-May as well start here. I’m curious: what’s
your elevator pitch for your book?
My debut collection, The
Fool, explores the economic and spiritual poverty of my adolescence in Los
Angeles—as well as the formation of my own family and spiritual development
when I moved East to the Boston area.
-How did you come upon the subject of your
book?
Like many poets, I explore
my formative years in my first collection. It’s not a necessary rite of passage.
But, it seems, retrospectively, that I needed to lay this sort of foundation
for the manuscripts I’ve in development now. In writing The Fool I feel
as if I’ve exorcised (or at least, have exercised!) some of the demons that’ve
held me back—one of which is the cause of our family’s poverty: the absence of my father due to his war-induced,
severe PTSD.
-And the title? Sometimes, it seems to me,
titles can strike like lightning or can be extraordinarily elusive. How did you
go about finding your title?
The book is named
after the central character of the Tarot Deck who encounters all manner of
archetypal people and situations as she moves through each phase of her life. In
many ways The Fool character is analogous to the debut poet who explores her
formative years as if on a journey from ignorance into (the beginnings of)
understanding. Some people have asked me, “Are you The Fool?” I tell them,
“Yes, and so are you.” We’re all The Fool! I found this out when I worked as a
phone-psychic in my 20’s. I also discovered then that reading poetry is much
like reading a Tarot spread—so much depends on the juxtaposition of symbols and
the connotations of words.
-Tell us something about the most difficult
thing you encountered in this book’s journey.
Writing about meeting
my father for the first time in 14 years was difficult. But after the galleys
were in, and I’d begun pre-publication promotional readings, I felt courageous
again. I geared up to visit him one more time (by then, it’d been 21 years since
our last meeting).
-And the most pleasurable?
I know a lot of other mother-writers
who gave up writing entirely so they could focus (only) on nurturing their family.
And, I know a lot of other adjuncts in academia who gave up writing because
they were burnt out trying to survive. I am so fortunate that I have a
supportive husband and writing community who have helped me keep hopeful, and
active, and thriving as a writer!
-What’s the best and / or worst piece of advice
(writing or publishing or similar) you’ve gotten?
“Don’t stop!” Don’t
stop writing. Don’t stop sharing your work and trying to publish. That’s what poet
Dean Young told my grad school class. He told us about wonderful and
accomplished writers, dear friends, who just stopped writing. Faded out. He
said he almost gave up too. Of course, his stories were always full of his
constant learning, and growth as a writer—so it was apparent we weren’t meant
to just pound the keys and bombard publishers. Clearly, he wished us to read
and read and learn and learn and engage and engage with all art and the writing
life.
-Tell us one of your favorite books you’ve
discovered recently and say a little about why.
Visiting Indira
Gandhi's Palmist by Kirun
Kapur is fantastic! Every poem has substance, richness, layers. They’re longish
poems—pretty packed, but without sounding or being prosey. She attends to her
line breaks (too many “lyric poets” and “narrative poets” do not, these days). I’m
really excited to read her next book!
-Can you share an excerpt from your book? Give
us a taste.
Rooting
Root
for the nipple, root for the home team,
root
your foot
and
ground
when
crisis strikes. Root in your trash
for
treasure. But, the root of all evil
is
uprooting—and always thinking,
I’ve
got no trash, or, I
come from me.
Fool—this
means you’re numb
to
the root
that
binds our family.
-What’s a question you wish I asked? (And how
would you answer it?)
Well, if this were a
Tarot reading you might ask, “Is my fate set?” And I’d answer, “No. Prophecies
detail possible futures—when we know what’s possible we have the power to change
our lives for the best and the adventurous.”
-OK, we’re smitten. Where do we go to buy your
book?
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