Small Press Intravues:
Occasional Interviews with writers working and
publishing in the small press ecosystem
Interview #1: We caught up with
Jennifer MacBain-Stephens who has published widely in the small press world and
has some new exciting work recently published or soon to be coming out,
including, The Vitamix and the Murder of Crows from Apocalypse
Party.
How did you get started in writing?
My first memory of writing was writing my mother notes
that she treated me unfairly. Then I started writing my whole life down in journals.
My first joy in writing was probably in High school writing a different
monologue for Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet as an assignment. Then when I was
an intern at the Public Theater in New York, I wrote little zines from the
intern’s perspective and passed them out to the crew. It was at this time I
tried writing short stories but I never knew how to end them. When I moved to
CA I joined a poetry group in Lake Arrowhead and we published our own little
book. These were the first poems I had ever written and it will always be
special to me. Then I got more serious about poetry moving to Iowa City and
participating in an Artist’s Way group. I thought I would do more visual art,
but instead, I focused on the writing. Now I am also excited to be writing song
lyrics with some of my musician friends. I love the collaboration of it.
Why poetry instead of some other form? I like it because it is short. I feel like I
can say what I want to say and not go on and on about it. This sounds terrible but sometimes when I go
to fiction readings now, it’s hard for me to pay attention and sit still and I
think “too many words.” Or maybe it’s just hard for me to sit still. 😊
What other form do you see your work influenced by or
continuous with? Music? Magic? Science? Jouralism? Gardening?
I’m majorly influenced by visual art, other
poets, anything gothic or sort of dark, science fiction, feminism, magical
realism, and Noir.
With music one example I remember is writing a lot of
poems after driving around in one of my first Iowa winters. I listened to the
Stars “North,” on repeat and wrote many poems about snow, the cold, things
dying, birch trees, etc.
My favorite songs are the ones where you don’t know
what the singer is going to say. Like when Spoon lists off “pot holders,” “Elgin
soldiers,” and “high rollers,” I can’t even live my life. Lol.
I am also very inspired by horror movies: any movie
with a girl in a white dress walking around a windy hillside is my jam and I’ll
write about it. I feel like Juliet Cook and Danielle Pafunda and Sarah Nichols write
really well about dead girls.
I also like how one never knows what will inspire
them. When I went to CO last year, I ended up writing a lot of poems about
rocks. Or sometimes something will really gross you out and you have to write
about it- like too many little circles in a pattern in one place is gross. Lol.
What infinitives best sum up your writing practice? To
explore, to investigate, to express, to interrogate, to perform, to reveal, to
layer, to obfuscate, to connect? Please choose as many as you wish and explain.
I think To Explore and To Express would be good ones-
because a lot of times I am not sure why I am stuck on writing about a certain
subject- and then later, people will tell me- oh this was dripping with
isolation, or this was all about trying to connect with someone, and I always
love those moments. So many times, it doesn’t jump out to me until much later
why I chose to write about something, and I am cool with that.
But I also noticed that if I am at a poetry reading, I
will read my more literal poems like
Chain Book Store, or Lisa’s Ghost Twin Sister at the Grocery Store, because
people connect faster with less abstract ideas. I probably wouldn’t read my 3
page poem about that time I was wandering around a grave yard talking about
granite…
What ecosystems do you see your work fitting into?
That is, who are the other artists and makers and writers that your work is in
relationship with?
What a fun question. I love all of these people: Sarah
Nichols, Jesse Janeshek, Chris Eck, Ashley Heffernen, Ms. Christine, Fox
Frasier Foley, Sarah Lilius, E. Kristin Anderson, The authors at Stalking Horse
Press, Grey Book Press, Shirt Pocket Press, surreal art, landscape photography,
mountains, the woods, outerspace, putting things together that don’t seem they
should go together but then they do. I’ve had fun lately writing about music
and landscapes, and demons, and being on some kind of trail.
What are your current projects? What are you working
on? If you’re not writing, are you busy with something else?
My chapbook The Female Citizens of Sunshine Nation
Face off with Light Sucking Demons is going to come out soon from Grey Book
Press. And my chapbook Teeth have a Hardness Scale of 5 (the poems about
the rocks) is also going to be published this year. I have a bunch of poems out
to different places. One project that I am in the middle of are drawings I did
of a greenhouse in Washington state and then I am going to put words over the
top of these pictures so it will be a combination of text and image. It scares
me but also excites me.
What stuff do you have out in the world, and how can
people get their hands on it? Books, chapbooks, individual poems, essays, other
interviews, songs, anything else?
Most of my writing is listed on this web site
somewhere:
my web site is: https://jennifermacbainstephens.wordpress.com/writing/
And here are some books and chapbooks:
We’re Going to Need a Higher Fence (Lit
Fest Press.) Can get at amazon
The Vitamix and the Murder of Crows.
(Apocalypse Party Press)
The Messenger is Already Dead
(Stalking Horse Press.)
Your Best
Asset is a White Lace Dress (first
full length) is available from Amazon. (Yellow Chair Press.)
chapbooks:
Buy Alaphalena
(micro chapbook) at Rinky Dink Press.
Buy Clown Machine here from Grey Book Press.
Read my poem from “Clown Machine” “The Contortionist
has Damaged Taste Buds” here at Literary
Orphans.
Here is also “Styling the Bearded Lady” from
“Clown Machine” at Cider Press Review.
Here are some poems from The Visitant at Menacing Hedge.
Buy my chapbook Every Her Dies here:
ELJ Publications
My chapbook Backyard Poems is
available from Dancing Girl Press.
Buy Jeanne (Poems About Light, Ants and Revenge) here: Be About it Press
(“xx poems” is a micro-chap.) Nine poems for $4.99, as
part of the Ninesense series.
Dixit: Every
Picture Tells a Story, or, The Wrong Items is an e-chap
available to read free online at White Knuckle Press.
She Came out
From Under the Bed (Poems Inspired by the Films of Guillermo del Toro) is
available to order from Dancing Girl Press.
What would you tell people who are just starting to
get involved with writing and publishing?
I would say work on something until you are happy with
it. Usually if you are happy with it, the work will find a home somewhere. Only
you have your voice. No one else has your voice. You are valuable. Follow the
energy- wherever that takes you. When you are looking at a place to send your
work / manuscripts, look at the web site and see if you like it. If you don’t
like it that much, you probably won’t like other things they do…
What media are you enjoying lately? Music, tv, movies,
art?
I’ve been listening to Grimes, Soccer Mommy, The Chromatics,
Tame Impala, Phantogram, Broken Social Scene, and a mix of music that I just
call “Big MF’ing Mix.” I’m going to see Built to Spill in an old barn in Iowa
at the end of the summer and I’m looking forward to that – (at Codfish Hollow.)
I’m super psyched to finish the last season of the Good
Place with my boyfriend and cry all over each other.
I also love watching Sabrina, the reboot, with my
daughter and it has awesome feminist writing. I haven’t seen the film Parasite
yet but want to. So many things.
I also read recently that saying “No” is the new independence, so I am trying to
whittle things down to what I really want to see and do.
Michael Sikkema is the editor of
Shirt Pocket Press, a small run chapbook press, as well as the author of 5 full
length books of poems, mostly recently You've Got a Pretty Hellmouth,
with Trembling Pillow Press. He is also the author of a couple dozen chapbooks,
most recently Here on Huron, with above/ground press and Welcome to the Last Earth Show, with Where is the River.
