Archive for the ‘Author Interviews/Articles’ Category

If you’re lucky enough to be near Marfa, Texas this Friday, make sure and tune in to NPR’s KRTS 93.5 FM at 10am CST (that’s 11am EST, for us here on the East Coast) to hear BOA translator Deniz Perin give an interview! Don’t live in Texas? You can still listen online here on Marfa Public Radio’s website by clicking the “Listen Now” button at the top of the page. Still finding an excuse not to listen? We’ve got you covered; Perin’s interview will play again at 6:30pm CST, or 7:30pm EST here near the pond.

Perin, who lives in San Diego, is the translator of BOA’s recent Book of the Edge: Poems by Ece Temelkuran, which she translated from the original Turkish. Her work has appeared in numerous national and international journals, including Atlanta Review, The New Review of Literature, Poetry International, Transcript, and Words Without Borders. Perin was recently awarded the Lannan Fellowship, and is currently a Lannan Foundation Resident Writer in Marfa. Her most recent work, translations of Nazim Hikmet’s poetry, cam be found in the Ecco Anthology of International Poetry from HarperCollins.

The Lannan Foundation is a family foundation out of Santa Fe, New Mexico, dedicated to the support and aid of contemporary writers and artists pursuing aims of cultural freedom, diversity and creativity, as well as inspired Native activists in rural indigenous communities. The Lannan Foundation’s generous backing supports translations here at BOA Editions, and our Lannan Translation Series, of which Book of the Edge is a notable part, is named for them. The prestigious Lannan Fellowship recognizes an artist or writer for extraordinary work in their field, and provides time and support in order for to continue with or complete specific projects. The fellowship is also awarded to those who show potential for future outstanding work.

Adam McOmber, the author of BOA’s This New and Poisonous Air, had a recent discussion with Time Out Chicago’s Jonathan Messinger about the historical elements in his new book. Though all of the tales in his debut collection of short stories are steeped in the uncanny and the macabre, McOmber says that he is “really interested in using elements of the fantastic in a serious way, not the whimsical elements of the fantastic you see in some short stories.” His draw to history is apparent as well, as in his stories “The Automatic Garden,” and “There Are No Bodies Such as This,” both of which take actual figures from history as their principal characters.

In speaking of the historical figures he adopts as characters, McOmber also speaks of his love of history and attention to detail, which combines in his work with his incredible imagination to produce something altogether otherworldly. “I am interested in history, but a lot of my fiction has to do with escaping and the imagination… I do a lot of research so there are authentic details, but that allows for even more escape, even for me as a writer. I don’t have to think about my current surroundings. I have to think of something outside myself.” In speaking of the life of Madame Tussaud, the celebrated creator of the now-famous wax figures which bear her name and the main character of “There Are No Bodies Such as These,” McOmber says “I would say I manipulated Madame Tussaud’s history somewhat, but the interesting thing is that she manipulated her own history… Certainly I did research, but getting inside the dream life was fun for me.”

And everywhere in the tale is found as well McOmber’s “intricate, beautiful and horrifying” prose, a “density of language” which he describes as “difficult to get into [...], but once you get into it, [you] you get swept up in the poetry of it.” Says Messinger, “The story uses carefully gilded elements of psychological horror to explore the depths of the characters’ emotions… [M]any of McOmber’s stories [prove] to be a numinous place, an impassable puzzle box with its own idiosyncratic key. ”

You can read the full article here.

This New And Poisonous Air is available for purchase here.

Nikola Madzirov, the Macedonian poet behind Remnants of Another Age, was recently interviewed by L.A. Grove of the California Journal of Poetics. Discussing the history of the Balkans and Europe which is so felt in his poetry, Madzirov answers in his characteristically cryptic, lyrical way, touching on the themes of borders and the ways in which everything in the world has more than one story.

Born into a family of refugees from the Balkan Wars, Madzirov draws from the political history of the region in some of his poems, particularly “A Way of Existing.”  When asked about the role of a poet in the historical record, he references how both poetry and history have personal and “official” sides, and that it is the role of the poet to answer these histories, on many levels. He says,

“When my ancestors, who were refugees from the Balkan wars from the beginning of the previous century, started digging the new land in order to build their new home, they came across ancient swords from the time of the Ottoman Empire which ruled over these territories for 500 years, but they also found worms which my grandfather used for fishing… I was born at the crossroads between the historical battles that were fought in the yard where I live now and the mysteriousness of the land that covers all lost objects that belonged to the people who used to live here before me.”

Poetry’s responsibility is to tell other stories, and not just to agree with the ones left by historians, Madzirov says. “If poetry existed solely for the purpose of affirming historical “truths,” it would have become history long ago.”

The interviewer also talks about Madzirov’s close work with the translators of his newest collection, Magdalena Horvat, Adam Reed, and Peggy and Graham W. Reid. A translator himself, who references translating as “one of the ways to break the chains of the painful ideological reality,” Madzirov speaks of the intertwining of sound, image and word, referencing the other artists with who he has collaborated as well as other notable writer/musician/artist combinations.

Translating for Madzirov is not necessarily a question of  transference of authorship, but a question of how the new work is read by the audience. If the work and the authors are houses and rooms, then “[t]ranslators are certainly the architects of the streets and entrances to that home.” He sees translating, particularly the translation of his own work into languages he doesn’t know, as a kind of elevation of the language beyond what the dictionary can give you into a kind of  “civilizational palimpsest that does not belong to any state or national literature.” Translation does not merely stop at words on a page; it is enacted in the writing down of the words, the reading of the words, the eventual speaking of the words aloud, and last but not least the hearing of the spoken word by the audience.

You can read the entire interview here.

Remnants of Another Age was published in March 2011. It is available for purchase here.

Recently, book reviewer Craig Santos Perez interviewed Barbara Jane Reyes about her poetic process and recent book, Diwata, for part of his series through Jacket2, Last Commentator In Paradise. They talk extensively and thoughtfully about many elements of her creative process and focus. They talk also about where she’s been, as a writer, and where she’s going next.

When asked about the mythos of her writing, she talks about the complexities of storytelling and perspective, and her great love of traditional storytelling methods. Among many other things, she says,

“I am always looking for someone other than myself to ‘tell the story,’ or to be the speaker, as I prefer to think about my own stories, and those of my family, within the context of these larger cultural and historical narratives. If my grandfather survived the war (WWII), for example, then what did his ancestors survive? Because I can’t knowledgeably answer this question, because I don’t know the names of so many of my ancestors, because I do not know the details of their lives, I invent, I speculate, I turn to myth-making.

[...]

I wonder about other perspectives on a well-known enough story. What voices have we not heard, what perspectives do we take for granted or neglect or fail to consider? Whose versions of the story are suppressed or repressed and why?”

The ideas of perspective and giving voice to the silent are pervasive throughout the dialogue, and later Reyes also admits, “I have come to poetry because it is a place for those suppressed voices to speak, and to do so beautifully.”

Through her thoughtful responses and Perez’s equally thoughtful and reactive questions, much of the spirit of Reyes’s culture, writing style and ethos, and sincerity shine through. The conversation is one well worth reading, full of literary allusions and references to themes, folklore, and specific poems and styles used throughout Diwata.

Through the interview it is clear that Reyes devotes a great amount of love and labor to her artistic form, and uses it as a fundamental lens for the world: “poetry is the thing which allows me to translate, understand, participate in this world, to be of this place.”

The entire interview is available here.

Diwata is now available for purchase.

Barbara Jane Reyes. BOA Poet. Photo by Peter Dressel.

In Craig Santos Perez’s recent interview,  Barbara Jane Reyes, author of Diwata,  discusses with her trademark candor and precision the origins of her poems, her relationship with the traditions of story-telling, and her ever expanding vision of poetry.

The interview begins with an exploration of Barbara’s cultural concerns in which she acknowledges that she is “always looking for someone other than [herself] to ‘tell the story,’ or to be the speaker,” exploring those stories “within the context of these larger cultural and historical narratives.”

The scope of the interview continues to widen from there, covering a range of Barbara’s interests. When asked if she sees her work “bridging between different cultural stories,” Barbara poignantly responds:

“Already, poetry is the thing which allows me to translate, understand, participate in this world, to be of this place. That may not be good enough for some; it does sound esoteric. But specific to my poetry, yes I do think of it as an effort to bridge my cultural and diasporic experiences. And really, it’s that neither here nor there, both here and there, not Filipino enough, not American enough feeling, which you may call diasporic or transnational experience, which informs my readings and listenings, and ultimately, my poetics. I am drawn to poems and stories in which the storyteller/poet uses the poem/story to figure out her state of being multiple and hybrid. It’s satisfying to see this worked out elegantly in language and form. I used to write in fracture, but now that doesn’t feel right, to accept an identity and language that is fracture (even using the term, “subtracted bilingual,” feels like acquiescing to fracure). So then “bridge,” could be its opposite.”

Read more of Barbara’s interview at Jacket 2:

Talking with Barbara Jane Reyes

Remnants of Another Age. Poems by Nikola Madzirov.

3:AM Magazine writer SJ Fowler recently conducted an interview with BOA Editions poet Nikola Madzirov. Madzirov’s new book, Remnants of Another Age, came out March 15th, but, as Fowler points out in his introduction, Madzirov is already a significant, seasoned author in Macedonia.

The interviewer poses questions that span the length and breadth of Madzirov’s poetic career, but also asks him to consider what it means to be a Macedonian poet, and what the feeling for poetry is in his home country.

Madzirov’s response is charcteristically lyric and thoughtful:

I do not believe in everlasting national poetic concepts. We share the language of our childhood, the common pain and expectations of the ancestors whose words cannot be dug up at any archaeological site; we shared the films and books carefully selected by the groups responsible for invisible censorship and the long struggle between the pagan traditions and Christianity that always ends in assimilation. All these things connect us in one family that uses the same language, but different concepts of selfhood and (m)otherhood. Individualism was the main form of aesthetic radicalization and so it is today.

Interestingly, Madzirov also posits that “It is tragic if poetry is regarded as a way of confirming the stories of official histories. Poetry testifies or leaves secrets, but only through its own identity and fragile presence.”

The rest of this insightful interview is available through 3:AM Magazine’s website.

Matthew Shenoda. BOA Poet

Adrian Matejka recently interviewed Matthew Shenoda, author of Seasons of Louts, Seasons of Bone for the Ploughshares blog, noting that it is “[t]hrough Matthew’s work, we learn poetry is both about speaking up and about surviving and as long as we do these things, ‘they just cannot touch us.’”

In the thought-provoking interview, Matthew’s discussion with Adrian Matejka centers on the political dimensions of Matthew’s writing, asking for Matthew’s thoughts on the recent turmoil in Libya and Egypt as well as how the worlds of art and politics intersect.  For Matthew, a “disengaged artist is of little use to society-at-large.” He asks “Is it not the job of the artist to explore in all of its glory and ugliness the world which we call home and is all of what you are mentioning not a central part of that?”

You can read more from the interview on the Ploughshares blog here.

The Black Warrior Review recently interviewed author G. C. Waldrep who responded openly and insightfully to prompts about his life and work.  In the interview, Waldrep discussed the effort and energy that went into his forthcoming collaboration with John Gallaher (Your Father on the Train of Ghosts) and also the difficulty of tandemly revising these poems.

Waldrep also addresses his spirituality and his time spent living in the Amish community in an in-depth and reflective way.  As he says, “since [he] had devoted so much of [his] life at that point spiritually and temporally to community–not having a community, it was like a divorce.”

Finally, Waldrep’s connection to music and the musicality of his poems are also discussed, which helped to illuminate his process behind and views of his own work, particularly that of his “music book” and “special child,” Archicembalo.

To read this complete and insightful interview with G. C. Waldrep, click here.

Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre,  part of the English Department at Oxford Brookes University, will tell you it has four main objectives. These include promoting contemporary poetry locally and to assist in the connection and correspondence between poets. The Centre’s website and newsletter chooses a poem/poet every week to praise and “publish.” This week, they made a great decision in sharing with the reading community the poem “Big Band Theory” by Sharon Bryan. Bryan’s book Sharp Stars, published by BOA Editions, won the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award in 2009.

This week, to celebrate National Poetry Month, G.C. Waldrep and John Gallaher will be releasing one post a day discussing their collaborative effort in Your Father on the Train of Ghosts.  Just like their poetry collection came to life through an email exchange, so does this discussion, which artfully discusses the question, “Can reading and writing be public/collective/collaborative acts?”  The “fantasy” of originality and the “Romantic I” is also contended, after which Gallaher leaves us with the statement that “all writing is collaborative.  One collaborates with the world.

The whole article can be read here.