Lauren Brazeal : part five

What are you working on?

I’m working on final edits for my second full-length manuscript, which is a collection of vignettes and poems about the life and work of a fictional celebrity psychic.

I’ve also begun work on what will likely be my third full-length, which explores the spirituality, customs, and myths of the Native Amazonian tribe, the Waorani, while also confronting what it means to bear witness to the downfall and dilution of the tribe’s culture as a privileged white citizen from a country that has had a major hand in the destruction of the Waorani way of life.

Lauren Brazeal : part four

Why is poetry important?

Poetry and art gracefully state what the news often obfuscates (either intentionally or unintentionally). Art—and I’m including poetry in this—is communication in its purest, most visceral form. As for poetry specifically, I feel it is often the most appropriate means of communication for certain kinds of messages. However, I don’t feel it’s more or less important than any other art form.

Lauren Brazeal : part three

When you require renewal, is there a particular poem or book that you return to? A particular author?

I continually return to Sylvia Plath’s “The Rabbit Catcher” for different reasons. Mostly it’s the pure, burning energy in the poem. She was so unafraid to show her madness and raw power in that piece. Whenever I feel timid or like I should be more subtle, I return to “The Rabbit Catcher” and am reminded to never look away from my anger or sadness or joy—whatever emotion I’m trying to communicate in my writing at the time.

Lauren Brazeal : part two

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

Reconciling the narrative with image and syntax. I usually find one or the other when writing a poem: either the poem has a glitzy poshed-out language but doesn’t tell the necessary story, or it’s too direct, too prose-like. Finding the intersection where gorgeous language and story meet is always the goal. I’m happy to report it never gets easier.

Lauren Brazeal : part one

Lauren Brazeal is the author of two chapbooks, Zoo for Well-Groomed Eaters (Dancing Girl Press, 2016), and exuviae (Horse Less Press, 2016). Her first full-length collection, Gutter, is releasing in the summer of 2018 from Yes Yes Books. In her past, Brazeal has been a homeless gutter-punk, a resident of Ecuador’s Amazon jungle, a maid, a surfer chick, and a custom aquarium designer. A graduate of Bennington’s MFA program in writing and literature, her work has appeared in journals such as DIAGRAM, Smartish Pace, Barrelhouse, Forklift, Ohio, and Verse Daily.

How does a poem begin?

I tend to write two kinds of poems. Sometimes the poem arrives fully formed, and I act more like a transcriber—jotting down the words as though they’re being dictated to me from a speaker outside myself. Other times, I hack away at a poem, and it’s a slow, sweaty, chiseling effort. These poems sometimes go through months of edits before reaching a finishing point. Most often though, my work is a combination of the two: an impulse or series of inspirations that require teasing and manipulation in places.