Interview with Sue Fagalde Lick

On By clackamasliteraryreviewIn Author Interviews, Meet Our Authors

Author of “Turquoise” (Volume XXVI, 2022)

“Regarding the bathroom: The description is so vivid. What bathroom was this based on?”

The bathroom in the first section is from my childhood home. The turquoise bathroom in the other sections is in the house where I live now, so I use it every day. The previous owners were very fond of color, so I have a turquoise bathroom and a pink one. The living room was green, and the kitchen was purple when I moved in. I painted the kitchen white but kept the other colors.

“What inspired you to tell a life story through the aging and evolution of a bathroom?”

We had a prompt in a workshop to talk about a room and color. I had been thinking about having the bathroom repainted, so it was on my mind. Then I remembered the sky blue bathroom back home and lines started coming to me for this poem. We spend an awful lot of time in the bathroom but rarely talk about it and certainly don’t write poems about it. There are stories there if we look.

“In the third and fourth cantos, the woman seems quite lonely. How do you envision the woman spending her Christmas Eve?”

She is lonely without her husband. I envision her going to Mass on Christmas Eve, then spending the rest of the holiday alone by the little Christmas tree she put up herself. You’d be surprised at how many widows find themselves in this situation.

Interview with Mercedes Lawry

On By clackamasliteraryreviewIn Author Interviews, Meet Our Authors

Author of “Bears” (Volume XXVI, 2022)

“What brought you to write about bears in enclosures specifically?”

On a visit to Sitka, Alaska, I went to the Fortress of the Bears. These were bears that would never be released back into the wild. As with any captive animals, there is a sadness. As a young child I certainly never saw it that way. But that visit triggered memories of going to the zoo and seeing that particular bear and it was striking how I felt about it so many years later.

“Seeing the first couple of stanzas, are you experienced with bears in any way? If so, how?”

When my husband was battling cancer, friends sent us tiny Zuni bears that became tokens for us – we would take them to hospital visits. We began to get more bear items so now I have many bears in the house and as my husband passed away, they are a sweet reminder of him. I’ve been lucky enough to see bears in the wild twice – never in a dangerous situation.

“Why did you choose to write “Bears” as a poem and not a short story?”

Although I do write short fiction, I am primarily a poet and it was a natural inclination to approach this topic through a poem, distilling the various influences of bears while exploring their emotional resonance.

Interview with Cecil Morris

On By clackamasliteraryreviewIn Author Interviews, Meet Our Authors

Author of “One Woman” (Volume XXVI, 2022)

“Could you tell us who inspired the character in this poem?”

My son was shooting wedding photos for a friend of his wife’s family in Cathedral Park under the St. John’s Bridge in Portland, and I had come along as an equipment carrier and back-up photographer. At least two other photographers were at the park shooting portraits (one of another wedding couple and one of a high school senior). Not a native Portlander, I had never been to Cathedral Park and was struck by the beauty of the scene and the brides. I began to imagine how the mother of a daughter or daughters might view the scene, so the “one woman” of the poem is mostly imaginary.

Being a poet of a certain age, I often think of my own receding and my own children having outgrown me and surpassed me in accomplishments. So I thought about how a woman might think of herself on that bridge suspended between (first) her life as young bride and new mother and (later but not that much later) the mother of brides.

“Why did you choose to keep your poem in one long stanza instead of breaking it up?”

I kept the poem as a single stanza because life–especially for this “one woman”–is a single short bridge from past to future. I think this might be a projection of my own experience of parenthood. It all went by so fast. Presto change-o from baby to toddler to teen to married and gone.

Author Insight: How do you deal with writer’s block? Do you have any unique rituals you do to keep writing and meet deadlines?

On By clackamasliteraryreviewIn Author Insights, Meet Our Authors

Though I am hesitant to use the word ‘writer’s block’ (especially in the world of creative nonfiction and poetry, where memory and experience are never-ending writing material; Example: any moment from your childhood) I truly believe that reading is the best cure for a creative stall. Read anything; read everything. And most importantly, read for enjoyment. You can’t read a book intending to find a cure for your block. It will ruin the book and you won’t find what you’re looking for. You’re writing will most likely be tainted. Instead, read and allow your mind to rest, to learn from and enjoy the way words dance on the page. In my experience, your next idea will just come to you, as long as you allow it.

-Darius Atefat-Peckham, 20th Anniversary Issue

How do I deal with writer’s block? Badly, of course. It’s terrible and the doubt and frustration from it only make it worse. But I don’t exactly have trouble writing, the times I’ve stopped. It’s more that I have trouble feeling. Feeling deeply enough to reach the level I need or want creatively. Either from being pulled in too many different directions and it’s hard to maintain focus or because I get overwhelmed by personal or professional circumstances. The kind of writing I do is very emotional and I need to have an open channel to those emotions and be able to sustain them to have a chance to do it well.

-Harry Newman, 20th Anniversary Issue

There are two things that thwart writer’s block. In my seminars at Lesley University, William Lychack was fond of reminding us that the only way to write is to keep your butt in the chair. If you don’t sit down to write, you’ll never write. That’s solution number one.

Solution number two is to figure out what motivates you. I’m a people-pleaser, so I love deadlines. They are one of the top ten things I miss about grad school. Knowing someone else is expecting my words is inherently incentivizing. Now, the only person expecting my words is myself—that requires an inordinate amount of self-discipline. When the writing isn’t going well, it’s easy to stumble into writer’s block. I combat this by keeping my butt in the chair and by finding someone else to expect my words. I employ my friends and family members to pester me about my work. Because I don’t want to disappoint them, I plow right on through writer’s block.

-Heather Charton, 20th Anniversary Issue

Writer’s block often hits me when I am least interested in a piece I’m working on. Usually, this happens at the mid-point in a story (after the initial excitement of an idea has worn off) or at the very end (when I need a viable and compelling conclusion to the story). When writer’s block hits I make a concerted effort just to get words on the page. There’s a moment when I stop caring about quality (and maybe even content) and I just try to write whatever I am thinking about for however long I need. I’ll often think about some of my favorite writers, and, in a moment of utter frustration, I’ll try to write something in their voice, to mimic it as perfectly as possible. Though it doesn’t always mean I add great content to whatever piece I’m working on, it’s often a decent exercise to get my brain going again. One of my very favorite professors encouraged taking walks to avoid the zombie-effect of sitting too long staring at words on a screen, and I find that very helpful as well.

-Tyler Wilborn, 20th Anniversary Issue

Interview with Heather Charton

On By clackamasliteraryreviewIn Author Interviews, Meet Our Authors

Author of “What We Knew” (20th Anniversary Issue)

What was the inspiration for “What We Knew”?

My dad has an unusual hobby: fireworks. But he is not the only one. A few years ago, he became a card-carrying member of Pyrotechnics Guild International and then convinced my mom and me to attend a couple of their conventions with him. At these conventions, the fireworks were amazing, but the people were incredible, too. Their delightful passion for all things “pryo” were the beginnings of “What We Knew.”

The point of view came next. I’m a small-town Midwesterner, which makes it hard to get away from the effects—both good and bad—of community. I am fascinated by a town’s group mentality, the way it’s alliances shift and develop. In “What We Knew,” I used the focal point of fireworks to play with that social dynamic.

What made you decide to become an author?

When I started my undergraduate program at Kent State, I knew that I loved words and that I wanted to be a teacher. Then I took Joey Nicoletti’s Intro to Creative Writing course. He opened up to me the idea that I could not only teach others to love and use words but that I could also use them myself. He showed me that being a writer was a possibility. After his class, I still loved words and I still wanted to be a teacher, but I also wanted to be a writer. I took every writing class I could at Kent and then pursued my MFA at Lesley University.

Do you have any other pieces you’re intending to release soon or are working on?

I had another short story—“Grounded”—published in Bird’s Thumb this February. I currently have a few short stories in the submission process and am beginning to look for an agent for my first novel.

Author Insight: If you had one piece of advice you’d pass on to other authors, what would it be?

On By clackamasliteraryreviewIn Author Insights, Meet Our Authors

Try to never stop writing. Keep getting to the desk. Get into a rhythm of regular, if possible, day writing. Some kind of discipline above all. Because when you stop it can be very hard to return. And it gets harder. “Back” doesn’t only relate to finding your footing again in life, it’s a metaphor for returning to yourself as a writer. I’ve written that poem too many times.

-Harry Newman, 20th Anniversary Issue

For the most part, I still consider myself on the learning end of writing, so any advice I have is surely advice that was given to me by someone much wiser and more experienced than I am. That being said, though, if there’s one thing that’s helped me immensely in my writing it’s getting into a daily habit, and having people around me that know my work and my style to offer constant critical feedback. Even if it’s small, setting a goal of writing a set number of words a day really does help the flow of ideas. I’m also a firm believer in the idea that you can’t really write a great story until you’ve written the bad version of it, so writing every day is another way of getting the bad out of your system so the good can start to poke through. And with regards to having people around, there’s really nothing that’s helped me learn and grow as a writer more than helpful, critical peer reviewers. Even if it’s over email, having another set of eyes to read your work and critically assess it for what it’s trying to do is essential to improving.

-Tyler Wilborn, 20th Anniversary Issue

“Your words are worth it.”

It’s too easy to say, “I’ll write when…” There is always something else you should or could be doing, but your words are important. If you intend to be a writer, then be a writer. As Theo Pauline Nestor writes in Writing Is My Drink, “What does it look like to give permission to ourselves [to write]?…It’s knowing that all the other stuff you need to do will get done. Or it won’t.” No one else is going to prioritize your work (and writing is work). You have to honor your words and give them the time they need. And you have to remind yourself to honor them every day.

-Heather Charton, 20th Anniversary Issue

Interview with Harry Newman,

On By clackamasliteraryreviewIn Author Interviews, Meet Our Authors

Author of “Back” (20th Anniversary Issue)

“Back” is a strange piece, feeling almost alien in its eccentricities. I quite enjoyed it, what was the inspiration behind it?

I have a several poems like “Back” that are associative in nature, that are guided by a more emotional logic than anything rationally thought out. There aren’t very many of them, but I like it when they come and try to follow those impulses wherever they lead. I’m interested in working more in that way because it’s unnerving for me.

“Back” is an older poem — it’s not been easy to find people who respond well to it — and I don’t remember its origin in much detail. I was homeless at the time I wrote it, after the end of my first marriage. Moving from couch to couch at various friends’ apartments around the city, in one place only a few days at a time. I guess it started as an effort to remind myself, a whispering in my own ear. A suggestion of direction and a hope for return.

What made you decide to become an author in the first place?

There was nothing conscious about it. I started writing at a young age, 9 or 10. First poems, then later plays. I spent my 20s and 30s working professionally in theater in New York, as a writer and translator and on the staff of theaters. Writing was just the thing I did naturally. And I always treated it professionally, just assuming it would be where I’d go. I started sending out poems to journals when I was in my teens. They always came back. Good practice for the future.

Do you have any other pieces you’re intending to release soon, or are working on?

I always have 30 or 40 poems circulating to journals at any given time. When one group gets rejected, I send it to another journal right away. I keep a list. I have a reading coming up in New York in June and I’m hoping to have a new poem or two for it. That’s what I’m working on right now. I’ve also started rehearsing for the reading. In part that’s because of my background in theater, but I can also get quite nervous when I read and like to practice aloud for a week or two before a reading. That helps me discover an order for the poems as well, a shape for the presentation as a whole.

Interview with Patricia Murphy

On By clackamasliteraryreviewIn Author Interviews, Meet Our Authors
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In 2005, the CLR published Patricia Colleen Murphy’s poem “Days After.” This year, she won the May Swenson Poetry Award for her poetry collection Hemming Flames. We had the chance to interview Trish about her writing process and what inspired these poems. Enjoy!

What is the background and inspiration behind this collection?

I’ve been writing about my complex family history for as long as I can remember. Poetry is helpful in articulating that history because I can use an objective correlative to show what happened, rather than trying to explain it. I think about how many times I’ve summarized the conditions of my nuclear family–how often do any of us answer the questions, “Do you have siblings?” or “What do your parents do.” I spent years and years (on an airplane or at the dentist) flat out lying. I had to lie. I couldn’t stand that look of pity when I told the truth. In this book I tell the truth about everything: madness, violence, hostility, and chaos.

What difficulties did you have writing about the mental illness and more disturbing aspects of your life? Did you have any reservations about publishing this work?

The difficulty came from having to relive so many of the painful events that render the characters and actions on the page. My mother’s mental illness made me timid and insecure throughout my lifetime. It was always going to be bigger than me. And for so long I thought her illness was my fault. This is not an uncommon occurrence for a child of a mentally ill parent. But the feeling was exacerbated when she attempted suicide when I was 15 and I saved her life. She went on to attempt suicide many times. I was never in control of anything.

I don’t have reservations about publishing this work, but I do wish I had something more uplifting to say. It’s hard to give readings from the book because it’s so intense and it’s not really fair to take an audience to the same dark place that I had to go to write it.

How do you begin a poem, generally, and how did you begin to approach this collection in particular?

I have a very disciplined writing practice. I read a lot. At least 104 books a year. And I keep an extensive writer’s notebook. When I sit down to write, first I journal, then I read a full collection of poetry, then I journal again with reactions to that. Then I review my writer’s notebook and I decide on a line or image to drive the composing process. Every once in a while I’ll have a strong emotion and I use the poem to make a sweeping gesture to address that. But usually the poems are image based or line-driven.

For this collection, I wanted to have a satisfying arch. Most of the poems were already written, but I did decide to write a series of nonce sonnets about my brother that rounded out that topic in the book. My writer’s group read and commented on them all–for many years we exchanged a poem a week for ten weeks, on and off throughout the year–and they encouraged me to be brave and detailed.

Your poem “Days After” was published in the CLR in 2005. What has changed about your writing craft—the ideas or characters you explore, how you approach them—over the last ten years?

That poem is about a different death–the death of my partner’s father in 2001. We really spent the aughts with sick parents, losing all four between 01 and 09, before I was 40 years old. I do have some love poems, and a lot of travel poems, and some conservationist poems, and some nature poems, etc. But over the course of those years we took a lot of hits! So it was asylum, cancer, death, death, hoarding, asylum, death death, etc.

What advice do you have for writers and poets working on trauma-related pieces?

First, I would say that every poem has a little trauma in it. If not, then it lacks tension, and it’s not really a poem. Second, find a group of people who love you and support you and who will read your work and tell you when you are being honest. Third, I would say read everything you can. There are so many amazing examples of poetry collections that deal with traumatic events or conditions. I’ll list some here:

Black Aperture by Matt Rasmussen

After Urgency by Rusty Morrison

Self-Portrait with Crayon by Allison Benis White

Temper by Beth Bachmann

Rising by Farah Field

How Beautiful the Beloved by Gregory Orr

Wheeling Motel by Franz Wright

How can readers discover more about you and your work?

At my website patriciacolleenmurphy.com.

Volume 29!

On By clackamasliteraryreviewIn Volume Release

We are SO EXCITED to share this new issue with our readers!! This is an incredible collection featuring authors close to home, as far away as Sweden, and from across the US—thank you so much to the poets and writers for trusting us with your words! And thanks to the unstoppable team of assistant editors—you talented people are amazing publishers!!