Tuesday, 15 September 2020

Melissa Studdard : part two

What are you working on?

A lot of projects, simultaneously—which is how I work best. If I get stalled on one, I can work on another. I have several poetry manuscripts going, and I’m also working on an oratorio for a stage adaptation of Hesse’s Siddhartha. Of the poetry manuscripts, the one I can most easily describe is a series of poems told from the perspective of the severed tongue of the mythological character Philomela. As you might imagine, the project can get heavy at times, even though I’ve built in levity—so it’s a relief to be able to write lighter or comical poems for other projects. Another poetry manuscript I’m just putting the finishing touches on is structured as a job application, with two main sections (“Application” and “Interview”) and several subsections (“Previous Experience,” etc.)—so, much of the pathos, humor, and meaning is derived from the placement of poems within specific sections. All of these projects are so different from each other, and I love that. As Whitman said, “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.”

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