Blackmail, Bravado, Takahe & Viola

What do the above have in common, I hear you cry? Well, they are all journals which have published my work over the past month and a bit.

The Rebel Issue of Blackmail Press is available online here http://blackmailpress.com/Index25.html It will be launched in Wellington on Weds 16 September at 7:30 pm upstairs at the Thistle Inn. I have a couple of poems in the issue and will be reading them on the night, along with many other fine poets. (that is to say, I won’t be reading the fine poets; they will be reading their own work)

While I was overseas in August (Iceland and England, photos to come), three of my short stories were published in NZ journals: Bravado http://www.bravado.co.nz/PressReleaseBravado16.html Takahe http://www.takahe.org.nz/index.php and Viola Beadleton’s Compendium http://www.wellingtonwriters.com/violablog/

I was also pleased to hear that another story was “honourably mentioned” in the Momaya Press competition and will be published later this year.

In further poetry news, don’t forget tomorrow’s fundraiser at Paekakariki for the victims of the Princess Ashika Ferry Disaster in Tonga. Karlo Mila, Apirana Taylor, David Geary, Glenn Colquhoun and Te Roopu Kapa Haka o Paekakariki will perform. Starts at 2pm in the Paekakariki Memorial Hall, 98 The Parade, Paekakariki, Kapiti Coast.

Nearest & Dearest: an interview with Mary Cresswell

Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Wellington-based poet Mary Cresswell. Mary is currently engaged in a “virtual book tour” to promote her new book Nearest and Dearest (Steele Roberts), an illustrated book of satiric poetry. On a virtual book tour, the author appears for brief interviews on a range of blogs rather than visiting different places—a much more environmentally friendly approach. Mary has already been interviewed by Tim Jones http://timjonesbooks.blogspot.com/.

Mary lives on the Kapiti Coast, though she’s also spent time living in the US, Germany and Japan. She holds a degree in history and English literature from Stanford University in California, and works as a freelance science editor and proofreader. Her first poetry book was the joint publication Millionaire’s Shortbread (University of Otago Press, 2003) with Mary-Jane Duffy, Mary Macpherson, and Kerry Hines.

Mary, you often use particular forms for your poetry. I enjoyed the sonnets in Nearest and Dearest such as “The Rake’s Wife’s Progress” and “The Office Manager Addresses her Mirror” (a wonderful parody of Shakespeare’s “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” which begins “Shall I wear the Gucci scarf today/ It’s far more lovely and more corporate” – see Tim’s blog for the full poem). You also make good use of rhyme schemes in your book. What is it about form and rhyme that appeals to you?

Early brainwashing, I expect. I had poetry recited to me long before I could read. I finished university in 1958, when modernism was still modern; the long gap between then and when I started reading (much less writing) serious poems again meant that I am ignorant of most late twentieth-century poetics. Free verse doesn’t come comfortably to me. I can start something in free verse, but I end up trying to link elements to each other: perhaps alliteration, perhaps changing words so the same/similar vowel sound wanders along through the poem, perhaps dragging a whole line down through the stanzas (“The Pass at Grasmere”).

But I don’t think I have any favourite forms that I tend to default to. I read poetry as much as I write it, and I’m always pleased to come across a new way of linking words, or to be reminded of an old way. Poetry is very much a spectator sport, I think.

I’m interested in your writing process or writing habit. Do you set aside regular time for writing? Is there a special place you go to or is it something that can happen anywhere?

I try to write something, anything, first thing in the morning but often I don’t. I read something every day, always. There are a couple of web sites I subscribe to: PoemHunter.com (generally trad) and Poetry Daily (poems.com; contemporary). Those two cover a lot of weird and wonderful territory, and I am sure there are more places. One way or another, they get me thinking.

I write in my study—on the computer—drink vast amounts of coffee. When I’m stuck, I go for a long walk, put the whole mess out of my mind, and read a thriller. It doesn’t bother me at all to put a poem aside, to forget about it.

How do you think your poetry has changed and developed over the years? What has led to those changes?

It’s only about a dozen years, but yes, there have been changes. I am more prepared to play with form and invent forms, rather than follow a set recipe, than I used to be. This is sometimes driven by the content— “Bigfoot in Love” in N&D stomps along in trochees (STOMP stomp), throws an iambic paddy (stomp STOMP) and then returns in more trochees to a predictable life as a control freak; I wanted to illustrate inflexibility. I admire the US poet laureate, Californian Kay Ryan, who is extraordinarily laconic but still incorporates an elegant variety of rhyme variations throughout her poems. Paul Muldoon and Thom Gunn are great to read, if you like form and like to watch people working with it happily … Marilyn Hacker, Marie Ponsot (both from the US), P. K. Page (Canada). Harryette Mullen (US) surfs meaning in a wonderful way. They’ve all been an education to me.

You publish widely overseas as well as in New Zealand. Have you noticed any differences in editors’ tastes? Are some poems more likely to appeal to an editor from the United States than one from New Zealand?

Yes, but I think this is partly because the US scene is so much bigger: they have space for a wide variety of editors. I would think more than twice about sending an experimental (visual or words) or satiric poem or a parody to most New Zealand journals, and my impression is that formal poetry is only beginning to come back.

And I don’t know the extent to which editorial decisions are driven by funding, how editors feel obliged to accommodate particular points of view about poetry/art/whatever in order to survive. I was terribly lucky as a science editor, in that my main job was to facilitate getting good information to people who needed it. I worried about the budget, but I didn’t have to worry about metaphysical issues.

Can you tell us about the illustrations in Nearest and Dearest?

The illustrations were done by prize-winning freelance illustrator Nikki Slade Robinson, who was suggested by Roger Steele and worked directly from the text of the poems. I love what she’s done: when I have finished writing a poem, I tend to think well, that’s finished and then send it to a journal, but Nikki has drawn out and then illustrated a personality from the various poems. And this was always more than I had seen in the poems, an additional dimension.

Nikki has been an illustrator since 1989 and has illustrated many children’s books, as well as illustrating for the corporate, public and advertising sectors. She’s also illustrated books by poet Glenn Colquhoun. 2009 saw the release of her first book as an author: children’s book That’s not Junk! published by Penguin.

To find out more about Nikki’s work you can visit her website www.penandink.co.nz

Finally, do you have good acceptance/ rejection stories you’d like to share?

Actually, I don’t. I usually send editors a choice of poems, rather than putting all my hopes into one. When an editor rejects the lot, I usually feel, oh, well, I’m just not their cup of tea and start thinking of somewhere else. There’s the occasional editor who speaks for the universe when turning me down, tells me loud and clear that Olympus simply isn’t hiring tea-ladies. That’s really offensive, and I try to go for a very long walk on the beach when that happens. A few editors will tell me why my work doesn’t suit, and that is welcome, a rare event. … Acceptances I can live with!

I can recommend Nearest & Dearest as a fine antidote to the recession. You can order copies here: http://www.steeleroberts.co.nz/

or here: http://www.fishpond.co.nz/

and read more about Mary here:

http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/Writers/Profiles/Cresswell,%20Mary

Coming Attractions

For Wellingtonians of a poetic bent, this coming week is going to be busy! Monday 20 July has ‘Best NZ Poems’ at Te Papa at 12:15 http://tepapa.govt.nz/WhatsOn/allevents/Pages/WritersonMondaysBestNewZealandPoems2008.aspx and the regular NZ Poetry Society meeting at 7:30pm at the Thistle Inn, featuring Lynn Davidson http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/poetrynews#nzps

Friday 24 July is, of course, Montana Poetry Day (yay!) and there are poetry treats all over New Zealand. Check out details at http://www.booksellers.co.nz/mpd_local.htm Unity Books has a great line-up of local poets reading at lunchtime – unfortunately I can’t make it, but I’m hoping to get along to the Newtown Public Library’s Open Mic session at 6:30pm. (oops – if you read this earlier, you would have seen an incorrect time – I’m told it really is 6:30pm) Unity also has a launch of Diana Bridge’s new book at 6pm.

Also, look out for Mary Cresswell’s virtual book tour later this month. I will be interviewing Mary on this blog about her latest publication Nearest and Dearest.

Yesterday

Yesterday, I did not climb a mountain or wrestle a bear. I did not wake up in a log cabin and eat porcupines for breakfast. There was no snow outside my window.

Nobody gave me flowers; nobody wished me a Happy Easter; nobody invited me to stay in a villa in Tuscany over summer. I did not drink a bottle of champagne.

I was not asked to audition for a Broadway musical; I did not put the finishing touches to my best-selling novel; I did not fly through the air on a trapeze. I found no diamonds under my pillow. My eyebrows did not turn blue. I did not faint.

I didn’t spend the day digging up petunias from the Botanical Gardens and replanting them along the motorway. No-one sculpted a life-sized statue of Elvis for my front lawn. The circus did not come to town.

I did not send Christmas cards to everyone in the phone book whose surname begins with ‘V’. I neither walked across the Nullabor nor swam with crocodiles.

I did not dine at the Ritz. I was not compelled to abseil from the top of the Eiffel Tower. I was not chased by a swarm of killer bees or a great white shark. I was not in a coach that was held up by a highwayman.

I did not head south for winter or eat butterflies.

But I did go up in a balloon.

© Janis Freegard

Books books books!

There is a new book out, about New Zealanders who were involved in the Spanish Civil War. My personal knowledge of the Spanish Civil War begins and ends with The Clash’s Spanish Bombs – which is probably my all-time favourite Clash song (and that’s saying something). Personally, my main interest in war is to try to stop it, but I appreciate remembrances for those who fought/ died/ nursed etc. This is an important new work, telling the personal stories of New Zealanders who were involved. Mark Derby is the editor.

Peter Clayworth (my partner) has two articles in it and it will be launched in Wellington at Unity Books on 28 May (Budget Day)

More here

Kiwi Companeros

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0905/S00142.htm

http://c20c.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/kiwi-companeros-new-zealand-and-the-spanish-civil-war/

http://books.scoop.co.nz/2009/05/09/homage-to-aotearoas-anti-fascists/

brief

…and I have a poem/prose poem/piece in the latest brief

http://sydreef.blogspot.com/2009/04/issue-37-april-2009.html

Takahe review

 

There’s a review of AUP New Poets 3 by Cy Mathews in the latest Takahe.  Having failed miserably to upload a copy, here are a couple of quotes:

 ”Wellington’s Janis Freegard stands out with the easy musicality of her poems and prose poems, amongst which are moments of quirky brilliance…”

“At times these narratives risk becoming a little cutesy in their quirky, mannered eccentricity, but for the most part they are very enjoyable…”

“…”The Continuing Adventures of Alice Spider” is an especially interesting experiment in serial prose poetry, for the most part realistic, but veering now and then into more surrealistic flights of fancy…”

Poems At Large

Finally the day comes when a poem matures, announces it’s leaving home and sets off into the world to seek its fortune.  Once I’ve waved goodbye, it’s hard to control what happens to them, but I like to check in now and then to see how they’re doing.

 

I was pleased to find one of my poems (“Three Hummingbirds”) on a photography and poetry website recently.  Great! I thought.  Until I realised someone had seen fit to change the title, remove the stanza numbers and delete the middle stanza altogether!  Oh and my name was spelt incorrectly (but I’m used to that).  I don’t believe it’s OK to change someone’s work in this way (and I expect it’s a breach of copyright).  I chose that title for a reason, the stanza numbers are an integral part of the poem and the middle stanza provides a clear link between the other two.  I’m following this up with the person whose site it is and hopefully can get it remedied.  (If it gets fixed, I’ll put up a link.)

 

If you want to read the poem in its true and proper form, you can see it here on the Poetry NZ website:  http://www.poetrynz.net/archives/issue-27/

 

The other thing I found on the net recently was the first review I’ve seen of AUP New Poets 3.  It’s from Trevor Reeves in Southern Ocean Review and if you’re interested, you can read it here: http://www.arts.org.nz/rev49.htm  I must say I’m impressed with Southern Ocean Review’ broad coverage of poetry published in New Zealand with short reviews of pretty much every poetry book there is, as far as I can see.

 

I was a little surprised to be described as a “fresh new voice from the Auckland region” given that I’ve spent the last 25 years in Wellington and most of my poems in the collection are set in Wellington – but I expect that was because Auckland University Press is the publisher.  And I did live in Auckland for five years in my late teens, so I’m quite happy to be considered a JAFA. Trevor goes on to say my work “deals mainly with spiders” which is an interesting interpretation.  To me, the Alice Spider character I write about has always been human, but I know some people see her as an actual spider.

 

Anyway, there we have it.  Poems which now have a life of their own.  All I can do is hover in the background.  Like a spider.

Day Zero

Welcome!

If you’re wondering about the picture above, it’s South Shields, a town on the mouth of the River Tyne in the North-East of England and my birthplace.

Janis