What are you working on?
Right now I am submitting my manuscript, titled STAR FACTORY, to various prizes. I am also working on a microchapbook that concerns fairytales, taking inspiration from many of the Grimms’ stories (The Juniper Tree, Ascheputtel, etc.) and from the structure of etiquette primers. Other poems ebb and flow into existence, and hopefully I will be submitting a few of those this spring. I have a collaborative project in the works with two lovely poets who are my inspiration. I cannot say very much about it now, except that you should all stay tuned for a poetic, visual, collective emergency.
Showing posts with label Amanda Stovicek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amanda Stovicek. Show all posts
Sunday, 14 April 2019
Sunday, 7 April 2019
Amanda Stovicek : part four
How does your work first enter the world? Do you have a social group or writers group that you work ideas and poems with?
Most of my poetry is frantic when I first write. Anything I write in a notebook, a line or a word, usually is translated into something else when I go to type it up. I find that writing out my words doesn’t feel as complete or productive other than for first drafts. I know this is probably a unique outlook in terms of poetry, as a notebook is a writer’s best friend. But when I start to type my work and I see the words in black and white, in the right font (Garamond!), and the lines and breaks are crisp, the poem really begins.
I have a small writer’s group and we exchange prompts every month or so. Right now they consist of five randomly generated words that we must incorporate into a poem and title. We don’t really critique each other's work, but the act of sharing and the deadline we give ourselves helps the creative process tremendously.
Most of my poetry is frantic when I first write. Anything I write in a notebook, a line or a word, usually is translated into something else when I go to type it up. I find that writing out my words doesn’t feel as complete or productive other than for first drafts. I know this is probably a unique outlook in terms of poetry, as a notebook is a writer’s best friend. But when I start to type my work and I see the words in black and white, in the right font (Garamond!), and the lines and breaks are crisp, the poem really begins.
I have a small writer’s group and we exchange prompts every month or so. Right now they consist of five randomly generated words that we must incorporate into a poem and title. We don’t really critique each other's work, but the act of sharing and the deadline we give ourselves helps the creative process tremendously.
Sunday, 31 March 2019
Amanda Stovicek : part three
What other poetry books have you been reading recently?
I’ve been re-reading Good Bones by Maggie Smith. It is my go-to when things feel rough and when I want clean and elegant language. Smith’s poems have the right amount of words and sing with emotion. I cannot recommend this book enough.
I have just finished American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes. I loved Hayes’ collection How to Be Drawn, and this book takes a very different approach. But the lyricism and music of the poems is still there. I read this one out loud in one sitting and found so much connective tissue and repetition and sound. I definitely recommend reading it in one go, because otherwise you might miss the through-lines that Hayes draws.
I have just started reading Louise Gluck’s American Originality: Essays on Poetry. I am not very far into the collection, but Gluck’s prose is just as sharp as her poems.
I’ve been re-reading Good Bones by Maggie Smith. It is my go-to when things feel rough and when I want clean and elegant language. Smith’s poems have the right amount of words and sing with emotion. I cannot recommend this book enough.
I have just finished American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes. I loved Hayes’ collection How to Be Drawn, and this book takes a very different approach. But the lyricism and music of the poems is still there. I read this one out loud in one sitting and found so much connective tissue and repetition and sound. I definitely recommend reading it in one go, because otherwise you might miss the through-lines that Hayes draws.
I have just started reading Louise Gluck’s American Originality: Essays on Poetry. I am not very far into the collection, but Gluck’s prose is just as sharp as her poems.
Sunday, 24 March 2019
Amanda Stovicek : part two
How did you first engage with poetry?
I’ve always loved language; when I was young my dad would read me stories and poems, “The Highwayman” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” And I loved writing, but favored fiction writing, with often terrible romantic plotlines and supernatural elements (I feel like this is a right of passage for many young writers). But I did not really come to poetry until my undergraduate college experience. Previously I believed poetry was too difficult to read, and mostly in archaic and “old English.” I did not like Shakespeare, or Frost, or Donne, or any of the canon authors we read in high school. I took an introductory creative writing class when I was a sophomore and we read Wendy Cope’s “The Orange” and Anne Sexton’s “In Celebration of my Uterus.” These poems engaged me. Their writers made poetry accessible to me. I felt included and like I could write about anything and it might turn into a poem. That course was really my entry point, but I didn’t fully embrace poetry until I began reading more contemporary poets, poets whose experiences and words inspired empathy and inquiry. Here’s a list: Shara McCallum, Chris Abani, Kim Addonizio, Rita Dove. But there were so many more than these four. I read (out loud) poetry in a voracious way after that first experience and it has only helped me become a better student of language.
I’ve always loved language; when I was young my dad would read me stories and poems, “The Highwayman” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” And I loved writing, but favored fiction writing, with often terrible romantic plotlines and supernatural elements (I feel like this is a right of passage for many young writers). But I did not really come to poetry until my undergraduate college experience. Previously I believed poetry was too difficult to read, and mostly in archaic and “old English.” I did not like Shakespeare, or Frost, or Donne, or any of the canon authors we read in high school. I took an introductory creative writing class when I was a sophomore and we read Wendy Cope’s “The Orange” and Anne Sexton’s “In Celebration of my Uterus.” These poems engaged me. Their writers made poetry accessible to me. I felt included and like I could write about anything and it might turn into a poem. That course was really my entry point, but I didn’t fully embrace poetry until I began reading more contemporary poets, poets whose experiences and words inspired empathy and inquiry. Here’s a list: Shara McCallum, Chris Abani, Kim Addonizio, Rita Dove. But there were so many more than these four. I read (out loud) poetry in a voracious way after that first experience and it has only helped me become a better student of language.
Sunday, 17 March 2019
Amanda Stovicek : part one
How does a poem begin?
With a word, or a combination of words, that make music. My poetry is all about wrenching sound and lyric. I think about how words play off of each other and how they sound when I say them out loud. Poetry is not meant to be printed words only--it is meant to be read out loud, to be heard. I read all of my poems out loud, it helps me find where they work, where I can play up the music, and where sounds become too much for the ear or the image of the poem. When I read poetry I read it out loud, too. So, it is with sound where a poem begins, with the ear recognizing the music.
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