Three of Alyse Knorr?s poems appear in Puerto del Sol Issue 47.1. They are also available online as part of a preview for this issue, which can be found?here.
Thank you for agreeing to this online interview. When did your journey with poetry begin, and what are some of the highlights thus far from your writing career?
AK:? I remember sitting in English class in the eleventh grade, while we were reading the first section of T.S. Eliot?s ?The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.?? I was so suddenly overwhelmed at the beauty of language and the intricacy of Eliot?s poetic craft??I have measured out my life in coffee spoons?!?that I felt like I needed to hold onto the desk for dear life.? I looked around the room and everyone else was sleeping, or just looked blank.? That?s the first time I think I really connected with poetry and realized how powerful it was.
As my writing career progressed from there, I went on to earn a B.A. in English at Elon University and an M.F.A. in poetry from George Mason University, where I worked with Jennifer Atkinson, Susan Tichy, Eric Pankey, and Sally Keith.? During my time at Mason, I had the pleasure of working for So to Speak: a feminist journal of language and art, which was very influential in helping me find a context and a conversation in which to place my work.
Your poems in Puerto del Sol revolve around a recurring character, Alice. Who is this character to you, and how does she function thematically?
AK:? Alice is loosely based on Lewis Carroll?s ?Alice? from Alice in Wonderland, in that her grief for her sister and for Jenny takes her on a journey through various internal ?lands.?? She?s also partly an autobiographical spin-off of myself.? All my life, people have mispronounced my name as ?Alice,? when it really rhymes with ?Denise,? so I decided to have some fun with that and invent this alter-ego for myself.? I?m very interested in questions of where to place the ?eye? and ?I? in a ?confessional? poem, and the ways writers create masks for themselves to both conceal and reveal.
From past discussions, you seem to hold Elizabeth Bishop in high regard. Has she impacted your work and development as a writer? Who would you cite as your major influences?
AK:? During the last semester of my MFA, I took a class on Elizabeth Bishop, and it blew my mind.? I became obsessed with Bishop?for months, all I wanted to read were Bishop?s poems, prose, and letters, as well as biographies and criticism about her.? Bishop?s life story is just so tragic, and so fascinating, and the more you read about her life, the more it affects the way you approach her poems and her poetics?which is important because the work itself is so purposefully private and could come across at first glance as personally ?distant.?? So this was extremely interesting for me to think about as I was writing a book full of love poems.
As far as other influences go, I would cite Mark Doty for his narrative and descriptive prowess, as well as Jack Gilbert and Olga Broumas for their fascinating and gorgeous approaches to the love poem.? Broumas in particular has a lot of incredible themes going on with the body and the lyric erotic, and her poems are so musically rich.? I?m speaking on a panel at AWP Boston this spring called ?Courting the Love Poem,? where I hope to discuss more of this!
You recently started Gazing Grain Press and ran a wonderful chapbook contest judged by Brian Teare. What?s the mission and aesthetic for Gazing Grain? What are your goals down the line with this project?
AK:? Gazing Grain Press was founded by myself and two colleagues and fellow George Mason MFA alums, Siwar Masannat and M. Mack.? We had all worked together at So to Speak and, after graduating, saw a need for a feminist poetry chapbook contest that was open to writers of all genders and all sexualities, and not limited to women only.? We created Gazing Grain Press, then, to celebrate inclusive feminism, promote socially-conscious writing, and make a space for feminist poets of all genders and all sexualities.? We adhere to no one definition of feminism, nor do we promote one aesthetic?we?re looking for work that addresses issues of gender, sexuality, race, class, and ability. Just last week, we hosted our inaugural contest winner, Laura Neuman, for a celebratory launch reading in Fairfax, and hir chapbook will be on sale at our website very soon, for only eight bucks!? I?m excited to see what will come next for us.
What contemporary poetry are you currently reading? Is anyone blowing your socks off?
AK:? Some of my favorite new books recently have been Dana Levin?s Sky Burial, Fanny Howe?s Come and See, and Heather Christle?s The Trees The Trees.? While I?m reading a new book, I usually underline parts that really stick out to me that I enjoy, and my copy of The Trees The Trees is underlined pretty much continuously from start to finish!? I also always love anything that Matthea Harvey puts out, and I?m a big admirer of Anne Carson?s work, as well.? Her book Autobiography of Red was a very important early influence for the Alice sequence.
Congratulations on your forthcoming book, Annotated Glass, from Furniture Press Books. How would you describe this manuscript and when will it be available for purchase?
AK:? Thank you!? I?m excited to say that the book will be available in early 2014 through Furniture Press Books, which publishes work I admire very much.? The book consists entirely of ?Alice? poems, and follows the psychological narrative of Alice negotiating her world post-Jenny. Though Jenny, her ex-lover, is not dead, her loss calls up for Alice the memories of her sister Rose, who drowned at a young age.? I sometimes think of the book as a kind of novel in verse, with Alice progressing through these internalized grieving lands and dealing with her loss, her anger, and her despair through the imagination, which allows her to alter reality until, eventually, she is healed.
I greatly appreciate your contribution to Puerto del Sol?s latest issue and look forward to reading Annotated Glass.
For more information about Alyse Knorr, visit her website, Gazing Grain Press, and Furniture Press Books.
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Source: http://puertodelsol.org/wordpress/2012/10/author-spotlight-interview-with-alyse-knorr/
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