ChicagoPostmodernPoetry.Com

Poetic Profile

Juliana Spahr

General Questions

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

Chillicothe, Ohio.

There was little poetry and writing. But we didn't have a television so I read a lot of books. Mainly novels. And a lot of newspapers, news magazines, etc. Although books of any sort were hard to find at the time. The public library didn't have a big collection. The only bookstore in town was Christian. (This is still true.) In high school I used to hang out at
the community college library but I couldn't check stuff out there so I would go there in the evening and just read for a few hours.


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

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

I still don't identify as a poet. But poetry became a part of my everyday life in college.

4) Where were you educated? Was this important?

Central Elementary.
Smith Middle School.
Chillicothe High School.
Bard College.
SUNY at Buffalo.

Going to Bard was wrenching. I went from a rural midwestern community to this school full of rich kid slackers. It took me years to feel that I was on my feet again. But it was also amazing. Robert Kelly gave me a great list of books to read. I went to the library and looked up everything. I came out with a different head. I'm not sure it is a better head, but it is a different head.

Bluffalot was the same, although less disorientating. By then I knew what school was like. Lots of amazing reading. Although graduate school is a miserable way to spend your time and Buffalo was a complicated place. I do miss chicken wings.

But yes, it was important.

5) Do you consider yourself a women writer?

Yes.

Hawaii writer?

No.

Experimental Writer?

No.

6) What is your favorite food?

Water.

7) Sports Team?

 None.

8) Vacation Spot?

I've been on so few vacations in my life. Although I miss the beach horribly. But not really as vacation spot. More as backyard.

9) Curse Word?

I don't know. Although I am fond of the doubled meanings in the word fuck.

10) What is your opinion of Avant-garde American writing in comparison to other avant gardes from other places in the world? Does the Avant Garde exist?

I remain confused about what avant garde might mean. But the techniques that are used by what I think we might colloquially say is the American avant garde (or the American experimental) tend to be the same techniques that come out of modernism, an international literary movement which steals a lot of formal devices from oral poetries. I would probably say that any American avant garde is part of avant gardes in other parts of the world but I am not sure the avant garde exists or not. But people of many different nations and locations use the same techniques that avant garde writers use.

Craft Questions


1) How do you form a poem?

I walk around and do nothing and do nothing and then I think oh I need to think about that some more because that is interesting/upsetting/ confusing/would change my life. Then I say, what is the best way to think about that? And sometimes I answer, the best way is write an essay and I go and try and write an essay but often the essay never gets written because I've got other essays to write. And sometimes I answer, the best way is to write a poem. Then I usually think some about what sort of poem it should be. And if I need to do research, I go and do research. This is the main thing that I do. Like when I wrote the alien abduction poem I spent a lot of time reading the literature in this field. As I do this I take notes. Then I go and sort through the notes and write the poem. This probably takes numerous drafts. Then I read the poem a few places and keep changing it. And someone publishes it or I get tired of writing it. Etc.

2) Do you use collage, parataxis cut ups or other tools?

Yes.

3) Is poetry an organic or synthetic process for you?

Both.

4) Where do you write? Is ambiance important? Do you have rituals or habits when you write?

I write whenever, wherever, or never. Ambiance is not important. I have no rituals or habits.

5) In the balance between found language and created language where does your work fall? Do you use many sources?

I do use sources. It depends on the piece, but there might be 10% found language and 90% "created." But sometimes it is the reverse.


 

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