Thursday
Apr222010
The Habitual Poet: Bridget Kelley-Lossada
Installment #22
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The Habitual Poet is an ongoing series of contributor interviews. If you are a Poemeleon contributor and would like to participate copy & paste the Q's from below and e-mail your answers to: editor@poemeleon.org.
: : :Reading
Q: Where do you prefer to get your books?
Q: Where do you prefer to get your books?
A: Pretty much anywhere (including mooching from Book Mooch), but Amazon and independent bookstores top my list.
Q: How many poetry books do you think you own, and what percentage of these have you actually read?
A: Well over 300 -- maybe have read about 50%
Q: When, where and how do you usually read?(i.e. at bedtime under the covers, cover to cover, etc.)
A: Usually at bedtime in the dark with a booklight-- reading before bed is a ritual I can't give up.
Q: What books of poetry have you read this month?
A: Sadly, I haven't read any books of poetry this month. Though I have opened to many different poems in different collections for inspiration which I do from time to time. This month it was browsing through Whitman's Leaves of Grass to find some Civil War related poetry for a history class I am teaching this year.
Q: What other books/magazines/backs of cereal boxes have you read recently?
A: Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts In the Greek and Roman World (A sourcebook) by Daniel Ogden; A Moveable Feast by Hemingway; Redemption Alley by Lilith Saintcrow; Harper's; Ed Week; The Writer; Caribbean Life (mag); Islands (mag), and I am currently reading The Hummingbird's Daughter by Urrea
Writing
Q: When, where, how do you write, and why?(i.e. at dusk on a dock, longhand in a notebook, because...)
A: Longhand in the current notebook I am using that also houses all my other thoughts for items like teaching--usually before bed, but i have been known to write on a break at work or even when giving student's an assignment. I love longhand because it is physical and makes me feel like I am actually engaged in the act of writing (not sure why typing doesn't seem real to me)...I also have a pretty serious pen fetish. Gotta have purple pens with rich ink...not too fine and not too thick. I have yet to find the perfect pen though...sigh...
Q: How many first drafts do you think you complete in a week? A month?
A: Right now, I am lucky if I get one in a month...I am the mother of two young children (16 month old and almost 6 year old) plus I work a full-time job with crazy hours -- so I have been low on my draft count. I would say I am doing idea generating and revision more than anything. In a good year, I could get 5-10 drafts in a month when the mood was right.
Q: How long do you wait before revising a poem?
A: Depends, but it could be a day, a week, a month...but I have revised many after more than five years.
Q: When do you know a poem is “done”?
A: That also depends on the poem. There are a few I have written that definitely seem done and punctuated, but others are never done.
Q: Have you ever given up an invitation so you could stay home and write?
A: Not yet (and life is too short!)... i have given up invitations to take care of sick kids though...lol!
Publishing:
Q: What is your system for sending out work?
A: I don't do it often enough, but when I do I usually use friend's advice on good markets or Duotrope (a lovely online service) and CWROPPS (another lovely service) to see what might work for my poems and then shoot off a few submissions and see what happens.
Q: What have you more recently received: a rejection notice or an acceptance? Was it what you expected?
A: An acceptance. And I never expect to be accepted, but I am delighted when it happens (of course)..
Q: What have you more recently received: a rejection notice or an acceptance? Was it what you expected?
A: An acceptance. And I never expect to be accepted, but I am delighted when it happens (of course)..
Q: Where do you generally publish: online, in print, or a mix, and do you have a preference?
A: I think it is a mix right now...a little of online and in print. Right now, online is easier, but print seems more real.
Q: What is the worst (or weirdest, or best) experience you’ve had with a journal/magazine/press & its editor(s)? (No names, please!)
A: I have had pretty great experiences with all the journals I have submitted to -- including great one line rejections that told me keep going -- "you're almost there!"
Q: Have you ever received any fan (or hate) mail? If so, what was that like?
A: I don't think i have received any fan mail...but I did realize a few years ago, that I had at least one fan (who is not related to me) and that was the most surreal feeling.
Q: What is the worst (or weirdest, or best) experience you’ve had with a journal/magazine/press & its editor(s)? (No names, please!)
A: I have had pretty great experiences with all the journals I have submitted to -- including great one line rejections that told me keep going -- "you're almost there!"
Q: Have you ever received any fan (or hate) mail? If so, what was that like?
A: I don't think i have received any fan mail...but I did realize a few years ago, that I had at least one fan (who is not related to me) and that was the most surreal feeling.
Practical considerations:
Q: What is your day job, and how does it affect your writing?
A: Currently, I am a middle school director for an independent school. It is administrative and affects my writing by killing my creative impulses. Let's just say, I don't see myself in administration for a very long time. When I was exclusively a teacher, my creativity seemed to flourish and I had no trouble writing when I wanted/needed to (even with children).
Q: How does your significant other’s occupation affect your writing life?
A: I don't think it has up to now. We live separate lives and have our own personal spaces. However, he has just changed careers and his new career might help give the muse a little injection of energy...you never know.
Q:Have there been periods in your life when you couldn't write?
Q:Have there been periods in your life when you couldn't write?
A: Not often, but I think yes. Except I am always writing something-- but if you mean exclusively poetry then, yes. Right now, I am having trouble writing any poetry and have for the last several months...
Q: Do you have a “poetry budget”?
Q: Do you have a “poetry budget”?
A: To buy poetry? Always...to submit to journals-- not yet...but plan on getting a budget ready for that.
Q: Have you ever suffered (or made someone else suffer) in the name of your art? (i.e. picked up your kids late from school so you could finish a poem, forgone lunch to buy a book, left a relationship because the other person just didn't understand, etc.)
A: Oh yes many times, but the most dramatic was leaving my first husband. It was a complicated split, but in the middle of it was the fact that he wasn't keen on poetry (and my writing of it) --I think he used the word elitist.
Q: Have you ever suffered (or made someone else suffer) in the name of your art? (i.e. picked up your kids late from school so you could finish a poem, forgone lunch to buy a book, left a relationship because the other person just didn't understand, etc.)
A: Oh yes many times, but the most dramatic was leaving my first husband. It was a complicated split, but in the middle of it was the fact that he wasn't keen on poetry (and my writing of it) --I think he used the word elitist.
Random nonsense:
Q: Do you have any superhuman abilities? (i.e. can you tie a cherry stem in a knot with your tongue, or write a double sestina with both hands tied behind your back?)
A: Juggling full-time work with child-rearing and other domestic responsibilities (even those that are shared) while trying to keep your married life exciting is a super-human ability that I am trying to aquire. I hear you can earn it somehow.
Q: You write a scathing poem about your mother and she learns about it. You:
a.) Move to South America and leave no forwarding address
b.) Delete the poem and insist it never existed
c.) Show it to her (she’s already written you out of the will anyway)
d.) Do none of the above; instead you:________
Q: You write a scathing poem about your mother and she learns about it. You:
a.) Move to South America and leave no forwarding address
b.) Delete the poem and insist it never existed
c.) Show it to her (she’s already written you out of the will anyway)
d.) Do none of the above; instead you:________
Tell her I wrote when I was a young, angsty teenager.
Q: If the best medical specialists in the world told you that if you didn’t give up your poetry habit today you would die in six months, would you get your affairs in order or would you leave that up to your family?
A: The best medical specialists in the world have been known to be wrong more often than not.
Q: If you could be a vowel, which one would you be and why?
Q: If you could be a vowel, which one would you be and why?
A: "e" love all the words that begin with "e" and made a list of them when I was young girl. Like electrifying, ecstatic, epiphany, epic, electrum, elixir, Ephesus, eek, eggplant, eddy, estuary, etc...
Q: Finally write a couplet for a collaborative ghazal using the following kaafiyaa and radif: “said the poet”.
Q: Finally write a couplet for a collaborative ghazal using the following kaafiyaa and radif: “said the poet”.
squeeze blood-oranges in a tagine of tangerines and make them float
across my temples in the dusk of your sweetened smile said the poet.
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Bridget Kelley-Lossada is a Los Angeles writer who received her Master of Fine Arts in poetry from Antioch University, Los Angeles. Bridget's poetry has appeared in several anthologies and various print and online journals such as Inkwell, 51%, Moondance, Goblin-Fruit, Invisible Plane (Spout Graphic Press), The Pagan's Muse (Citadel), Blue Arc West (Tebot Bach), and Letters to the World: Poems from the Wom-Po Mailing List (Red Hen Press). She currently resides in Pasadena with her husband and two young sons. You can find her on the web at http://dreamsoftrespass.typepad.com.
Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 08:17AM