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Poetic Profile

kari edwards

Interview Questions for kari edwards 

General Questions

1) Where did you grow up? Was poetry and writing part of that mix?

in a small town, westfield, in western NY, where welch’s grape juice is made. and no, writing was not a part of the mix, but music was. I was 20 minutes from the original Chautauqua, where, in the summers I would spend time listening to classical music, and operas. 

2) Who are your poetic influences, favorite poets, writers, artwork, other things that inform your work?

as I said I grew up around music, but never found the time to turn to it. I instead I turned to art and got a MFA in sculpture . . . some of the big influences at the time: Chris Burden, Laurie Anderson, Robert Wilson, Joseph Beuys, John Cage,  Robert Rauschenberg, Linda Montano, Marcel Duchamp, John Giorno, Meredith Monk, Yves Klein along with the dadaists, and the fluxists (just to name a few); all dealing with a visual field as either apparent or as a subtext.

my entry into poetry was later. some of the early influences were; Allen Ginsberg, Gertrude Stein, Anne Waldman, Eileen Myles, Bererdette Mayer, Audre Lorde, Robert Duncan, akilah oliver, Francis Ponge, Antoin Artaud, Celine, Proust, Kenneth Patchen and Lyn Hejinian. in that order . . . most recently, I have enjoyed discovering J.H. Prynne....others like, Kate Bornstein, Julia Kristiva, and Donna Harraway . . . have been very important  my roots are in the porformative (queer and other wise), with a history of ritual, conceptual art, language school rolled into the beats . . . and a little Emma Goldmen to keep things honest.. 

3) When did you 'become' a poet when did poet become part of your everyday life?

 the day Allen Ginsberg died

 4) Where were you educated? Was this important?

 the list:

BFA - UW- madison; MFA(sculpture)- washington university, st. louis; MA (psych) - naropa institute, boulder; MFA (poetry) naropa university - boulder. as far as important . . . other than the oppressive student loan, there was nothing like the summer program at the Jack Kerouac school of disembodied poetics  . . . three years of summer camp or was that boot camp for poets?

5) You are viewed by many as controversial because of transgender issues can you tell me how that effects your work? 

controversial and transgender in one sentence . . . why are they conflated . . . are they the same?   why is the issue controversy centered around transgender without the questioning of the lie of heterosexually, or man and woman . . .?

why is it the question always coming from the position of the other as the other, that creates the illusion of the other . . .?

controversy is buying into and not questioning categorical references. the insistence there is a man and a woman should be controversial. controversial is a belief that there is such a thing as homosexuality and heterosexuality. controversial is that we still have boundaries, demarcated by artificial lines, separating the people of the world. controversial is global warming and the destruction of the environment. controversial is an unquestioned use of gender specific pronouns. controversial the privileged site of education. controversial is way language and grammer is rigidly enforced on the body and otherwise. controversial is that during this fascist regime there has not been an uprising  . . . . .  controversial is the unexamined creation of the other in the language concepts of transgender . . .. 

6) What is your favorite food? 

when I eat my favorite food, it is me being present to the taste of the food I am eating. otherwise its just information . . . though I am partial to Vietnamese coffee . . . that’s a food group is it not?

7) Sports Team? or Activity? 

I walk... some yoga

8) Vacation Spot? 

a vacation has always seemed like: 

1. either a petty bourgeois activity,

and / or

2. buying into the tourist, voyeur agenda with a bit of the old nostalgia credit card gaze . . .

and / or  

3. something that makes me a little jumpy when I think, I am working to buy my *time* off to rest from working so I can come back and work some more . . .

and /or 

4.  something where you spent three hours driving to a last bit of nature,  a  rendezvous  with some of the last remaining trees and then drive back again for another three hours...

 there is too much to do . . . too much killing going on to rest . . . too much hate going on, to rest . . . too much discrimination going on, to rest.......

9) Curse Word?

fuck . . . fuck this, fuck that . . . . but curse words in and of themselves mean nothing, fuck, shit, asshole . . . whatever . . . we have lost the art of cursing . . . and curse casting; wishing ill will or devastating drama... an example and one of my favorites comes from the exorcist, (1973): “your mother (brother, father, sister, daughter son, aunt - [you choose]) sucks the devils cock” . . . . . . or you can imagine that or any variety of things with say; rotten meat or crude oil....

Craft Questions

1) How do you form a poem? Is poetry an organic or synthetic process for you?

as a continuous presence in a context field. I let the filters and multiple  dialogues build in the moment, just as one would construct an assemblage.sometimes . . . maybe . . .

2) Where do you write? Is Ambiance important? Do you have rituals or habits when you write?

I write pretty much every day, get up between 5;30-6 a.m., and write for three hours. I have an office / loft about 9x15. for the last 5 month I have been working on a long poem, my last poem(?) “obedience” . . . I have a rather ritualistic approach, I listen to the same music over and over and keep writing till it ends 

3) In the balance between found language and created language where does

your work fall? Do you use many sources?

it falls somewhere in an indeterminate center.  

I appropriate freely, and being severely dyslexic, a fair amount of it is miss-reads, which usualy works just as well, and after numous editing processes, there may only be a trace of the original, if that.

in the past I used many text, mostly for a theme center in which to stand, i.e, myth, pornography or Jeanne d Arc. for obedience( my last poem). I am currently using philosophy text and 4-6 other books of poetry (at a time).

most of the poetry I read while writing is used as language hooks, (and to read the poems); so, when I am reading, if a word strikes me or assists in opening a door, I usually follow it.

Questions About your work. 

1) Do you prefer poetry or prose?

I perfer sex . . . but in the lack of it, I write . . . no, I said that wrong; I perfer text . . . but in a sack . . . I might . . . .

2) How does writing a novel change your work as a poet?

it is the other way around, my poetry informs my narrative / prose in the use of language, indeterminacy, and lyricism.

THE FOLLOWING IS FROM THE PROFILED AUTHOR             

BIOGRAPHY 

kari edwards is a poet, artist and gender activist, winner of New Langton Art’s Bay Area Award in literature (2002), author of iduna, O Books (2003), a day in the life of p. , subpress collective (2002), a diary of lies - Belladonna #27 by Belladonna Books (2002), and post/(pink) Scarlet Press (2000). sie is also the poetry editor I.F.G.E’s Transgender - Tapestry: a International Publication on Transgender issues. hir work has been exhibited throughout the united states, including denver art museum, new orleans contemporary art museum, university of california-san diego, and university of massachusetts - amherst. edwards’ work can also be found in  Scribner’s The Best American Poetry 2004 (fall, 2004), Narrativity: Investigations by Writers, Coach House, Toronto, 2004, Bisexuality and Transgenderism: InterSEXions of the Others, Hawoth Presss, Inc. (2004), Experimental Theology, Public Text 0.2., Seattle Research Institute (2003), Blood and Tears: Poems for Matthew Shepard, Painted Leaf Press (2000), Aufgabe, Mirage/Period(ical), Van Gogh’s Ear, Call, Boog City, 88: A Journal of Contemporary American Poetry, Narrativity, Fulcrum: an annual of poetry and aesthetics, Pom2,  Shearsman,  and The International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies. 

poetry:

http://www.tarpaulinsky.com/Spring04/edwards_correlation.html

http://www.webdelsol.com/5_trope/17/

http://www.wordforword.info/vol4/Edwards.htm

http://people2.clarityconnect.com/webpages6/ronhenry/edward10.htm

http://www.poeticinhalation.com/v3i3.html#Kari%20Edwards

http://www.eratiopostmodernpoetry.com/poetic%20language.html

http://www.moriapoetry.com/edwards.html

http://www.litvert.com/kedwards8.html

prose / fiction

http://www.drunkenboat.com/db6/edwards/low.html

http://www.emich.edu/studentorgs/bhouse/oldbhouse/edwards.html

http://www.chimerareview.com/volumes/2003_4/fic_edwards_1.0.htm

http://homepages.which.net/~panic.brixtonpoetry/semicolon1.htm

http://www.webdelsol.com/InPosse/edwards10.htm

http://www.puppyflowers.com/II/flowers.html

http://www.somalit.com/A_day_in.html

reviews:

http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn_322/sittingscreamingabout.html

http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_ronsilliman_archive.html#107589522079378198

http://nickpiombino.blogspot.com/2003_11_23_nickpiombino_archive.html

live recording:

http://www.factoryschool.org/content/sounds/poetry/frontenac.html

interview:

http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2003spring/      edwards.shtml

http://www.gendertalk.com/real/350/gt385.shtml

on narrative:

http://www.sfsu.edu/~poetry/narrativity/issue_three/edwards.html

blog:

http://transdada.blogspot.com/

email:

terra1@sonic.net