Check out Gary’s latest chapbook, INTERNET YEARNINGS, available here.
poetry
Larry D. Thacker–Interview
Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?
I’ve forced myself to learn to work in any place, especially in busy cafes, which I enjoy, since we don’t often get to choose when we can do work, but at least half of my writing is done very early in the morning, at home, at my desk via keyboard. At other times I enjoy using pen and pad in old cemeteries or slogging out a few hours of writing in a busy cafe.
What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?
Keyboard, pen and pad, notebook on smartphone (very handy for spur of the moment starters). I have no favorite anything. No ideal setting. That’s too much pressure on inanimate objects.
What is your routine for writing?
Up very early. Try to write, read, revise, and submit some every day. At least four
(usually more) hours of writing activity a day.
How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?
Seriously writing for about ten years.
Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?
This is difficult. Much of my work is Appalachian / mountain-centered, though the my hope is that readers from within and without the region find the work. For the more earth-based work, everyone. Depends on the project. I’m not limited by region or issue or topic or mood.
What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?
I just completed a YEAR of a poem-a-day, writing a poem or more a day for that period, so being blocked is a common myth we tell ourselves. Uninspired? Sometimes. Tire? Yes. Blocked? Never. No one is.
What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?
I was in higher ed for 15 years. I’m a painter and photographer. Write lots of fiction as well. Blog. Help manage an antique / vintage store. Buy and sell vintage lovelies.
What is your favorite part of the creative process?
Bringing something new into the world.
What is your advice to aspiring writers?
Read. Read. Read. Frakin write. Revise like hell. Submit your work. Get over the possibility that someone won’t like or “get” your work. That WILL happen.
Check out Larry’s work in Volume 3, Issue 2.
John Grey–Interview
Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?
These days I work strictly in my tiny, beyond-cramped study.
What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?
All of my writing is done by typing in the computer. I’m one of those who still remembers composing on a typewriter, and I have no wish to go back to those days.
What is your routine for writing?
Mondy to Friday, I write (and perform all the secretarial work involved) from 7.00 in the morning until 7.00 at night with a couple of breaks in between. On weekends, I’m more flexible. In other words, I do my best to maintain a happy, healthy marriage.
How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?
I started writing as soon as I got hold of a pencil and began scribbling stories in the margins of my big sister’s books. I’ve been doing it, off and on, for more than forty years.
Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?
I like to think I write for an intelligent audience that’s appreciative of good poetry.
What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?
I guess I’m one of the fortunate few who doesn’t suffer from writer’s block. I’ve just developed so many of what I call triggers over the years, and my study is full of them.
What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?
I enjoy travel and eating at restaurants from the fine kind to the local diner. My wife and I are also walkers.
What is your favorite part of the creative process?
Sometimes it’s completing a work I’m proud of. Other times, it’s receiving an acceptance from a site or magazine that I admire.
What is your advice to aspiring writers?
Find your voice, keep at it, develop a thick skin, take advice, and ignore advice.
Check out John’s work in Volume 1, Issue 1, and Volume 3, Issue 2.
Jack D. Harvey–Interview
Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?
I work at home.
What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?
I write by hand with a pen and when the poem gets close to its final form, I type it on Word on my computer.
What is your routine for writing?
I don’t have a set routine and write at all times of the day or night.
How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?
I have been writing some sixty-odd years, from the time I was about sixteen.
Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?
I don’t have any intended or ideal audience. Basically I write because I feel compelled to write.
What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?
Not sure what inspires me; the Greeks and the Romans had the idea that the muse breathes in (cf. the English word inspire- through the Greek- pneo, Latin spiro, “breathe in”) to you; in other words, there is some outside influence at work when you create something. I am not really sure whether this is true or not, but sometimes, while writing, words or thoughts come to me. From where, who knows? If I am blocked, I stop writing and come back to the piece later.
What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?
I study Chinese, go to the gym daily and walk daily with my wife.
What is your favorite part of the creative process?
Writing the piece and the usually laborious process of getting it to a final form.
What is your advice to aspiring writers?
Write as often as possible and read as much as you can; try to read the old masters—they are rarely wrong and you can learn a lot from them.
Check out Jack’s work in Volume 3, Issue 2.
Jesse Minkert–Interview
Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?
I have an office which was supposed to be a second bedroom, so it has long, shallow closets along one wall. The left one has a filing cabinet, two guitar cases, scraps of Foamcore, and a low rolling cabinet on which rests a Braille embosser. That’s a printer for Braille that creates bumps on heavy paper. The right closet is where my clothes and shoes are piled up. One or two folding card tables on the floor. My desk is by the door to the hall. A bookcase holds racks of Blues CDs and reference works. Under the windows are short shelves crammed with books, journals, and a boom box.
What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?
I work at home on most of my tasks. I submit a lot, so that happens on the computer. I’m revising a novel, near the end, which means probably no more than one more year. That also happens on the computer. I started out as a visual artist, so I find myself still drawn to the flow of ink onto paper. I transcribe my notes once a month, create files of stages of editing, and with some luck, eventually, arrive at some poetry that doesn’t embarrass me.
I’ve been experimenting with different sizes of pen recently. Arthritis has made my thumbs almost useless. I’ve tried several ways to hold them so that thumbs are not necessary.
What is your routine for writing?
I’m terrible at maintaining routines. I start the mornings with submissions. I bounce back and forth between poems and the novel. Usually, more often than not, I think of something that interrupts the regular pattern, so I have to look into that immediately. I read too much news. After lunch, or at lunch, I go out with my spiral notebook and read and write in burger joints and Starbucks along Broadway on Capitol Hill in Seattle. With the release of Rookland, I’ve stepped up my attendance at open mics around town. I hustle spots as a featured reader. Performing before audiences is crucial to me. I write for the mood. I revise for the sound.
How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?
That story is too long for this questionnaire. Short version: as I mentioned, I was a visual artist. I got an M.A. as a sculptor in 1981. I moved to Seattle and my eyes started bleeding inside. Diabetic Retinopathy is a primary cause of blindness. Treatment was a matter of laser beams being shot at my retinae, over 1800 per eye. I came away with most of my vision, and with a resolve to find art to do that didn’t depend on vision. I started to write, for radio, stage plays, short stories, and poems. Figure I started about 1985. That’s 32 years.
Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?
Always a tricky question. My novel audience may not resemble my poetry audience at all. Ideal audiences don’t exist. Real audiences exist, so I like them the best. Poetry on the page is one way to look at poetry, but poetry coming from a human mouth and into human ears is more exciting, more seductive, more terrifying. I work on page form, I take the look of a poem seriously, but I can’t imagine getting my blood to surge because of the shape of a poem on a page. I live for the microphone. Actually, I don’t need a microphone. Just listeners.
What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?
I’m inspired to write from the fact that I have an expiration date. I need to get as much done as I can before I turn sour and undrinkable. Some days I walk away with a blank page. Some days I fill a page with useless crap. I have my box of tricks, some I learned in design classes in art school. It all comes down to three actions: transform, reshape, and rephrase.
What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?
I operate a nonprofit corporation called Arts and Visually Impaired Audiences. I create access projects to the arts for blind and visually impaired people. I’ve slowed down in recent years, but I still work with an organization called the Jack Straw Cultural Center on workshops for very young students, blind and sighted, to create projects related to installations in the Jack Straw New Media Gallery, and to train the staff and gallery artists on how to effectively interact with blind and visually impaired people. In the summers for the past 21 years, I’ve worked with kids 9-18 in audio production workshops. I lead the radio theater, or audio storytelling, section. It involves writing, teaching kids about what goes into stories, performance, production, and how to work with coaches and engineers.
What is your favorite part of the creative process?
In prose, I like the moment when I realize the sentence I’ve worked an hour to rebuild can now be reasonably spoken. In poetry, it’s that rush after the reading is done. Sure, sometimes people say nice things, good job, I loved that thing you read, etc., and I can’t say I don’t like that, but before that is the spinning head and the thumping heart. Okay, Minkert, they say, you really set yourself on fire this time.
What is your advice to aspiring writers?
Go over every phrase you have written down. If you believe you might have stumbled across it anywhere other than out of your head, cut it. Make up some phrase that nobody has ever heard before, and put that in its place. When reading to an audience, embrace the fear. If you find yourself reading with total confidence, you are screwing up. Fear keeps you honest. Fear means you are taking the risks you need to take. Submit a lot.
Check out Jesse’s work in Volume 3 Issue 2, and check out his book ROOKLAND here.
Gary Beck–Interview
- I work at home, or at Bryant Park
- I write by hand because I am a poor typist, and I use ballpoint pens.
- I’ve been writing for a long time in various cycles, determined by my work in theater when I focused on playwriting and translations of the classics.
- My intended audience is adults, ‘or older,’ ideally who enjoy issues, storytelling, and a commitment to literature.
- I have an urgent need to communicate with audience,s and I’m concerned with the state of the nation and the condition of the world. I have too much to do.
- I mentor some young people and play speed chess.
- The actual act of writing and the mental state when it just flows out of the pen.
- If it’s vitally important to you, persevere, no matter how you’re scorned or rejected. Never accept family or friends comments as objective assessment.
Check out Gary’s work in Volume 1, Issue 1, Volume 2, Issue 1, and Volume 3, Issue 2.
Ellie White–Interview
Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?
It varies. Sometimes, I am able to work at home. Other times, I have to make myself go somewhere like the library or a coffee shop. It really depends on how difficult it is for me write at the time. If I’m in a period of inspiration, it’s no problem for me to write at home. If I’m struggling to create new work, home is too comfortable. It’s too easy to get distracted there. I have to force myself into a public space where I am less comfortable to get anything done.
What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?
When I started writing, I usually wrote by hand. I spent a lot of time at various writing groups, open mics, etc. and my laptop was very heavy to carry around. Now that laptops are much lighter, and I usually write alone, I type everything.
What is your routine for writing?
To be honest, I don’t have one. I write when I feel like writing, and if I don’t, I work on other creative projects. If it seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve written, I’ll push myself to write a few new pieces. But I don’t think I’ll ever be someone who writes every day. My writing comes in spurts.
How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?
I started writing in the fall of 2010, so about 7 years now. I always joke that I was peer pressured into becoming a poet because I used to attend poetry slams as a spectator, and a group of poets convinced me to attend their writing group, and then they convinced me to get on the mic, and so began my journey. I slammed for about 2 years, took a few workshop classes in undergrad, and then got accepted into an MFA program. I sometimes think about trying to slam again now that grad school is done.
Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?
I’ve asked myself this question a lot. Ultimately, I think I am writing for anyone who may feel alone or misunderstood in their feelings. I write a lot about trauma, but I like to think that I write from a place of hope. My hope doesn’t necessarily look the way some people think it should. When you experience trauma, going back to “normal” afterwards isn’t really an option. You are different. The world looks different to you. There are times when you truly feel haunted by shit. But you are still alive in your little haunted house. So, I often write about living with my various ghosts.
What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?
I find inspiration in the strangest things. Roadkill has inspired a number of my recent poems, as have some of the not-so-sexy realities of having sex. Life is messy, and I guess I find the mess inspiring. When I can’t write in my primary genre, which is poetry, I usually turn to something else. I sometimes write nonfiction. I also have a comic called “Uterus & Ellie.” I’m terrible at making comics since I can’t draw or use graphic design software worth a damn. But I have fun with it. I recently made a collage type thing because I’m blocked. It’s weird looking. I think I’ll hang it on the wall.
What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?
Well there’s the comic I just mentioned. Besides that, and my thrilling day job in insurance, about all I do is try to exercise enough to counteract my horrible diet. Around the time I turned 30, I started freaking out about my cardiovascular health. I ran outdoors for about 18 months, and then my knee started giving out about 5 months ago and it hasn’t healed. So, no more running. I was swimming for a bit, but then I developed a rare skin condition. So, no more swimming. I just joined a gym, so we’ll see how that goes.
What is your favorite part of the creative process?
I love writing the endings of my poems. I’ve got a thing for endings. I like for them to be unexpected, and I get really excited when I come up with something super creepy.
What is your advice to aspiring writers?
This is difficult because I never set out to become a writer. It just sort of happened and I ran with it. So, “run with it” maybe? Also, don’t freak out and think you’re not a writer anymore if you go through a period in your life where you don’t write much. Don’t let the people who have their daily writing routine set in stone make you feel like that is the only way to do this. Being a writer looks different for everybody. Do it on your terms, not someone else’s.
Check out Ellie’s work (Pushcart nomination) in Volume 3 Issue 2.
Ed Higgins–Interview
Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?
I have a loft above our old farm house’s kitchen. My extensive library’s there as is my MacBook—with internet connection. (Also, I taught fiction writing for years at my university & whenever there was an in-class writing session I’d also write/draft along with my students.)
What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?
For some years now I’ve written exclusively on a MacBook. Before that by hand on legal pads. Once I have a word-processor draft of something I’m working on I generally do a printout & work on that by hand before returning to the Mac file & updating the revision. Mostly the work then continues on the revised draft file—but sometimes another printout before once again returning to the computer file. I like the ease of on-screen revision, but the printouts let me go back to an original version for review or recovery of something that’s been otherwise lost when I’ve frequently “saved” the on-screen version.
What is your routine for writing?
Time for writing has to be stolen from other intruding and/or necessary life activities. So I don’t write every day. But I do try to dedicate at least one-day-a-week exclusively to writing: some daytime hours, some late nite slogs—especially late nite slogs if something seems to be coming together (a poem, story, essay). I also carry with me a small note pad and will often jot down a thought, image, response to something I’ve seen, read, had a conversation about—to later follow-up on.
How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?
I started writing in college almost 50 years ago: really bad poetry; really bad fiction. But I kept at it, kept reading other writers, and eventually became better at seeing how poetry/fiction worked as craft.
Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?
I generally don’t have an intended audience (unless I’m writing genre fiction/poetry; say, for science fiction). Mostly, I write for myself, for the kick I get out of playing around with words, characters, plot, emotion: the challenge of making something out of words that results in “Whoa, I did this & it’s pretty good!” I like the creative ‘click’ of affirmation that something worthwhile has come together—if the initial affirmation click is only from me!
What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?
I’m more compelled than inspired as a writer. Compelled to make meaning(s) of this singular experience of our being—and being drawn to explore through words the many facets of living that catch my attention. I’m seldom “blocked” as a writer, but if something seems to be “stuck” I move on to something else in my shitty-drafts/unfinished file. Or I just go outside and play frisbee with my whippet. Or read: poetry, fiction, novels, catch-up on the too many magazines I subscribe to.
What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?
I’m small-acreage organic farmer with usually half-a-dozen steers, three pigs, a herd of chickens, a smaller herd of turkeys, and a Manx barncat to daily feed/water/care-for. And in summers I make hay (literally), plus other farm-related chores. While retired from full-time university-level teaching, I still teach a couple of World Literature through the academic year. I’m also Asst. Editor for an online journal, Brilliant Flash Fiction. And I belong to a 6-person writing group that meets bi-monthly to share in-process draft work.
What is your favorite part of the creative process?
Giddy to have finished something! While I like the getting-lost-in-to-completely-wrapped-up-with when I’m engaged on a writing project, completing a piece gives me the satisfaction to keep flagellating myself by pushing words around to make them happen into something I’m not self-embarrassed by.
What is your advice to aspiring writers?
Be persistent. Write, write, write. And read, read, read—especially your contemporaries who are putting out stuff you want to be a part of. And submit, submit, submit your work to journals you admire work in (there’s a horde of really fine online literary journals out there—read, read, read, then submit!). Don’t be discouraged by rejection: if the piece seems to need more work/polishing, do it; if you think as-is is still good, submit elsewhere. Finally, join a writing group: one that will give you honest, supportive feedback.
Check out Ed’s work in Volume 3, Issue 2.
Daniel Barbare–Interview
Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?
I work at home. Mostly in the living room. But I have gotten to the point where I create while
I’m on the move.
What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?
Definitely the computer.
What is your routine for writing?
I hate to say it. But all day. All times.
How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?
Since 1981. 36 years.
Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?
Whoever will read it.
What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?
Almost anything, but when I get blocked I just work harder. Or clean the house. Mow grass.
What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?
Go to the movies. Travel locally.
What is your favorite part of the creative process?
Right when it clicks.
What is your advice to aspiring writers?
Love who you are, and love what you’re doing.
Check out Danny’s work in Volume I, Issue 2, Volume 2, Issue 1, and Volume 3, Issue 2.
Jessica Gigot–Interview
Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?
I have an office upstairs in our old farmhouse. During the winter months I love to hide up there with a warm cup of coffee and write on my computer. I also journal quite a bit in a notebook and start many of my poems by hand. I take it with me when traveling or if I can get away to a local coffee shop for a few hours. I also do quite a bit of writing in my journal at our kitchen table, before anyone else is up and the day begins. I used to have a fairly rigid morning writing routine that has been altered (for now) by our two, lovely, little girls. June is almost 3 and Eloise is 10 months. Now, I find windows of time to write when they are napping or later in the evening. The morning, however, is still my most productive time.
How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?
My mom has a box of my old writing projects that I started in elementary school. I wrote silly rhyming poems or made my own little magazines. I went into college wanting to be an English major, but fell in love with science and switched to Biology. Only after a solid decade of working in agricultural research did I feel a deep need to return to writing, poetry specifically.
Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for
Hard to say, it is always changing. Sometimes I write poems that are in conversation with other poets. Other times, my poems are to or about a person and a place. I have a lot of new poems about our sheep, and I am hoping there is an audience for them. Who doesn’t love a good sheep poem, right?
What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?
As I said before, I came back to writing sort of instinctually. I wasn’t satisfied with science writing and yearned for a better way to express myself and my ideas about land and farming. Now, it is just what I do. Poetry is how I process the world and make connections between my life and the experience of others. I also write songs, and I find that music helps me generate poem ideas as well. When I am really blocked I usually seek out a group that I can write with, in a one-a-day activity or a workshop. Being in community with other writers gets my ideas flowing!
What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?
We have a sheep and herb farm and that keeps me very busy. I definitely have less time to write during the spring and summer, but I take notes that I can return to in the winter. I play guitar and sing in an Americana trio with my husband and our friend Peter. On the farm I have a small studio where I do printmaking and ceramics, when I have the time. I also love to knit and do yoga and take long walks as well.
What is your favorite part of the creative process?
Making connections is my favorite part of the creative process. I write a lot of personal and narrative poems, and I am also working on some essays for the first time. I love it when a new sentence or image illuminates an idea I am writing about. I often stop and think, “Well, where did that come from?” Or when I am making something with my hands and a new poem pops in my head. Those mysterious connections between doing and listening, giving and receiving are alive in the creative process for me.
What is your advice to aspiring writers?
Keep writing and then write some more. Share your work when it is ready and don’t be afraid to be honest in your work. That is when the best stuff comes out on the page.
Check out Jessica’s work in Volume 4, Issue 1.
The Magnolia Review 