5 Questions with Catherine Doty

Catherine will read a selection of her poems on October 3, 2013 at 7:30pm as part of the NJ Literary Artists Fellowship Showcase.

The reading will take place at
in the Chase Room
of the Madison Public Library
39 Keep Street
Madison, NJ 07940
Click here for directions

There is a suggested donation of $10. All tickets will be available at the door on the evening of the readings. No advanced ticket sales.

1. Where do you find inspiration for your poems?
   My poems almost always begin when an image or situation or scrap of language (usually from long past)  sticks with me and gives me a certain kind of unrest. It's almost like having a song run through my head--sort-of annoying--but it gets me curious enough to sit down and start digging.
2. You are a cartoonist and have a book out call “Just Kidding.” How did you get involved with cartooning? Do you doodle daily?
   Though I no longer earn my living designing and illustrating publications, I draw all the damn day. I draw all over the quizzes and tests I give my sixth-graders, I have drawings all over my classroom. I chase other teachers around and ask them if they need any drawings. Insufferable! Usually my drawings are quick, slangy sketches on the white board, but sometimes I have beautiful paper and some time to spend and I'll work on one piece for hours. I've always got to have something to do--I am a terrible relaxer--and constant cartooning is something that's always been an excellent attention-getting-and-stress-relieving practice for me. I love it, I love it, I gotta do it.
3. We read that you worked as a cook and a bartender while attending Upsala College. Is there a crazy story about working in the restaurant industry that you can share with us?
   Oh, if the salad bar at Dodd's Townhouse could speak! I try not to revisit those robust evenings spent dressed as a French maid and doggedly trying to flambe a soggy duck.

4. Who is your favorite poet and why?
   My favorite poet is so many poets these days. And I have many, many favorite poems.
5. What movie could you watch over and over again?
   Christopher Guest's Waiting for Guffman.
   
   To learn more about Catherine, visit our website
   
   You can also find additional information on our website about the Literary Artist Fellowship program.

5 Questions With Jackie Clark

Jackie will be reading from her book, Aphoria and from a manuscript in progress called Everything is Always Wonderful When it is Almost Over on October 3, 2013 at 7:30pm as part of the NJ Literary Artists Fellowship Showcase.

The reading will take place at
in the Chase Room
of the Madison Public Library
39 Keep Street
Madison, NJ 07940
Click here for directions

There is a suggested donation of $10. All tickets will be available at the door on the evening of the readings. No advanced ticket sales. 

Jackie Clark is author of Aphoria, a collection of poems from Brooklyn Arts Press. She is the series editor of Poets off Poetry and Song of the Week for Coldfront Magazine, a contributing writer and content manager for The Rumpus, and is the author of three chapbooks: Office Work (Greying Ghost Press), Red Fortress (H_NGM_N), and I Live Here Now (Lame House Press). Some of her writing has recently appeared or is forthcoming from Bone Bouquet, Denver Quarterly, Open Letters Monthly, and Yoga City.  Jackie lives in Jersey City and can be found online at nohelpforthat.com.

1.  What is it about the form of poetry that draws you in?
As Wordsworth says, “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”  Early on I realized that I suffered from spontaneous overflows of powerful feelings and that the only thing that made sense for me to do about them was write them down.  So I would say that I was drawn to the form of poetry long before I realized that poetry was a thing.   I needed a place to put my “powerful feelings” and poetry ended up being the most satisfying.  

2. You are the author of three chapbooks (Red Fortress, Office Work, and I Live Here Now). What is a chapbook and how did you get started writing one?
In plainest terms, a chapbook is a small book.  They vary in length but are usually much shorter than a regular book, around twenty to thirty pages and most often the writing in the chapbook is loosely related, conceptually speaking.  So, it’s a way for a writer to devotingly explore a topic or an emotion that they are either interested in or grappling with.  Also, there is an artistic component to chapbooks as well.  Many publishers use the chapbook as an opportunity for creative construction, meaning that many of them are hand-sewn, letter press editions with custom art on the cover, so they really have a personalized feeling to them, which makes them really beautiful artifacts. The chapbooks I have written each have their own conceit and are a result of my processing particular emotions (as in I Live Here Now) or dealing with particular settings (as in Office Work)—they are small insights to a bigger system.  

3. What was theme of your very first poem? Would you be willing to share it with us?

Oh man, it’s embarrassing but I think one of the first “real” (in my mind) poems that I wrote was titled “Cry” or “Tear” or something equally as dreadful.  Guess what it is about? Haha. I wrote it in 7^th grade in this blue notebook that I used to take to every class with me.  It was part journal, part doodling notebook.  I bet you I still have that notebook somewhere, probably in a box in my parents’ basement.

4.  You are the series editor of Poets off Poetry and Song of the Week for Coldfront Magazine. Do you feel you approach this work from a more of a poet’s perspective or that of an editor?
I think I approach this work as both a poet and an editor, with both of those roles reinforcing the other.  I think doing editorial work has strengthened my writing.  That said, I think I am able (most of the time) to be a sensitive editor because I know what it feels like to be on the other side.

5.  Since you live in Jersey City, can you tell us one of its best kept secrets?
More and more it feels like Jersey City is less of a secret than it used to be.  New restaurants and shops are opening every day.  But still, one of my favorite spots in Jersey City is the Taqueria, a funky little Mexican place on the end of Grove Street. Best tacos in town.

To learn more about Jackie, visit our website.

You can also find additional information on our website about the Literary Artist Fellowship program.

5 Questions with Claudia Burbank

Claudia will read a selection of her poems on October 3, 2013 at 7:30pm as part of the NJ Literary Artists Fellowship Showcase.

The reading will take place at
in the Chase Room
of the Madison Public Library
39 Keep Street
Madison, NJ 07940
Click here for directions

There is a suggested donation of $10. All tickets will be available at the door on the evening of the readings. No advanced ticket sales.

Claudia Burbank was born in New Haven, Connecticut and raised in Chester Township, New Jersey. She is a graduate of Vassar College and pursued her MBA at New York University. After retiring from AT&T she took up writing poetry. She studied for some years with Lucie Brock-Broido, director of Columbia's MFA program in Poetry, as well as Ellen Bryant Voigt, Kimiko Hahn, and Brenda Shaughnessy among others. In recent years her focus has shifted to fiction where she is represented by Jenni Ferrari-Adler at Union Literary Agency.

Claudia's honors include the Poets & Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award, Fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the Jentel Artist Residency, the Inkwell Prize (judged by Alice Quinn, then Poetry Editor at The New Yorker), and several Pushcart Prize nominations. She is the author of The Pleasant Grove Home for Men, Finalist for the the Brittingham Prize, the Kinereth Gensler Award and the Center for Book Arts competition. Her work has been featured on Verse Daily, Best American Poetry, and Poets & Writers websites, and was selected by Matthew Dickman for Best New Poets. Her poetry and fiction appear widely in such journals as The Antioch Review, Washington Square Review, Prairie Schooner, upstreet, Subtropics, and Cream City Review.
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1. After you retired from AT&T, you decide to write poetry. What made you decide to write in this form?
I had written poetry as a child and had always wanted to return to it to see where it might take me. I've always loved the music, sound, and rhythm of poetry, and the challenge of distilling raw emotion and energy into a few lines that, if done well, bring you to your knees. 

2. In recent years, you have shifted your focus to fiction. Why the change? There are things I'd like to explore which require a different form than poetry. Being able to expand into character, dialogue, plot, and action has been exhilarating..

3. You described your poetry as seeming to come from an alternate universe, one that's both familiar and strange at the same time. At times fantastical, at times apocalyptic, they often convey a sense of loss, of something un-nameable that can't be recovered. What do you think drives you to write from this perspective?
That's just how things occur to me--it's not a conscious choice. Like being permanently baffled and constantly trying to make sense of things.
 
4. Do you see yourself exploring other avenues of writing in the future? For instance, playwriting or screenwriting?
Yes! But I tend to be single-minded. Different forms require different sets of skills which require time and hard work to develop. At least for me.  

5. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would that be and why?

Right where I am. My priority, especially as I've gotten older, is to be close to family and friends. And make new ones, of course.

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To learn more about Claudia, visit our website.

You can also find additional information on our website about the Literary Artist Fellowship program.