|
ZAUM Sonoma State University's Literary Magazine | |
|
Return to current zaum Blog post Interview with Gillian Conoley February 22, 2010  Welcome to the official zaum blog! I'm M. Bryn Schut and I'm pleased to be writing the first entry of the soon-to-be regular blog entries for this site, so please check back frequently for news not only on zaum but on literary events, book reviews, and more!
If you're new to our site, zaum is the student-produced, award-winning literary magazine of Sonoma State University. Each year, zaum calls for submissions from university students across the country in an effort to publish and promote those trying to break into the literary field. This year, we will be releasing our 14th annual publication, and come fall 2010, we'll be calling for submissions for zaum #15. Aside from our main purpose, however, we here at zaum also like to draw attention to literary events, and it is for this reason that zaum's first blog entry is about a member of the SSU faculty with close ties to zaum itself. Gillian (that's with a hard "g" sound) Conoley is not only a staff member at Sonoma State University, but also its Poet-In-Residence, the editor for the literary magazine Volt, and is (usually) the staff member in charge of keeping zaum running smoothly. She has six collections of poetry under her belt and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Jerome J. Shestack Poetry Prize, a National Endowments for the Arts grant, and a Fund for Poetry Award. This year, however, Conoley is on sabbatical in order to promote her latest book, The Plot Genie. Eager to support one of its own, Sonoma State University is hosting a reading of Gillian Conoley's poetry-an event that we are pleased to announce is free and entirely open to the public-on Thursday, February 25th, 20100 at 6:00pm in the Charles W. Schulz Library, Room 3001. Though her schedule is busy, Conoley was kind enough to answer a few questions for us in regards to her work: Your latest book is called The Plot Genie. What brought about that name? GC: The book takes its title from a 1930's plot generating device/system created by an ex-silent screenwriter Wycliffe A. Hill. Originally, the plot device came with an indigo blue card illustrated with a genie and a wheel of numbers that the writer was to spin to obtain a plot. Apparently the system was widely used throughout the '30s- '50s by pulp fiction writers, screenwriters, and serious writers alike, though few would admit it. The books are rare and out of print now. The ones I own contain the traces of other writers-- red pencil marks and notes for plots. When I first discovered the books, I was enchanted by them, and loved them for their arcanity and sense of potentiality. They carried an aura of the occult and of magic. I loved thinking about how many other writers had used Hill's system, about what had been created. At first, I spun as instructed, did the chance operation, came up with plots, etc., but that ultimately wasn't what interested me. Instead, I began to imagine characters who were trapped within the system, waiting to come into being, to be dialed up and thrown into narrative. In my book, there are characters of my own invention: E and R, who are lovers who never end out in the same plot but meet on the sly; Handsome Dead Man; Redhead; Miss Jane Sloan, a writer; and Comedy Boy. The plot genie herself becomes a character. There is also a whole throng of unnamed characters. How long have you been writing poetry, and what is it about this medium that you find appealing? GC: I think most children write, so I guess it's a question of when did I stop and then when did I start again, which is something I can't remember. I began seriously writing when I was 19. I wrote a whole book of stories about witches when I was around 12, which I really wish I still had, but the house I grew up in burned down in 1997, taking with it all my juvenilia, perhaps for the best. What I find appealing about poetry as a medium is that it's so open to associative patterns of thinking and of language. I like its economy and its ability to tap into the ineffable. It can be so quick and striking and powerful-- it can knock you out in a single line. Do you have a particular routine you have to follow when you're writing? For example, do you eat certain foods, lock yourself in a room and write for seven hours a day, or do you listen to a particular kind of music while you work? GC: My fetish is to have no fetishes. Would you say that any poet has helped shape your artistic style? GC: Too many to mention. I think you read who you love and hope that they influence you. Emily Dickinson, John Donne, Rimbaud, Celan, Sappho, Flannery O'Connor, Beckett, Blake, W.C. Williams, Zukofsky, Tsvetaevya, Coleridge, Poe, John Cage, Pessoa, I could go on. Among my contemporaries I admire so many-- Lyn Hejinian, Michael Palmer, Fanny Howe, C. S. Giscombe, Jean Valentine, the French writer Suzanne Doppelt, Harryette Mullen. Sebald, Cormac McArthy, Paul Auster among the fiction writers. I also think it's important to read widely in other fields, in philosophy and science. And painters, other visual artists. Musicians. The classics are classics for good reason. I want to live a long life so I can read as much as possible. What do you consider the best piece you have written? GC: Don't know. Have trouble with the notion of "the best." There are individual poems from different collections I still like, but I just like to keep moving on. Writing is hard. I like Beckett's admonition: "Fail. Fail better." Writing is a practice one practices for a lifetime. You are currently on sabbatical from SSU. Will you be working on a new project during this time, or will you be concentrating more on promoting your current work? GC: I am shamelessly promoting my new work on a book tour, reading a lot this spring and fall. Seeing many old friends and trying to enunciate. Also am writing new poems, and finally finishing up a project that's been on the back burner for years-translating the French writer Henri Michaux's "Four Hundred Men on a Cross." Most of Michaux's work has been translated, but this is a work that has not yet been brought into English. If you had to choose one thing to tell people about your poetry, what would it be? GC: No comment. Many thanks once again to Gillian Conoley for her time, and the best of luck to her on the promotion of her book! Again, those interested in attending her free reading can attend on February 25, 2010 at 6:00pm in Room 3001 of the Charles W. Schulz Library at Sonoma State University. Don't miss out on the chance to see a published author at work! That's about all we have for this blog entry. Thank you for reading and supporting, and please check back for more news! -M. Bryn Schut (zaumbie) Questions for the author? Want to comment on the blog? Email us at nicolais@sonoma.edu and we'll post your questions and comments. Return to current zaum Blog post | |
