaries are brief yet telling, and Cecilia presents them only when she deems it necessary. Explaining her family roots is one of those instances.”

Read the rest of the article here [Carpathia on Her Mind]

On April 16th at 6:30 p.m. Keetje Kuipers was interviewed on The Moe Green Poetry Discussion with Rafael F.J. Alvarado & Brett-Candace.

Listen to hear Keetje speak about her new book, Beautiful in the Mouth, which won the A. Poulin, Jr. prize here at BOA. Keetje talks about the her writing experience and what it was like to publish her first book. Don’t miss Keetje read a few poems from the book as well!

Also, live on Friday, April 22nd, a rememberance of Lucille Clifton will take place on the Marc Steiner Show, broadcasting on WEAA in Baltimore, MD.

Listen live on www.weaa.org, or download a podcast from
www.steinershow.org after the show. Here’s an excerpt from the website:

“Clifton, a prolific wordsmith known for deceptively simple poems that speak volumes about contemporary life, the African American experience, and womanhood, served as Maryland’s Poet Laureate from 1979-1985. We sit down with friends, colleagues, and fellow poets to discuss her life and work.”

As many people know, Lucille Clifton was born and raised near Buffalo, NY, so it is fitting that The Buffalo News would pay tribute to her with this beautiful article by R.D. Pohl. Lucille Clifton will posthumously receive the Poetry Society of America’s Frost Medal tonight at the National Arts Club in New York City.

“It will be a bittersweet celebration Thursday night at the National Arts Club on Gramercy Park South in New York City when the Poetry Society of America awards its highest honor — The Robert Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime achievement in American poetry — posthumously to Lucille Clifton. The Frost Medal typically involves a guest lecture on the part of the recipient, but this year the format has been changed to incorporate a tribute to Clifton’s life and work featuring several of the leading figures in American poetry.”

Read the rest of the article here [Lucille Clifton to receive Frost Centennial Medal posthumously]

BOA authors aren’t just poets and fiction writers. They are also teachers, mentors, journalists, reviewers… and a whole bunch of other things unrelated to literature. Whether it’s literary or not, we love authors who are engaged in the larger world. Getting involved with your community – whether it’s on a local, national, or international scale – is the best way to effect change. The surprise result is that such engagement also deepens ones writing.

Craig Morgan Teicher’s new book, a collection of adult fables titled Cradle Book, will be released in May. In addition to being a stellar poet and fiction writer, Craig is active in the literary community through his journalism, reviewing, and teaching. He is the poetry editor of Publishers Weekly, a contributing editor of the literary journal Pleiades, and a Vice President on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. He also teaches at Pratt Institute and Columbia University. In short, Craig is out in the world!

His latest article for Publisher’s Weekly addresses an issue that publishers think about a lot. Book reviews. Every year, BOA sends out roughly 1,000 review copies of our books. So, obviously, we think they’re important. But still, it’s crucial to constantly appraise the situation and ask: Who publishes reviews? Who reads them? Do they sell books? Help authors? Are “good” reviews always more helpful than “bad” reviews? What do we mean by “good” and “bad” reviews anyway? Why do we love reviews so much and how do they help everyone involved?

Craig tackled this complicated issue for Publishers Weekly with the help of some publishing professionals. Their answers shine light on the issue of reviews and show that, while there are no “right” answers about the usefulness of reviews, there are lots of reasons to appreciate them:

Read Craig’s article here [What Poetry Reviews Are For (And Up Against)]

“Well, we need to keep extending imaginations, pressing, repeating, invoking, suggesting what other realities might exist, instead of the nightmares of war and hatred and conflict.”

Naomi Shihab Nye’s above response during an interview with Cerise Press is as good a summation of her poetics as I’ve ever heard. The interview digs into the intersection – and possibilities – of the intersection between art and politics (by which I mean: peace).

Read the interview here [Cerise Press Interview with Naomi Shihab Nye]