1. I heard you made a new poetic form and it’s included in your chapbook. Tell me about it! How did you create a new form? "Actually, for self-portrait as poems about bad poetry, I used pre-existing forms! A couple are newer--to poetry or otherwise--but the rest are more common. For example, couplet stanzas, general free verse, and prose poems are often utilized throughout the chapbook. As for the newer ones, there’s one poem that’s a burning haibun--but with water imagery as opposed to the traditional fire imagery--which was created by torrin a. Greathouse; one poem is in the style of contrapuntal; also, one poem is in the style as a choose your own adventure. It’s certainly not a new concept since there’s been a book series (and now board game series!) created by Chooseco since the late 1970s. Its influence is prevalent in other writing, namely Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House and Netflix’s Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. I started writing that particular poem, In Which Your Poems Were a Choose Your Own Adventure, in 2019. It was originally supposed to be a character chapbook, but I got too caught up in the minutiae that I worried it would 1) be an outright trademark infringement and 2) too intricately confusing given my skill set and understanding of poetry at that time. I wasn’t really in the place to write a whole chapbook with that conceit, and I’m not sure if I even would be ready now. Anyway, I wanted there to be a mix of more 'traditional', in the contemporary sense, forms and a sprinkle of the experimental/newer forms to best explore the mechanics of poetry in BAD POEMS. However, if you’re curious, I do have an original form or two in my next poetry chapbook, Trick Mirror or Your Computer Screen, which is all about tech, trauma, toys, and transformation all circumgendered by the wild west of the Internet. I don’t think I can discuss the fine details as far as a release date goes, but it is forthcoming." 2. Songs in your head while writing this chap? "So, I leaned heavily into music for Trick Mirror or Your Computer Screen, but for BAD POEMS, I didn’t. Actually, I don’t recall music being an impactful element for the book. Instead, I was reminiscing on other popular culture phenomena from my youth, such as Luigi’s Mansion on the GameCube, Disney’s Pocohantas and The Little Mermaid, Tokio Hotel (yes, the band, but more so the concept of them rather than a focus on their music), Blockbuster, and more." 3. Tell me a story behind one of your favorite poems in this collection :) "I don’t have a favorite poem, really, but I do have a favorite story of a poem in the chapbook! One of the first three poems was written when I was 17 years old. I wrote it for A Chapbook Which Will Not Be Named (that isn’t its name, and if you know, you know, but now I’m taking it to my grave) that I was so sure of as a high schooler. I thought it was going to change the poetry scene. It’s really really funny how grandiose teenagers think sometimes. Anyway, it was for a chapbook concept I thought would really take off. I was right and wrong on that, but my chapbook was certainly not it. A few months before I decided to piece BAD POEMS together, I was searching into my main three chapbooks I wrote in high school to figure out the merit, if any, behind them. One of my colleagues has copies of two of them, and he kept trying to assure me that they were good, especially for their time, but I didn’t (and still don’t really) see any merit behind any of them. Except for one poem. So, I plucked that poem from the old manuscript, pared it down a little, and modified one word which changed the whole conceit of the poem. Thus, it was placed in BAD POEMS." 4. Why did you decide to self-publish your collection? "So, the poem I’m talking about in the previous question...well, it’s not the only poem I wrote when I was younger and repurposed it for BAD POEMS. There’s a lot about this chapbook that rings true of a DIY aesthetic with how much I’ve pulled from older writings, drafts. Almost as if this poetry chapbook is more of a scrapbook than anything else. So, I highlighted that and ensured it was a design-heavy book. Because of that, I really wanted total control of the chapbook--design, especially, but also the pre-order campaign and selling platform. The thing about publishing with a publisher is that while it’s still your book and your brand, it’s also under their brand, too. Your chapbook will definitely be branded by your publisher/the publishing house, even if it’s something as small as their logo in the front or back matter and their standard typeface. However, a publisher can help build your author platform and/or vice versa. It’s a symbiotic relationship, at heart, and it’s a great path to choose, but it’s certainly not for every single book out there. I didn’t want BAD POEMS to rely on a relationship between author and publisher; I didn’t want any other branding than a branding fully suited for BAD POEMS. I’m lucky enough to have a small (but mighty) platform, partially in thanks to my magazine (the winnow magazine), which is one of the few reasons that it was possible to publish this chapbook. Anyone can certainly self-publish, and it’s also totally valid to just do it for yourself and/or those close to you. But if you’re hoping to distribute it widely, you’ll either need a publisher or a platform. Both are king if you want it to be distributed to as many people as possible. Anyway, this has turned more so into a tangent than anything else. All I meant was that I required at least a small platform to do what I sought out to do. Ultimately, I decided to self-publish this chapbook so I could have the final say on everything and because I want it to reach the people I currently reach now." 5. And finally, tips for how you would arrange a manuscript of poems? "This is a great question because it’s tough to answer. It all really depends on the manuscript itself, such as what is it setting out to accomplish, what are the overall themes (or just one theme), what/how many poetic forms are being utilized, etc. Not all chapbooks need sections. Not all chapbooks need to be a tete beche. (I’m calling myself out on those two.) But, if you’re writing a poetry chapbook, there should be something to thread it together. A theme, an overall conceit, a narrative. My best advice is to understand that and adjust accordingly. I haven’t written a full-length collection or micro-chapbook before (or successfully), so I’ll refrain from any advice on that one." Pre-order self-portrait as poems about bad poetry via Rachael's author page. Hear Rachael read their poems "In Which You Write About Ghosts and Bodies" and "In Which You Said You Wouldn't Write About Him." CW: difficult relationships/suggested sexual abuse for latter poem. Rachael Crosbie is the Editor-in-Chief & Founder of the winnow, poetry editor of Dollar Store Mag, and poetry reader for Persephone's Daughters. They have a BA in English Literature from Waynesburg University and a MS in Publishing: Digital and Print Media from New York University: School of Professional Studies. Rachael has two chapbooks with ELJ Editions, Ltd.: swerve and MIXTAPES. Their next work of poetry, Trick Mirror or Your Computer Screen, is forthcoming with fifth wheel press. You can find them on Twitter @rachaelapoet posting about She-Ra and The Princesses of Power, squishmallows, and cats.
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writersAmy Cipolla Barnes
Cristina A. Bejan Jared Beloff Taylor Byas Elizabeth M Castillo Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar Rachael Crosbie Charlie D’Aniello Shiksha Dheda Kate Doughty Maggie Finch Naoise Gale Emily M. Goldsmith Lukas Ray Hall Amorak Huey Shyla Jones B. Tyler Lee June Lin June Lin (mini) Laura Ma Aura Martin Calia Jane Mayfield Beth Mulcahy Nick Olson Ottavia Paluch Pascale Maria S. Picone nat raum Angel Rosen A.R.Salandy Carson Sandell Preston Smith Rena Su Magi Sumpter Nicole Tallman Jaiden Thompson Meily Tran Charlie D’Aniello Trigueros Kaleb Tutt Sunny Vuong Nova Wang Heath Joseph Wooten Archives
December 2022
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