Contributor's Notes–Jessica Young

Interviews and guest posts from the writers and artists of Versal 10. This edition features Jessica Young. Jessica Young currently teaches at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor.  She completed her Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (poetry) at UofM, where she held a Zell Fellowship, and received two Hopwood awards and the 2010 Moveen Residency.  Her undergraduate work was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she received four Ilona Karmel prizes for her poetry and essays.

Have you been to Amsterdam? What did you do while you were here? If you've not been yet, what do you think you'd do in our fair town?

I haven’t yet visited, but would really like to. In fact, the current idea is to visit in October. First on the To Do list is the Van Gogh museum. Recommendations are very much welcome!

What is the first creative thing you ever did?

I remember doing experiments with household items.  For example, after seeing a bouquet of roses decay over the course of a week, I was curious what could sustain them longer. I remember buying a fresh rose, carefully removing all of the petals, and then on this rather organized and labeled grid, coating the petals with different materials. I had a control (uncoated) petal, one slathered with Vaseline, another with lemon juice, another with oil, etc. And I watched them over the next few days to see what happened.  I also remember subjecting my parents to “coffee bags,” after discovering tea bags and questioning why only certain beverages could be prepared like that.

What is the dumbest thing anyone has ever said to you about being a writer?

I don’t believe anything has been outright dumb, though I’ve certainly come across misunderstandings.  People who suggest, for example, that art isn’t difficult to do, or isn’t useful.  These statements lack an awareness or generosity about the difficulty of creating a world out of words and evoking emotions and images, or the idea that lives are affected and changed by art.  I find these ideas troublesome—do people think I’m wasting my time in la la land?  But I also understand, as I certainly don’t know what theoretical mathematicians do all day, or what their practical contributions to society are.  So I just try to respond, briefly, with what art has meant to me, as a way to suggest that its impact is very real.

If you were an angle, what kind of angle would you be?

Scalene.  No question.  And for no other reason than this is the angle that people seem to forget most, and it’s just a nice word… scalene.  We should say it more.  Say it with me—

If you could meet a writer from the 15th, 16th or 17th centuries, who would it be? And what would you talk about?

Not a writer in the conventional sense, but I’d love to do a chitchat with Galileo.  He was doing astronomy, of course, but writing was an integral part of his career because (a) he needed to secure funding, and (b) he needed to write a certain way so as not to upset the Church.  After he found proof of Jupiter’s moons (the first person to do so), he wrote a letter to the Grand Duke of Tuscany requesting funding for a better telescope.  In various versions of the letter you can see him trying out the wording… telescopes are good for warfare since we can see an approaching army, no, then, they are good for science, etc.  Words mattered.  And ultimately, as we all know, they resulted in his house arrest.  What we’d talk about—I’d love to tell him what came of his research and name, and what the current ideas and questions in astronomy are.  Maybe we’d even build a little telescope together.

Tell us something few people know about you.

That’s a dangerous question.
My grandmother died almost two years ago, and I still haven’t really reconciled that as fact.  I still know her phone number by heart.  That I’d dial that number and the voice on the other line wouldn’t be hers—I just can’t grasp that.  Let alone the idea that she’s not here anymore, that she doesn’t exist in that sense. I’m sad about it every day.

Other than Versal (which has clearly been awesome), what's one great place you've been published?

Massachusetts Review—I really enjoy the mix of poetry and essays (among other genres!).

Why did you send work to Versal? Be honest.

This is my second time being in Versal.  I submitted this time because I was stunned by the quality of the issue that first time—the level and range of the work, the book as an object of beauty.  So much energy, talent, and splendor in one book—cover to cover (covers included!).  To be a part of that, as a writer, means so much—community, hope, and warmth.

What has lasted you ten years?

I had a stick of deodorant that must have had a trapdoor into an alternate dimension made entirely of deodorant.  I used it, day in and day out, for years and years… twisting the little knob at the bottom to push more up… and it just kept going.  Eventually I just threw it away.  It wasn’t even done (I saw I had at least an inch more still in the tube), I was just that weirded out by it.

Tell us what you're working on right now.

On the individual poem scale, I’m just writing the poems that come to me without any particular goal or constraint.  On the book scale, I’m gearing up toward assembling my next collection.  My first one was very structured—it’s a re-envisioning of Alice in Wonderland, called “Alice’s Sister,” that is due out in Summer 2013 with WordTech.  This next one will be a compilation of individual poems, hopefully including the two currently housed in Versal.  Now, I just need to figure out how to put 60 poems together and find some sort of coherent theme…

Contributor's Notes–John Pluecker

Interviews and guest posts from the writers and artists of Versal 10. This edition features John Pluecker. John is a writer, interpreter, and translator. His work is informed by conceptual poetics and cross-border cultural production  and has appeared in outlets in the U.S. and Mexico, including the Asymptote, Picnic, Third Text, Animal Shelter, and HTML Giant. He has published more than five books in translation from the Spanish, primarily by Mexican authors. There are two chapbooks of his work, Routes into Texas (DIY, 2010) and Undone (Dusie Kollektiv, 2011). A third chapbook, Killing Current, was published by Mouthfeel Press in 2012. 

Have you been to Amsterdam? What did you do while you were here? If you've not been yet, what do you think you'd do in our fair town?

Never been to Amsterdam. If I went, I think I'd sit near some water, some canal, on some dike and drink a coffee. Then stay out all night.

What is the first creative thing you ever did?

Made a dam in a creek.

What is the dumbest thing anyone has ever said to you about being a writer?

"If you're not selling your work, you're doing something wrong. I have a friend that sells all his poems and stories and makes good money. You should talk to him."

If you were an angle, what kind of angle would you be?

Acute.

If you could meet a writer from the 15th, 16th or 17th centuries, who would it be? And what would you talk about?

Álvar Nuñéz Cabeza de Vaca. His years wandering through the land we now know as the state of Texas.

Tell us something few people know about you.

But then everyone would know.

Other than Versal (which has clearly been awesome), what's one great place you've been published?

Animal Shelter.

Why did you send work to Versal? Be honest.

My friend K. Lorraine Graham had mentioned the magazine to me, I think. I checked it out, bought a copy, liked it and sent in some of my work.

What has lasted you ten years?

My relationship with my man.

Tell us what you're working on right now.

A continuing collaborative experiment around language justice and language experimentation with my co-conspirator Jen Hofer: Antena. Last year, we did an installation at Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas—a temporary bookstore, reading room and literary experimentation lab—and we recently wrote a chapbook reflecting on our experiences.

Contributor's Notes–Bess Winter

Interviews and guest posts from the writers and artists of Versal 10. This edition features Bess Winter. Bess Winter's fiction has won a Pushcart Prize, and has appeared in American Short Fiction, Bellingham Review, Paper Darts, PANK, and elsewhere. She's the Podcast Editor at The Collagist, and currently lives in Toronto, Canada.

Have you been to Amsterdam? What did you do while you were here? If you've not been yet, what do you think you'd do in our fair town? 

Have not been to Amsterdam yet, but would love to go. Wish I could say I’d do something romantic, but realistically I’d probably fill up on chocolate and beer and fret about the possibility of bedbugs at my hostel. 

What is the first creative thing you ever did?

Honestly, play with dolls. I made paper dolls as a kid. Mostly out of old magazines and vintage book illustrations, which I’d take to Kinko’s, color photocopy, cut out and cover with clear tape like they were laminated. These made up a huge percentage of my toys. And because I was an only child who played alone quite often, I never bothered with making my dolls move or walk around or anything when I played. I just stared at them and made up stories. 

What is the dumbest thing anyone has ever said to you about being a writer?

When you write that bestseller you can support your family.

If you were an angle, what kind of angle would you be?

I failed math in high school. Therefore, I would be a circle.

If you could meet a writer from the 15th, 16th or 17th centuries, who would it be? And what would you talk about?

The Earl of Rochester, pre-syphilis. He was like the Hunter S. Thompson of the 17^th century. I’d probably just listen to whatever he had to say, rather than talk.

Tell us something few people know about you.

My online cribbage ranking is Princess. It took me 2 years to get there. Once I hit 1700 points I’ll be a Lady.

Other than Versal (which has clearly been awesome), what's one great place you've been published?

Paper Darts, coming out soon.

Why did you send work to Versal? Be honest. 

I grew up in Canada, so I’m in love with international journals. That was part of it. Also, the fact that you’re not an academic journal appealed to me. That Versal is your brainchild. I love that.

What has lasted you ten years?

A pair of Camper shoes with soles made of tire tread. 

Tell us what you're working on right now.

A collection, and a novel.

Versal @ AWP: Editors Edition

Here's a secret. Prose team editor Daniel Cecil is an AWP virgin, y'all. Hit him up with weird and alcohol. He likes beer.

Want a private reading from Versal's pages? It's called Red Light Raffle and it's sexy all the way from Amsterdam.

If you're still wondering what panels to go to, check out these with our very own editors in tow.


THURSDAY

9:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.
Room 102, Plaza Level
R105. Trying on New Bootstraps: Self-Sustaining Models for Literary Magazines. (Steph Opitz, Jennifer Woods, Megan M. Garr, Halimah Marcus) As the university-supported literary magazine increasingly becomes a less viable model, literary magazines must find new methods for generating support. Publishers from Electric Literature, Versal, and the Lumberyard Magazine share their secrets.

4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.
Room 204, Level 2
R259. Beyond Ekphrasis: The Pedagogy and Practice of Other Art Forms in the Creative Writing Classroom. (Rachel Marston, Caitlin Horrocks, Shena McAuliffe, Nicole Sheets, Robert Glick) Whether a text/image hybrid, such as the paintings of Frida Kahlo, or a photo/text novel like W.G. Sebald’s Austerlitz, the combination of artistic media can create an emotional and intellectual power greater than its individual parts. Techniques used in painting, sculpture, and music can be invaluable in teaching the creative writer new ways to think about his or her work. In this panel, we’ll show you how, without outside expertise, you can bring other arts into the creative writing classroom.


FRIDAY

1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Room 306, Level 3
S204. How to Lose Friends and Alienate Loved Ones: Exploitation vs. Documentation in Creative Nonfiction. (B.J. Hollars, Roxane Gay, Marcia Aldrich, Ryan Van Meter, Bonnie J. Rough) Not every story is flattering, nor is every character. Nevertheless, nonfiction writers continue to document their lives and the lives of others, often at the risk of violating personal relationships. How should writers navigate between revealing the true nature of their subjects without alienating the people themselves? Join four writers as they explore the fine line between documentation and exploitation, among other ethical dilemmas inherent in writing of friends, family, and loved ones.


If you missed it, check out our Contributors Edition of what AWP panels we think you'll enjoy.

Versal @ AWP: Contributor Edition

Everyone everywhere has a "guide to AWP" already, so no need for that here. But we would like to give you two pieces of advice:

1. Jetlag is your friend.
2. Come to Versal's table (J20) and eat licorice with us.

More Versal-AWP shenanigans? It's called Red Light Raffle and it's all yours.

In the meantime, if you're still not sure what panels to go to, we've gathered a list of panels our past & present contributors will be shining on. Which means: these panels will kick ass.*

Tomorrow, stay tuned for a list of panels our editors are on. Which means: more ass kicking.


THURSDAY

9:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.
Room 206, Level 2
R117. Writing Masculinities. (Samuel Ace, Thomas McBee, Farid Matuk, Rickey Laurentiis, Brian Blanchfield) This panel will offer a cross-genre/cross-sexuality/cross-gendered reading, with discussion to follow, about the interweave of the (other than) masculine in one’s work by writers who use “he” but put the “he” in question. Panelists will read from work that reimagines the landscape of the masculine, directly or obliquely, through a dense exploration of subject matter and language, while raising important questions about how masculinity is defined and what it represents.

12:00 noon to 1:15 p.m.
Room 312, Level 3
R184. Prose and Verse Consubstantial: The New Mixed Form. (Peter Streckfus, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, C.D. Wright, Carole Maso, Julie Carr) Prose is our culture’s default for narrative. Writing organized by the poetic line is our default for lyric expression. This panel presents writers who, in lieu of erasing the boundaries between the paragraph and the line, alternate both forms in the same work. Authors will read from their own mixed-form work and discuss precedents from the rich history of the mixed form, ranging from Zukofsky’s “A” to Basho’s Narrow Road. How can mixed form serve the poet? The novelist?

4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.
Room 204, Level 2
R259. Beyond Ekphrasis: The Pedagogy and Practice of Other Art Forms in the Creative Writing Classroom. (Rachel Marston, Caitlin Horrocks, Shena McAuliffe, Nicole Sheets, Robert Glick) Whether a text/image hybrid, such as the paintings of Frida Kahlo, or a photo/text novel like W.G. Sebald’s Austerlitz, the combination of artistic media can create an emotional and intellectual power greater than its individual parts. Techniques used in painting, sculpture, and music can be invaluable in teaching the creative writer new ways to think about his or her work. In this panel, we’ll show you how, without outside expertise, you can bring other arts into the creative writing classroom.

3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.
Room 110, Plaza Level
R224. Larkin to Love or Hate: British Poetics in Conversation. (Carrie Etter, Carol Watts, Lytton Smith, Tim Liardet, Zoe Brigley Thompson) Four leading British poets of distinctly different styles discuss the current state of British poetics by beginning with the common dividing line of Philip Larkin’s importance for contemporary poetries in the UK. Together, their talks will bring to light and explore the exciting array of recent developments in British poetry.


FRIDAY

9:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.
Room 111, Plaza Level
F113. 1913 10th Anniversary Reading. (Sandra Doller, Ben Doller, Srikanth Reddy, Charles Bernstein, Ronaldo Wilson, Jane Lewty) Celebrate ten years of innovative cross-genre publishing with 1913, a journal of forms and 1913 Press! Indebted in name and notion to the radical early modernist spirit, 1913 publishes emerging international writers and artists alongside some of our most renowned. 1913’s 10th anniversary is the 100th anniversary of the year 1913—the year Rosa Parks is born and Harriet Tubman dies; Malevich’s Black Square and Stein’s Tender Buttons; and the movies move to Hollywood and Russian Futurist books proliferate.

9:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.
Room 206, Level 2
F118. The Colloquial Baroque: Productively Deploying the Arcane. (Lisa Russ Spaar, Brenda Hillman, Joanna Klink, Gregory Pardlo, Brian Teare) How do damasked registers of diction and syntax contribute more than dazzling surface texture to poems of erotic, religious, aesthetic, and psychological complexity? What are the risks and pleasures of working in mixed modes of difficulty? Five aesthetically diverse poets discuss their use of Keatsian fine excess and their relationship to Hopkins’s statement that “Obscurity I do and will try to avoid so far as” is consistent with excellences higher than clearness at a first reading.

10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Room 313, Level 3
F160. Yoga and the Life of the Writer. (Krista Katrovas, Melissa Pritchard, Pam Uschuk, Suzanne Roberts, Andrea England) We’ll give brief testimonials regarding our Yoga practices and discuss how meditation as well as physical aspects of Yoga enhance writing/reading lives. The session concludes with demonstrations of chanting and chair Yoga, the latter offering practical, safe techniques, for counteracting the effects of sitting still for long periods. The audience is encouraged to participate. Career status is irrelevant to this panel, which will consist of writers/Yoginis at different stages of their careers.

12:00 noon to 1:15 p.m.
Room 101, Plaza Level
F161. Experimental Fiction Today. (John Parras, Daniel Green, Alissa Nutting, Ted Pelton, M. Bartley Seigel) Editors, writers, critics, and teachers discuss recent trends in experimental fiction and how such work enriches the publishing landscape, the creative writing workshop, and the direction and function of literature itself. What are some of the more exciting trends in innovative fiction? What are the special challenges and rewards for writers testing fiction’s limits? How does fabulist work work? If all literature is innovative, what distinguishes the experimental from other types of fiction?

1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Room 200, Level 2
F200. Making the Case for Community Outreach / Service as a Part of the MFA Experience. (Eric Heald-Webb, Jessica Kinnison, Dora Malech, Nina Buckless, Amana C. Katora) As the role of graduate writing programs has expanded beyond the teaching of writing, service programs have become one way to offer graduate students experience in both teaching and community outreach. In this session, panelists who are closely involved with such community outreach organizations will reflect on the benefits to themselves, their graduate program, and their community, in order to make a case for formalizing Community Outreach/Service Programs as a part of the MFA experience.

1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Room 306, Level 3
S204. How to Lose Friends and Alienate Loved Ones: Exploitation vs. Documentation in Creative Nonfiction. (B.J. Hollars, Roxane Gay, Marcia Aldrich, Ryan Van Meter, Bonnie J. Rough) Not every story is flattering, nor is every character. Nevertheless, nonfiction writers continue to document their lives and the lives of others, often at the risk of violating personal relationships. How should writers navigate between revealing the true nature of their subjects without alienating the people themselves? Join four writers as they explore the fine line between documentation and exploitation, among other ethical dilemmas inherent in writing of friends, family, and loved ones.
4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.
Room 312, Level 2
F278. Ready for Prime Time? The Future of Enhanced Digital Publishing. (Martin Lammon, Karina Borowicz, Julie Marie Wade, Benjamin Mitchell, Emily Chamison) Editors of the new digital literary journal Arts & Letters PRIME discuss the future of enhanced digital publishing, from start-up to design, from production to distribution. Designed for tablet readers such as the Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy, and Kindle Fire, enhanced digital books and journals are changing the way we read. Joining the editors are two PRIME contributors, author Julie Marie Wade and poet Karina Borowicz, who discuss how digital media has impacted their work and literary exposure.


SATURDAY

10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Room 107, Plaza Level
S133. Lower Your Standards: William Stafford in the Workshop. (James Armstrong, Philip Metres, Alissa Nutting, Jeff Gundy, Fred Marchant) This panel considers how William Stafford’s complex and still-controversial approach to the poetry workshop can help overcome some of the pitfalls of that system (such as writing for the teacher or writing the safe poem). Panelists recount their own experiences using Stafford’s ideas in the classroom; they discuss how Stafford’s no praise, no blame stance towards the imagination, his notion of the centrality of daily practice, and his insistence on overcoming writer’s block through lowered standards can help students become fluent practitioners.

10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Room 303, Level 3
S149. We Are Homer: A Reading of Collaborative Poetry and Prose. (Ryan Teitman, Traci Brimhall, Laura Eve Engel, Adam Peterson, Brynn Saito) In this reading of poetry and prose, two pairs of writers (Traci Brimhall & Brynn Saito and Laura Eve Engel & Adam Peterson) will read from their collaboratively written works. Ryan Teitman will also read from a set of poems cowritten with Marcus Wicker. After the reading, the writers will discuss their writing process, how they came together to write collaboratively, and the challenges and joys of writing with a partner.

10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Patricia Olson Bookfair Stage, Exhibit Hall A, Plaza Level
BF34. Lynx House/Lost Horse: How Two Presses Collaborate. (David Axelrod, Greg Pape, Bill Tremblay, Ray Amorosi, Dawn Lonsinger) Lynx House Press and Lost Horse Press, both small, active literary presses based in the inland Northwest, have discovered that their missions are much the same: to publish the highest quality poetry and literary fiction in editions that are above trade standard in design and to achieve for these books the widest possible circulation and cultural impact. The terrific results of their collaboration, on display at this event, suggest a model that other small presses might consider.

12:00 noon to 1:15 p.m.
Room 110, Plaza Level
S162. Courting the Love Poem: Challenges of Sincerity and Sentimentality. (Alyse Knorr, Timothy Liu, Joe Hall, Beth Ann Fennelly, Nate Pritts) Who’s afraid of the big bad love poem? How does the contemporary love poem fit in today’s postmodern literary landscape? This panel discusses the poetics and politics of writing the love poem, including the challenges of evoking sincerity, avoiding sentimentality, and working with a theme as old as poetry itself. What are the current poetic modes of writing love poems, from the autobiographical narrative to intentional experimentalism? How do gender and sexual orientation influence poetics?

4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.
Room 103, Plaza Level
S238. Winter in the Blood: Adapting Fiction into Film. (Prageeta Sharma, Alex Smith, Andrew Smith, Ken White) The screenwriting panel will discuss the methodology of adapting literature for the screen using the 2011 production of James Welch’s novel Winter in the Blood as a model. The directors and screenwriters will focus on strategies of adaptation, including writing in consideration of culture, geography, budget, and practical production elements in an ever-changing contemporary independent film market.

4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.
Room 204, Level 2
S250. Celebrating Your Own Backyard: How Regional Literary Magazines Engage and Build Writing Communities. (Carla Spataro, John Henry Fleming, Chris Haven, Maureen Alsop, Christine Borne) This panel, with representatives from regional literary magazines from across the country, will explore the joys of celebrating what they know and how regionally focused literary journals help build writing communities through workshops, professional development events for writers, and readings.

*Apologies for any mistakes, oversights, or inconsistencies. We copied and pasted this off AWP's site. If you're a Versal contrib and we missed your panel, let us know! Also, feel free to add links to your offsite in the comments and we'll tweet it.

Contributor's Notes – Candy Shue

Interviews and guest posts from the writers and artists of Versal 10. This week, we hear from poet Candy Shue, a poet and reviewer who can be heard online on Poet as Radio. A recent recipient of a Kundiman Fellowship, she holds an MFA from the University of San Francisco. Her work has appeared in Spiral Orb, Eratio, The Collagist, EOAGH, Switchback, Washington Square, and recently in Drunken Boat and the current issue of Mead Magazine.  Right now Candy is putting together a chapbook titled "Whiskey, Water, and White Dwarves", which is looking for a home!

Have you been to Amsterdam?  What did you do while you were here? If you've not been yet, what do you think you'd do in our fair town?

  

Yes--I loved taking the trams to the outdoor markets and perusing the bookstores!  I found a first British edition of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast in a secondhand bookshop, which was exciting. 

What is the first creative thing you ever did?  

When I was four, I turned my baby quilt into a magic carpet and sailed into the wild blue yonder.  On one adventure, I journeyed into the night of the forest (my bedroom closet) where I fell asleep and missed dinner.  

What is the dumbest thing anyone has ever said to you about being a writer?  

People have actually been really great about it.  I was filling out a medical form once and under “Occupation,” I decided to write “Poet”--the first time I had ever declared it officially.  My doctor looked at the chart and said, “You’re a poet?  That’s wonderful!” and told me about some Italian poetry he’d read, since he was Italian.  It surprises people when you tell them you’re a poet.  

If you were an angle, what kind of angle would you be?  

I’d be an angle fish.  I mean an angel fish.  An angel angler.  An angle wrangler.  I’m sometimes acute and often obtuse, but I’m not a right angle.  

If you could meet a writer from the 15th, 16th or 17th centuries, who would it be? And what would you talk about?

If I could go back to the 9th century, I’d like to hang out with Hanshan, the Chinese hermit poet.  He wrote on nature--bamboo, stones, wood, cliffs and even people’s houses.  I expect we wouldn’t talk very much, but that would be ok.  For a later era, I’d choose the Japanese Zen Poet Monk, Ikkyu.  I think he’d get a kick out of hearing how his character keeps popping up in Japanese anime and manga.       

Tell us something few people know about you.

I grew up swimming and playing water polo, so I spent a lot of time in pools!  The rhythm of swimming is something that I feel when I’m writing poetry, and I’m attracted to the imagery and dynamics of water in my work.    

Other than Versal (which has clearly been awesome), what's one great place you've been published?

Versal has been awesome!  I was also happy to have my poem “Love Is a Weather of Body” hyperlinked to the other poems in the journal Spiral Orb Four.  And I’m looking forward to have poems in Drunken Boat’s upcoming issue on Hypnopoetics.  

Why did you send work to Versal? Be honest. 

I was introduced to Versal when I was printing a poetry chapbook at the San Francisco Center for the Book.  The SFCB is a fantastic place--they have drawers and drawers of old metal type and three vintage Vandercook printing presses.  I was drawn to Versal’s crisp design, especially the contrast between the bold title type (DIN1451 Engschrift) and the seriphed body type (Bauer Bodoni).  I loved the crispness of the writing as well, so I was excited when my poems were accepted for the journal.

What has lasted you ten years?

I have an 11-year old station wagon, but I’m not sure it counts because I had to replace the engine a few years ago when it died as I was driving up the Grapevine (in California) in 113 degree heat.  Books last, though!  I was just re-reading my copy of W.S. Merwin’s The Miner’s Pale Children.  Here’s the first line from his story, “Ends”:  “When a shoelace breaks during use the ends do not always indulge at once in their new-found liberty.”  I love that.    

Tell us what you're working on right now.

I recently finished a syllabus for a poetry workshop and now I’m writing poems and working on book reviews for Poet As Radio.  I’m doing a series of poems on hypnogogia, which is the transitional state between being awake and asleep. 

Contributor Notes: Dora Malech

Interviews and guest posts from the writers and artists of Versal 10. This week, we hear from Dora Malech he author of Say So (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2011) and Shore Ordered Ocean (Waywiser Press, 2009). Her poems have appeared in publications that include The New Yorker, Poetry, American Letters & Commentary, and Poetry London. A graduate of Yale and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, she has been the recipient of a Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship, a Writer's Fellowship at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Italy, and inclusion in the International Writing Program's "Life of Discovery" creative exchange in China. She has taught writing at institutions that include the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop; Victoria University's International Institute of Modern Letters in Wellington, New Zealand; and Saint Mary's College of California, where she served as a Distinguished Poet-in-Residence. She lives in Iowa City, where she writes, creates visual art, teaches, and directs the Iowa Youth Writing Project, an arts outreach program for children and teens.

Have you been to Amsterdam? What did you do while you were here? If you've not been yet, what do you think you'd do in our fair town?

I have. I visited the amazing Jane Lewty and Wade Geary at Thanksgiving 2011, and it was most likely the best Thanksgiving of my life. I ate my weight in stroopwafel, had my mind blown across the spectrum of human emotion and ideas by art and history (visiting the Anne Frank house, going to the Rijksmuseum, taking a tour of the canals), and met some incredibly welcoming and brilliant writers and artists (including the Versal crew!). I also gave a reading at the English Bookshop and gave a Q&A with Jane's students at Universiteit van Amsterdam. I felt so grateful to have had the chance to see Amsterdam through the eyes of a tourist, but I felt even more grateful that Jane and others allowed me to simply live their Amsterdam lives with them for a few days.

I was also on a deadline to finish a piece as part of an International Writing Program collaborative exchange and performance. I went to Amsterdam with all of my thoughts and notes, and I spent most of my mornings there writing and revising in Jane and Wade's spare room. I ended up finishing the piece there and reading it for the first time at the English Bookshop reading. The piece is not "about" Amsterdam, but it deals with travel and flight and distance, and it will forever be linked to Amsterdam for me.

What is the first creative thing you ever did?

I know that when I made colorful crayon scribbles as a very small child, and my mother asked me to tell her what I was drawing (a house? a dog?), I would cryptically tell her that they were "designs." I hope that doesn't make me sound like I was a pretentious toddler. I also think that playing pretend was (and still is?) a big part of my creative life. I have an older sister, so for a long time, my creative life was collaborating with her on imaginary identities and worlds.

What is the dumbest thing anyone has ever said to you about being a writer?

I can't say the dumbest, but I can say the most obnoxious. When I finish giving a reading, I always feel very raw and pretty vulnerable and dazed. Whether or not it shows to the audience, I feel like I put it on the line emotionally when I read. It is, therefore, the worst possible moment for someone to play weird power games with me (intentionally or not), because I am off balance and overly receptive. Multiple times, someone (and yes, it's usually a man, and yes, he's usually older than me) comes up to me and says "Can I give you some advice?" Rather than saying, "Buzz off. Who just gave a reading, me or you?" I say "Sure." Then I get a lecture on what he would have done differently (I've gotten everything from "Don't give any context for your poems; leave the audience wondering" to "Don't look at your watch; it's distracting.") I always wonder if these folks give lectures to everyone, or if I have some kind of "kick me" sign on my back. Perhaps they're well-intentioned, and it's obviously not a huge deal in the greater scheme of things, but I keep hoping I'll come up with a witty retort for the next such occasion. I suppose it falls right into Rebecca Solnit's "Men Explaining Things" paradigm. 

If you were an angle, what kind of angle would you be?

I would be my Chihuahua mutt. Backstory: I named my dog "Angel" in a moment of pure, unadulterated sentimentality when she came into my life. She was a puppy that fit in my hand, and I was a weepy 20-year-old college student. She is my favorite creature on earth, but she is not angelic. At a certain point, we stopped calling her "Angel" and started calling her any number of different names, including "Angle," which is a much more accurate name. So, yeah, I'd be that Angle. 

If you could meet a writer from the 15th, 16th or 17th centuries, who would it be? And what would you talk about?

Oh lord it would be Shakespeare. We'd talk about everything. Everything. Everything. And then we'd spoon for a while. 

Tell us something few people know about you.

Well, I just told you that I want to spoon with Shakespeare, so my fantasies about other dead writers won't seem that revelatory now. I'll go less personal: I have an extra vertebra in my spine.

Other than Versal (which has clearly been awesome), what's one great place you've been published?

I've loved being published in Anti-, because it seemed like the editor, Stephen D. Schroeder, really believed in my work at a point when I didn't necessarily believe in it myself. I'm also just in great company with the other writers and artists he publishes, and I was psyched that Anti- included both my poetry and my visual art at different points.

Why did you send work to Versal? Be honest.

I met the Versal editors in Amsterdam and also got to spend some quality time with Versal 9. I felt like it was an aesthetically gorgeous and exciting publication, and it felt "curated" like a good art show, not just kind of thrown together. Megan Garr encouraged me to send work, and I was more than happy to do so. 

What has lasted you ten years?

My red Schwinn bicycle. A brown corduroy jacket with a fake-fur hood from TJ Maxx. Some amazing friendships (I started grad school in 2003, so I'm coming up on the ten-year anniversary of some of my dearest poetry-friendships).

Tell us what you're working on right now.

I'm working on a third book of poems that's still in flux, and on a number of other projects. Bringing my visual art and text together. Exploring anagrams as heuristics. Working on longer poems. Trying to find my way from one word to another.