Saturday, September 14, 2013

One chapter of my new book-in-progress will include a chapbook-length excerpt of ten poems from Gray Jacobik's collection Little Boy Blue, followed by a interview with the poet. Yesterday, as I was working on my questions for Gray, I realized that this is the first interview I've ever conducted. Somehow I hadn't realized how challenging it would be to shape questions that are both focused and open-ended. I wanted them to center on the kinds of issues I'd already brought up in the book: issues of language--punctuation, sentences, characters, etc. I also wanted to highlight that this was a chance to read a larger selection of a poet's work rather than a single excerpted poem--that is, to think about the way in which a poet creates a dramatic and thematic arc in a collection.

Anyway, it took me all day to write six questions, although I do think the act of writing questions about a work of literature was in itself a productive way to think about the work.

1 comment:

Elizabeth G. said...

How did your interview with Gray go? She was the most astoundingly generous mentor, so perfect for my first semester of grad school. I keep all her packets in a notebook and reread them when I'm revising poems. My very own Letters to a Young Poet!
I love her series of poems Little Boy Blue. She let me read them in manuscript form while she waited years for a publisher to be brave enough to print them. She is such a courageous writer!
I've missed reading your blog and so glad I dipped in to catch up on all your projects!
my best to you, Elizabeth