Interview with:Denis M. Garrison [dengary]
WRITING
 | What did you first read? How did you begin to write? Who were the first to read what you wrote? Victor Hugo novels in English translation (especially, Toilers of the Sea) are my earliest memory of reading. My brother taught me to read before I began school in Tokyo, Japan. For many years, I was a voracious, omnivorous reader. In high school, I began to write poetry and short fiction. A school newspaper's literary supplement was my first publication venue. Then, as now, I kept my work close to my chest, not sharing it at all until publication. |
| What is your favorite genre? Can you provide a link to a site where we can read some of your work or learn something about it? I am primarily a poet although I have published some fiction. My earlier work was in free and formal verse; two collections have been published. In this century, I have concentrated on Japanese short forms, haiku, senryu, tanka, and so on. Three collections of these brief poems have been published, not to mention inclusion in anthologies, journals, and so forth. You can read much of my work at http://www.dengary.com/ which has links to my works on Scribd.com. |
| What is your creative process like? What happens before sitting down to write? I write anywhere and everywhere, at any time of day. Napkins and placemats are as often the materials of composition as notepaper or computer media. I do not "sit down to write." Whatever I am doing, I simply start writing when a poem starts trying to escape my mind. Since the poems themselves always make the first move, I never have to face writer's block. On the other hand, if I try to ignore a poem that wants out, there are ugly consequences; an ignored poem is like an angry bee in my skull. |
| What type of reading inspires you to write? I am an editor and publisher of poetry so I have the wonderful opportunity to read thousands of new poems every year. Plus, I follow quite a number of poetry journals, participate in online poetry groups, elists, Twitter, etc., all of which bring more thousands of poems my way. Wonderful work in verse of radical concision is being done these days and it all inspires me to pursue the Muse who chases me. |
| What well known writers do you admire most? Dana Gioia and Charles Simic are favorites of mine amongst those famous to the general public. Also, Adrienne Rich. In the world of poetry that I actually inhabit, Sanford Goldstein, Larry Kimmel, Grace Cavalieri, Alexis Rotella, Jean LeBlanc, and Roberta Beary are foremost among the poets I admire. |
| Deep down inside, who do you write for? I write because I must. On the one hand, the poems want out and I need to set them free. On the other hand, I adore language and find both joy and profound satisfaction in sculpting words into new shapes. Once a poem is written, it belongs to whomever wishes to read it. While I do publish my work as books, I also give it away online. I have received the writing of others as deeply appreciated gifts all my life and I consider my own writings to be my gifts to whomever wants them. |
| Is writing a form of personal therapy? Are internal conflicts a creative force? I am a little long in the tooth to see the world in the therapeutic model. I conceive of my poems as angels (sometimes, maniacal, other times, ethereal) who want out of my mind and will not stop calling for release until I cooperate. While this is of course mere metaphor, I deal with it as if it were objective reality and that has served me well. |
| Does reader feed-back help you? Reader feedback does not materially change anything for me. Nevertheless, I am frequently moved by readers' letting me know how they have been affected by reading my work--no less so than anyone else, I think. Inasmuch as a finished poem, once published, is a free thing in my view, I stop relating to it as creator. From that point forward, I am just another reader myself. |
| Do you participate in competitions? Have you received any awards? I almost never compete in writing. Competition does not fill any need for me. My poems are what they are and I need no validation from a judge or anyone else. On the other hand (and entirely inconsistently), I do judge competitions from time to time. I enjoy the analysis of, and commenting upon, fine poetry. Although I do not compete, I do not oppose competition per se. Many poets are deeply competitive and that is fine for them. |
| Do you share rough drafts of your writings with someone whose opinion you trust? No. Workshopping is fine for poets in their apprenticeship, but can one call a workshopped poem one's own? I lead workshops from time to time and believe they can be valuable experiences. However, I am not entirely comfortable with the idea of publishing poetry developed with assistance. I do occasionally write works together with one or more partners, e.g., writing alternating stanzas or verses. Such collaborative poetry is traditional in the Japanese forms. But in these works, my verses are mine; they are not written by my collaborator(s). |
| Do you believe you have already found "your voice" or is that something one is always searching for? I have always had my own voice but I do not always use it. I do not mean for every poem I write to read as if written by one person. I have written as many characters and in a number of voices. Each poem needs to become whatever it is meant to be, intrinsically, not to be forced into an enunciation of The Poet. Writing solely as myself strikes me as unbearably limiting, self-serving, and necessarily boring. |
| What discipline do you impose on yourself regarding schedules, goals, etc.? I have no structural discipline. I write whenever and wherever a poem arises. The poem in composition is my sole goal. Ever so often, I look up and notice that I have a number of finished works and then I send some out to periodicals for publication. More rarely, I decide it is time to put them out as a collection. Frankly, I am kept too busy writing to spend much time acting like a writer. |
| What do you surround yourself with in your work area in order to help your concentrate? Nothing. I write under any and all circumstances, so no one spot is my "work area" unless perhaps it is the journalist's notepad in my breast pocket. |
| Do you write on a computer? Do you print frequently? Do you correct on paper? What is your process? Yes, word-processing is a great help with polishing works. I rarely print works out; many never see paper before actual publication. For those poems first scratched out on napkins, index cards, notepads, etc., they are transcribed into a word-processing document where they undergo polishing, sometimes for months or even years. Once a poem is "finished," I let it sit for at least a few weeks so that I can come back to it with at least a slightly fresh view. I may make some revisions and repeat the process. When I see that the poem is truly finished, I no longer consider revisions (as that can be an endless process and can destroy a poem). On the other hand, if the poem is not quite right, I will keep at it as long as it takes. |
| What sites do you frequent on-line to share experiences or information? |
| What has been your experience with publishers? Excellent. I am a publisher, Modern English Tanka Press, http://www.themetpress.com/ MET Press publishes poetry books, including my own. Several of my friends and fellow poets are also publishers (e.g., Keibooks, Black Cat Press, Winfred Press, Three Fountains Press, etc.). Mainline publishers tend to treat poetry as a high-prestige loss-leader, which is short-sighted and has poor results, I believe. MET Press is able to publish fine verse and make a profit. It really can be done if the publishers don't treat poets like their crazy aunts that live in the attic. |
| What are you working on now? I am continually writing tanka and haiku. It never ends. Well, it won't end until I do. I also edit two journals, Ambrosia and Concise Delight, and publish them as well as various poetry collections by other poets. After three haiku collections, it is probably time for me to pull together a collection of my tanka for publication. |
| What do you recommend I do with all those things I wrote years ago but have never been able to bring myself to show anyone? Send them to a publisher. You have nothing to lose and much to gain. A publisher will tell you something you didn't know about your work. Might be good news, might be bad. Still, you will have gained some ground. The other workable alternative is to simply forget your old works and get on with writing something new. To do nothing with your old works except keep worrying about what to do is really a non-option unless futility is your cup of tea.
I will share an insight born of experience. For all the writers out there whose old works are not worth seeing the light of day, there are plenty of others who have no idea what gems they have written. Most writers are poor judges of their own writing, either over-estimating it or under-estimating it. If you are the self-sufficient, self-validating type, good for you! If not, get someone else's opinion. |
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1026 visits Whohub
Denis M. Garrison
Baltimore, Maryland
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95592 interviews created
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