Micro Interview: Roxane Gay

We'll wrap up our WORDHARVEST micro interviews with Roxane Gay, author of Ayiti. I want to take a moment to thank Roxane and all the WORDHARVEST readers for taking the time to answer my questions. This is going to be a great reading, folks! Okay, let's hear from Roxane.

Ninth Letter: How do you prepare for a reading? Any pre-show rituals? 

Roxane Gay: Sometimes I vomit. Sometimes I drink. Sometimes I just pretend I'm not actually going to have to read before an audience. None of these work very well.


9L: When deciding which material to read, do you try to anticipate or take into account how the audience might react to what you read based on the event or venue? 

RG: I definitely think about audience at readings. Writing should entertain, particularly when being read aloud so I try to blend funny, shorter pieces with my more serious stories so that people can have a good time and not feel like OMG I AM AT ANOTHER LITERARY READING.


9L: What's one of your favorite moments from a reading, either yours or one you've attended?

RG: My favorite moment was at the Literary Death Match 200 at AWP 2012, during the spell off. My friend and I spelled Dostoevsky with an e but the host thought it was spelled with a y. An audience member Googled and found out that the name is spelled both ways and instead of losing LDM, I won! A close second is when I read at Sunday Salon in NYC and read a story about expired yogurt and a woman in the audience got visibly nauseous. Good times. As an audience member, it's always electric to see Scott McClanahan or Amelia Gray read.

WORDHARVEST starts at 4pm on Saturday, September 29, at Cowboy Monkey in Champaign, IL. More details about the event can be found here. Hope to see you tomorrow!

Micro Interview: Jensen Beach

Today is WORDHARVEST eve, so we'll have micro interviews with the two remaining readers to celebrate.  First, we have Jensen Beach, author of For Out of the Heart Proceed as well as a contributor to our vol. 8, no. 1 issue. Here are his responses to my questions about prepping for a reading. Enjoy!

Ninth Letter: How do you prepare for a reading? Any pre-show rituals?

Jensen Beach: Well, I get kind of nervous when I read, so if the reading's at a bar, I'll usually have a drink to loosen up. But I find I can't drink too much or I'll get tongue-tied. Otherwise, I don't really have too many rituals. I try not to think too much about the reading in the days leading up to it. If I do, I find myself planning out how I'll introduce each story and that never really works out like I plan it; so I find it works best for me to just wing it.

9L: When deciding which material to read, do you try to anticipate or take into account how the audience might react to what you read based on the event or venue?

JB: Usually, I'll think of a few options for what I might want to read and make a decision at the reading. I try to read things that feel right for who's there and for the tone or nature of the reading. I usually won't read things with too much sex in them, for example, if my mother or my boss are in the audience. But that rarely happens, so usually I'm comfortable reading whatever. I kind of let my mood decide the first thing I read and then go from there. I'm making it sound way more complicated than it should be.

9L: What's one of your favorite moments from a reading, either yours or one you've attended?

JB: Back in 1999 or 2000 or so I saw Sherman Alexie read at Moe's in Berkley. I don't remember what he was there to read, if he had a  book out or anything, but the reading was great. Sherman Alexie is famous
for being a funny reader a great oral storyteller, and this reading was great. The best part of the reading, though, wasn't him. It was a fistfight that broke out near the back of the audience. These two women got into it over a seat. I was sitting right next to them. First there was some muffled shouting, then it escalated into pushing. Finally, the two started throwing punches. It was pretty surreal. One of the women got her earring ripped out. There was blood kind of splattered down her shoulder. They kept shouting at each other. Sherman Alexie, of course, stopped reading and the audience all turned and looked at the fight. It happened pretty quickly. Someone broke up the fight and one of the woman shouts to Sherman Alexie, "Hey, Sherman, just like the rez, huh?" And Sherman Alexie just said, "No, nothing like that." Then he went back to the reading. It was perfect.

WORDHARVEST starts at 4pm tomorrow at Cowboy Monkey in Champaign, IL. More details about the event can be found here. Check back later today for our next micro interview with Roxane Gay.

Micro Interview: Chad Simpson

Today's WORDHARVEST micro interview is with Chad Simpson, author of the very soon to be released, Tell Everyone I said Hi, which won the 2012 John Simmons Fiction Award. Enjoy!

Ninth Letter:  How do you prepare for a reading? Any pre-show rituals?

Chad Simpson: I usually practice reading to my cat Disco. While I read, Disco purrs and rubs up against my leg. She mewls. I feel like I’m really making a connection with my audience. Mostly, though, I time myself during theses practice runs, to make sure I’m going to stay within my time constraints, so as not to anger either the audience or the people with whom I’m reading.

As for pre-show rituals, I like bourbon. I mean, in general, I like bourbon. It’s not a ritual or anything but occasionally I’ll have one or two before I give a reading.

9L: When deciding which material to read, do you try to anticipate or take into account how the audience might react to what you read based on the event or venue?

CS: I do, but not much. I write mostly sad stories, which don’t go over as well at readings as, say, funny stories. So, really, there’s not much for me to take into account, since I only have certain things to offer. I do, however, write a lot of stories that aren’t very long, so the biggest thing for me to think about is whether I want to read two or three short stories, or the first half of something longer.

9L: What's one of your favorite moments from a reading, either yours or one you've attended?

CS: This is easy: About six years ago, I went to see Tim O’Brien give a reading at Augustana College. I was a huge fan prior to the reading, which is why my wife Jane and I made the 45-minute drive to see him, and his performance just blew us away. He basically told a story for the first half hour of the reading, like we were all sitting at a bar. He didn’t look down at any notes, didn’t flip through the bookmarked pages of some text. He just talked, and it was mesmerizing. He said smart stuff, funny stuff; he juggled tropes. When he was done, he said that the story he’d just told us was the “real” story of what had become the first chapter of his novel-in-progress. Then, to top things off, he read a short piece he’d published fairly recently, “A Letter To My Son,” which was heartbreaking and honest and just beautiful. I don’t think there was a person in the audience who wasn’t crying. And if there was, that person probably has no soul, and is not worth thinking much about.



WORDHARVEST is this Saturday, September 29 at 4pm at Cowboy Monkey in Champaign, IL. More details about the event can be found here. Check back tomorrow for our next micro interview with Jensen Beach.

Flash Nonfiction Reading at The Book Cellar

Another great literary event happening this week, a flash nonfiction reading on Friday, September 28 at The Book Cellar in Chicago. The reading is to celebrate the publication of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction. There's an impressive line-up of readers, including, 9L CNF editor, Philip Graham and 9L contributor, Sue Silverman (vol. 8, no. 2). The event starts at 7pm. For more information on the other readers and location, check out the link above. It will be a great event, so be sure to make it out if you're in the Chicago area!

Micro Interview: Amy Sayre

The next WORDHARVEST reader on the micro interview docket is another graduate of the University of Illinois MFA program, Amy Sayre. Amy's haunting story, "Whatsoever," appears in the current issue of Ninth Letter. You can check out a longer interview I did with her earlier this year about the story. She is also now a playwright. Her play, The Widows of Whitechapel, will open at The Legacy Theater in Springfield, IL on October 13.

Ninth Letter: How do you prepare for a reading? Any pre-show rituals?

Amy Sayre: Preparation includes traveling about my neighborhood on a pogo stick reciting my work. For me the gravitational pull of the pogo while speaking dramatically is challenging, so by default that makes the reading seem quite easy. Pre-show rituals, by that do you mean activities besides tarot card reading, contacting deceased ancestors via Ouija board and wine? I don't know if those count or not. Sometimes, when the previously mentioned fail, I just read my work aloud a few times to a glass of river water. These were all techniques I was taught in MFA by Professor Michael Madonick. He also suggested wigs.

9L: When deciding which material to read, do you try to anticipate or take into account how the audience might react to what you read based on the event or venue?

AS: I don't take the audience into account.I think if someone asks me to read, they understand the darkness they have just invited in their door. But, this is not always the case, a few years ago, at a reading in Pennsylvania, I was describing a character partaking in a ritual that included setting fire to a unicorn's umbilical cord. A woman in the crowd hustled over to a nearby piano and began pounding the ivories to drown me out. She was afraid my work might offend the sensibilities of a group of Catholic seminary students in attendance.  The seminarians, however, gave me a standing ovation. The seminarians were from New Orleans, though I don't know if that had anything to do with their enthusiasm for my work.

9L: What's one of your favorite moments from a reading, either yours or one you've attended? 

AS: Once at AWP (the  best stories all begin this way, right?), Ricki Ducornet began a reading of what the audience thought was a non-fiction piece, then proceeded to break into a totally made-up language which included a set of outrageous sounds and utterances with origins wholly unknown. Slowly, the audience realizes that she is having them on, but she never broke character throughout the entire reading. I loved her work prior to the reading, but after that, I flat adored her. It  was brave and brilliant, exemplifying the artist that she is.

Details, including time and location for Saturday's WORDHARVEST can be found here.

Micro Interview: Ted Sanders

It's WORDHARVEST week! Over the next few days, I'll be posting micro interviews with the readers. First up is University of Illinois MFA alum and author of No Animals We could Name, Ted Sanders.

Ninth Letter: How do you prepare for a reading? Any pre-show rituals? 

Ted Sanders: My major preps are making sure the piece is the right length--which I have down pretty scientifically by now--and then lint-brushing the cat hair off my front. Otherwise I'm pretty anti-ritual. I probably have some displays of fussiness of which I'm largely unaware.

9L: When deciding which material to read, do you try to anticipate or take into account how the audience might react to what you read based on the event or venue? 

TS: Yes, I guess I do, but prefer to read stuff that's totally new. If I don't have that, I pick something that I know is likely to go over well for almost any audience there might be. Readings generally happen either in the quarantined quiet of the bookstore/academic scene or in the greater chaos of a bar. Generally I'd say the thoughtfulness or delicacy of what I choose to read is inversely proportional to both noise and alcohol levels. Bars are more likely to get the cussier, funnier stuff, though I don't always have something like that lying around, so sometimes the bar gets something too pompous, maybe, for the surroundings.

9L: What's one of your favorite moments from a reading, either yours or one you've attended?

TS: Oh, man. Seems like this could get me into trouble somehow, since for me "memorable" usually translates to "cringe-worthy." I'll confess I've not been able to completely shed the sight and sound of Patrick Lane, former grad student in the MFA here, try to read a story while playing his accordion. This was a thematic thing. Like, I think there was ambient accordion music in the story. But he hadn't really rehearsed the multi-tasking, wasn't really prepared for the complexity of the physical deed, and so it ended of being kind of awkward and earnest and plumply sweaty. Which now that I think of it, is probably not a bad thing to shoot for.

WORDHARVEST is this Saturday, September 29 at 4pm at Cowboy Monkey in Champaign, IL. Hope to see you there!

WORDHARVEST

Don't forget that Ninth Letter will present WORDHARVEST this Saturday, September 29 starting at 4pm. Here's a reminder of the five ridiculously talented writers reading that night:

• Jensen Beach (For Out of the Heart Proceed)
• Roxane Gay (Ayiti)
• Ted Sanders (No Animals We Could Name)
• Amy Sayre (The Widows of Whitechapel)
• Chad Simpson (Tell Everyone I Said Hi)

If you're anywhere near Urbana-Champaign, you should stop by Cowboy Monkey (6 Taylor Street, Champaign, Illinois 68120) on Saturday to hear these people read. Seriously, it's going to be a blast! Hope to see you there!

News Round Up

Ninth Letter is happy to present WORDHARVEST on Saturday, September 29 starting at 4pm. The official description: Five stellar writers read from their work as the harvest moon rises. Check out this ridiculously fantastic roster:

• Jensen Beach (For Out of the Heart Proceed)
• Roxane Gay (Ayiti)
• Ted Sanders (No Animals We Could Name)
• Amy Sayre (The Widows of Whitechapel)
• Chad Simpson (Tell Everyone I Said Hi)

Wow! I've had the pleasure of hearing each of them read before and it will be a real treat to see them all together. You're going to be there, right? Of course. It's totally worth a trip to Champaign, IL. The reading will be at Cowboy Monkey (6 Taylor Street, Champaign, Illinois 68120). Seriously, it's going to one hell of a good time. Hope to see you there!

Congratulations to LeAnne Howe, U of I creative writing professor and former CNF editor for 9L, on being awarded The Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas.
 
Head over to the A/V section of ninthletter.com for the latest in a series of two handed drawing  videos from Ninth Letter designers, inspired by the stories and essays in our Spring/Summer 2012 issue. This month's videos are for "Picnic Geese," "Something Californian," and "The Scientist." Psst...I can also tell you that I'm working on an interview with "Picnic Geese" author Joseph Gross, so keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks.

Brynn Saito's poem, "Match," from the Spring/Summer 2012 issue was featured on Verse Daily.

Okay, I think that's it for now. Don't forget to enter our contest for Robin Hemley's "Study Questions for the Essay at Hand," if you haven't already. 

Contributors: we love sharing good news, so be sure to let us know if you have a new book coming out or have readings scheduled or any other news we can pass along to our readers via the blog. Contact us at info@ninthletter.com.

Study Questions Contest!

From Philip Graham, our Nonfiction Editor:

Ninth Letter is proud to sponsor our first online essay contest with the publication of Robin Hemley’s essay, “Study Questions for the Essay at Hand: A Speculative Essay.” Hemley’s essay seems to be going through an identity crisis, asserting and contradicting itself in an attempt to understand its own existence, as it throws eighteen questions out to a silent world. Plaintive, aggressive, wistful, quizzical and coy, this essay needs your help, needs its questions answered.

So, here’s Ninth Letter’s proposal, gentle reader. Respond to the eighteen questions of Hemley’s essay--interrogate it, argue with it, hold its hand, whisper to it, whatever you wish.

Patrick Madden, the sterling author of the essay collection Quotidiana (and founder of a website of the same name, which serves as an indispensible compendium of 383 public-domain essays: essays.quotidiana.org), will serve as our discerning judge. The deadline for all entries is October 15, 2012. We’ll republish Robin Hemley’s essay with the winner’s responses on the Ninth Letter website, and throw in a year’s subscription to our magazine to boot. And who knows, maybe we’ll have more than one winner. Hemley’s essay seems to need a lot of advice and council . . .


Email your entries (up to 2000 words) to us at editor@ninthletter.com with subject line "Study Questions" by October 15!

Contributor Round Up

Congratulations to Oliver Bendorf, whose poem "I Promised Her My Hands Wouldn't Get Any Larger," from vol. 9, no. 1, was selected for the 2012 Best New Poets anthology! Congratulations to all the other great poets who made the final fifty as well!

Also, congratulations to Tarfia Faizullah (vol. 7, no. 1) for winning Crab Orchard Series in Poetry's 2012 First Book Award for her collection, Seam.

Roy Kesey (vol. 7, no. 2, vol. 3, no. 2, and vol. 1, no. 2) won Word Riot's Paula Anderson Book Award for his novel, Pacazo. Congrats Roy!

Prairie Lights in Iowa City will host a reading for Natalie Bakopoulos's (vol. 5, no. 1) new novel, The Green Shore, on Wednesday, September 12 at 7pm.

Kyle Minor's second collection, Praying Drunk, will be published by Sarabande Books on February 15, 2014. To ease the wait for the book, you can always reread his novella, "In a Distant Country," which we serialized on ninthletter.com.

The University of Iowa Press has published Detailing Trauma: A Poetic Anatomy by Arianne Zwartjes, which includes her essay, "The Anatomy of Trust or Breaking," from vol. 7, no. 2.

Contributors: we love sharing good news, so be sure to let us know if you have a new book coming out or have readings scheduled or any other news we can pass along to our readers via the blog. Contact us at info@ninthletter.com.

Special Online Edition

To all of you out there who are currently enrolled in a creative writing program, graduate or undergraduate, we are inviting you to submit your fiction or poetry for a special online only edition that will be published on ninthletter.com in Winter 2012-13. If your work is chosen for the special edition, you will receive a 2-year subscription to Ninth Letter as well as an entry fee waiver for our upcoming 2013 writing contest! How awesome is that?!

Submissions for this edition are now open and will close on November 1.  Unlike our regular submissions, we will not be accepting snail mail submissions for this special edition. For more information, including submission guidelines, and to submit, click over to our Submittable page.

Please be sure to spread the word. We look forward to reading your work!

Submissions Open!

The title of this post says it all: our reading period is now open! Of course, this means we want to see your best fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Are you up to the challenge? Surely you are. However, before sending off your work, be sure to take a refresher on our submission guidelines.

Okay. All set? Good. Now you're ready to head on over to our submission manager. We also still accept snail mail submissions, if you're so inclined (our mailing address can be found on the submission guidelines page). Let's see anything else? Yes. Please note that we've made a change to the length of our reading period. Submissions will now only be open until February 28, 2013 instead of April 30, 2013, so don't wait too long to submit. We look forward to reading your work.