12 or 20 (second series) questions with Jon Riccio
Jon Riccio is the author of Agoreography and thechapbooks Prodigal Cocktail Umbrella and Eye, Romanov. He servesas the poetry editor at Fairy Tale Review.
1 - How did your first book change your life? How does yourmost recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
Thank you, rob, for giving me the opportunity to discuss mywork. Also, for your stewardship of, literally, hundreds of writers. Happy 30thanniversary to above/ground press! Rachel Mindell’s rib and instep: honeyis how I became acquainted with the ways, large and small, in which “you’re[poetry’s] one in seven billion.”
My first book was the culmination of poems written over aseven-year period tied to my MFA and PhD degrees. Agoreography changedmy life in that I now have a ‘spokescollection’ for a poetry movement Ienvision, The Confurreal or Confessional Surrealism. Picture Anne Sexton,Robert Lowell, WD Snodgrass, and Sylvia Plath on a 1920s airship gabbing withJames Tate, Dean Young, Joyelle McSweeney, and Aimé Césaire. Whatevergerminates cerebrally and tonally in those quarters jumps to the present day.Vulnerability’s Petri-dish think tank, by any other.
My most recent work’s leaning more towards Surrealism than Confessional,with a peppering-in of where science fiction and occult speculation were about twenty-fiveyears prior. Infomercials, spacecrafts, little stargates that could.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say,fiction or non-fiction?
I tried fiction. And I tried fiction again. Poetry’s a betterswim. Two books I bought, circa 2011/12ish, when they gave readings atKalamazoo Valley Community College, were Kay Ryan’s Elephant Rocks and PatriciaClark’s North of Wondering. Spending time with their poems after a threeyear-ish hiatus from reading any poetry was a way of quieting my brain,which at that point was immersed in all things OCD with frequent stops inagoraphobia. In August 2012, I joined a writing workshop mentored by John Rybicki. That September, I joined another, led by Traci Brimhall. Both gaveselflessly of themselves to the point where I felt ready to send my MFAapplication portfolio to six schools. The rest is University of Arizonahistory.
3 - How long does it take to start any particular writingproject? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Dofirst drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work comeout of copious notes?
The snails come to me for advice on how to slow things down.Glaciers have better responses to starter pistols. My first drafts areoverwritten, then pared anywhere from weeks to months before I consider a draftin submittable shape. In between, I have a quartet of readers who see the workat its newest. We encourage, we trade. Then, it goes to an online critique group.We trade, we encourage, we fawn over each other’s pets.
I love your question about copious notes. I had, at onepoint, a red notebook called Operation: Island, filled with lines frompoems that were beyond stalled. Many a revision benefitted from those Islandplug-ins. I should write an essay on the difference between rummage andsalvage. Vetted by mollusk.
4 - Where does a poem usually begin for you? Are you anauthor of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are youworking on a "book" from the very beginning?
Lately, my poems are coming from a two-month generativeproject I’ve described as The Cantos meets I Remember. I’m justnow revisiting the work with the intention of “what can I harvest?” Poemlengths vary: my chapbooks Prodigal Cocktail Umbrella and Eye,Romanov contained pieces on the shorter side. Agoreography haslonger work. Rare is the current poem where I go over a page.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creativeprocess? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I LOVE giving readings, in-person or Zoom, because theyremind me of the recitals I gave as a violist. You read your poems, see what fliesand what doesn’t (even though you thought it would in the revisions leading upto said reading). On the flipside, I LOVE organizing readings, whether duringschool days or now, in my work with the literary organization 1-Week Critique.
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing?What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do youeven think the current questions are?
I think about staying true (and nuancing) to my aestheticwithout completely alienating readers. I traffic in density and allusions noteveryone gets if they haven’t sponged pop culture (mainstream to obscure, peakwindow 1977 - 2000). The denser, allusion-heavier my poem, the more I’m apt toput it in couplets, which assist rather than mire. I’m worried about influence:do I innovate or mimic? That’s when I’m reminded of a phrase I hear at leastonce a month, “Nothing happens in a vacuum.” This calms me.
Currently asking myself: How, to paraphrase Lucie Brock-Broido, do I cultivate the patience of a taxidermist? Patience is myAchilles, yet I am at a point where patience is a life preserver in a sea ofsea changes, but gosh, is it slippery.
7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being inlarger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writershould be?
I’m interested in the linkages between poetry and thepedagogy I pass along to my students. Since June of 2021, I’ve been workingwith graduate-level writers at the University of West Alabama. I also teachcomposition and literature, so I look at reverse-engineering aspects (PoemProcess: what have you taught me and how can I channel it outwards?) We neverknow who is just one draft away from the decision to lead a life in letters (orrealizing the value of a life in letters). My eyes and ears are peeled, and ifthat’s my impact on larger culture, I’m fulfilled.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editordifficult or essential (or both)?
Three times where an outside editor has revolutionized myapproach to poetry: A) Dr. Charles Sumner, who served on my dissertationcommittee (so, a reader, but . . .), asked me seven or eight questions thattook my critical introduction from idea-spouting to The Confurreal’s inception.B) Dr. Jaydn DeWald, who as the editor at COMP: an interdisciplinary journal,had a similar method of question-oriented feedback, which helped me turn myrevised introduction of The Confurreal into a manifesto on The Confurreal,published as “The Florist’s Crossroads.” C) Andrea Watson, the founder of 3: A Taos Press and publisher of Agoreography, whose (wait, wait, let meguess) editorial line of questioning took the collection from what it was tothe book it became. Again, “Nothing happens in a vacuum.”
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (notnecessarily given to you directly)?
From Paul Tran’s “The Cave,” which appears in All theFlowers Kneeling (2022): “Keep going, the idea said.”
10 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or doyou even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
I keep a log that records how many minutes I write each day.I aim for fifteen to a half hour, sometimes more. The day begins with either anhour of grading or reading. Before that, about fifteen minutes of personaljournaling.
11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn orreturn for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Back-cover bios; past issues of Poets & Writers.
12 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Meatballs frying in a spa of olive oil.
13 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books,but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music,science or visual art?
Classical music//soundtracks: Sibelius Violin Concerto ind minor, Khachaturian Violin Concerto in d minor, Tchaikovsky ViolinConcerto in D Major, Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2 in g minor,Prokofiev Violin Sonata No. 1 in f minor, Vieuxtemps Violin ConcertoNo. 4 in d minor, Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major,Wieniawski Violin Concerto No. 1 in f-sharp minor, Franck SymphonicVariations, Sibelius Symphony No. 1 in e minor, Symphony No. 2 inD Major, Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major// Psycho, HalloweenII, Halloween III, The Fog, Salem’s Lot, The StarWars Trilogy, Blade Runner, Alien.
Nature: Walks that last anywhere from one hour to eightyminutes.
Science: Any and all questions related to time travel andUFOs.
14 - What other writers or writings are important for yourwork, or simply your life outside of your work?
Anne Sexton, everything she wrote, including the play Mercy Street; pedagogically, Graywolf’s The Art of Series has made all thedifference in how I approach classroom discussions about creative writing (DeanYoung’s The Art of Recklessness, Donald Revell’s The Art of Attention,Carl Phillips’s The Art of Daring); recent collections by Sandra Simonds, M Soledad Caballero, Jayme Ringleb, Tom Holmes, Bob Carr, Jessica Guzman, Charles Kell, Jaydn DeWald, Jonathan Minton; my Unexplained Mysteriescalendar.
15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Edit, distribute, and steward an anthology of writers whosework falls under the umbrella of The Confurreal. I have my solicitation listbut lack the funding to make it a reality.
16 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, whatwould it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doinghad you not been a writer?
In no particular order, I would attempt: literary agent,manuscript editor, paranormal bookstore owner, Ufologist, craft servicescaterer (infomercials, television production sets). In my twenties, I had atwo-day interest in meteorology, then a few weeks where dairy farming wasentertained. Parallel universe Jon, he’s a concert violinist or world-renownedmathematician.
If not for writing, I would have stayed at my data-entry jobin a Michigan food bank.
17 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
In my best poetry self-excerpting voice: “I'm a writerbecause I ran out of zip codes to be fired in.” (“Parenting Wil Wheaton”).
18 - What was the last great book you read? What was the lastgreat film?
DaMaris B. Hill’s 2019 poetry/prose collection, A Bound Woman Is A Dangerous Thing: The Incarceration of African American Women from Harriet Tubman to Sandra Bland. Cinema-wise, The Whale.
19 - What are you currently working on?
My stove burners are kettling student papers for a mythologyclass, essay drafts, submission screening at Fairy Tale Review,free-writing projects, and reaching out to poets for permission to write abouttheir work in my monthly craft articles at 1-Week Critique.
Thank you again, rob.
