12 or 20 (second series) questions with Jenny Molberg

Jenny Molberg is theauthor of Marvels of the Invisible (winner of the Berkshire Prize,Tupelo Press, 2017), Refusal (LSU Press, 2020), and The Court of No Record (LSU Press, 2023). Her poems and essays have recently appeared orare forthcoming in Ploughshares, The Cincinnati Review, VIDA,The Missouri Review, The Rumpus, The Adroit Journal, OprahQuarterly, and other publications. She has received fellowships andscholarships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sewanee WritersConference, Vermont Studio Center, and the Longleaf Writers Conference. Havingearned her MFA from American University and her PhD from the University ofTexas, she is Associate Professor and Chair of Creative Writing at theUniversity of Central Missouri, where she edits Pleiades: Literature inContext. Find her online at jennymolberg.com or on Twitter at @jennymolberg.

1 - How did your first book change your life? How does yourmost recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?

When I was studying for my doctorate, I was honored to winTupelo Press’s Berkshire Prize for Marvels of the Invisible, my firstbook of poems. It changed my life in that the opportunity opened many doors forme—I was then qualified for teaching positions that required a published book(and thus was hired at my current position at the University of CentralMissouri), and the award gave me a sense of confidence in my work. I wasthrilled to join Tupelo Press’s catalog of incredible writers, and I was invitedto read from the collection at the AWP Conference in 2017. I am so grateful forthe award and the opportunities it led to. My first book was inspired by mydoctoral studies in historical connections between poetry and medicine; I waswriting about my mother’s breast cancer, but also did extensive research onmedical literature from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The bookinterrogates the ways in which gender norms negatively affected the progress ofscientific study, as well as my own experience as a woman dealing with medicalissues and loss. My more recent work is also research-driven, but through thelens of law. As a survivor of intimate partner abuse and assault, I wanted toconfront the ways victims are ignored or subjugated by the U.S. justice system,and looked to outside study to reflect on these issues.

2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say,fiction or non-fiction?

In a way, I came to poetry last—as a child and young adult,I was interested in journalism; I majored in journalism in college for twoyears, until I was fired from the university newspaper and switched my major tocreative writing. After declaring a creative writing major, I took primarilyfiction classes until my last year at the university, when I enrolled in myfirst poetry workshop. All genres of writing greatly interest me, and I’vewritten poetry, too, since I was a child; however, when my wonderful professorRandolph Thomas at LSU gave me permission to take myself seriously as a poet, Iknew that I had found my language. As someone particularly interested in musicand visual art, poetry seems to make most sense in my brain—the negative spaceon the page, the lyric, the associative nature of imagery. Dedicating my lifeto the study of poetry is the best decision I’ve ever made.

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?

I’ve learned to let myself off the hook a bit, in terms ofhow long a new project takes. The “thinking part” tends to take months, evenyears. I’ll become obsessed with a field of study or a concept and research,read, and take notes for a long time before I ever approach shaping thesethoughts into poems. I’ll fill notebooks and notebooks with ideas, quotations,images, sketches, etc. and then usually, one day, something clicks and I’mready to write poems. There are some poems that have taken me years to write,and some that have taken an hour. My mentor calls those poems that take an hour“poems from the future”—some future version of myself knew how the poem wentand it fell from the sky fully-formed. But I do think that those poems that arequick to appear are actually the product of a lot of thought and study, andmany failed drafts of other poems, as if the repeated failure finally gavebirth to a fleshed-out form.

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?

I think that depends—I write many poems that don’t end upin a book, as they’re not necessarily cohesive with a larger thought I might bewriting towards. I’ve often had the experience, too, where I write what I thinkis an essay, until I whittle it down to a poem. Some of my longer poems beganas essays. From the very beginning of a new line of thought, I don’t think I amworking on a “book” from the start, though I do have several title ideas andconcepts for books I’ve never written. I think it’s fun to come up with a bookidea, but usually the poems arrive in a shape I never expected, following aline of inquiry that almost shapes itself into a collection.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creativeprocess? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?

What I love about readings is the connections I am able tomake with new people, especially when they relate personally to something Ihave written and I can see that they have been touched or inspired in some way.I still keep in touch with many people I’ve met at my own readings or thereadings of other poets. Also, though, I don’t know that I necessarily enjoyreadings, as I’m introverted—as a southerner and as a woman, I think I’vealways been well-trained to be sociable and outgoing, but being on a stage andthe social anxiety that comes along with readings can be draining. I haveencountered the work of so many poets I love because I first saw them read,too, so I believe community and sharing work is integral to the creativeprocess, especially considering poetry as a part of a larger dialogue. 

6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind yourwriting? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? Whatdo you even think the current questions are?

I recently wrote a piece for the LSU blog where I exploredsome central questions of my most recent work. Here’s a brief excerpt thataddresses some of the central theoretical and craft questions I’m asking with TheCourt of No Record: “Whilewriting The Court of No Record… I found myself asking: When legal rhetoric ismanipulated to exhaust, damage, and financially and emotionally drain people,especially disenfranchised people, how can one reempower themselves withlanguage? How can one write about unfair legal proceedings without settingthemselves up for more?… Even though poetry, as Auden attested, “makes nothinghappen,” can it give evidence that will never be heard in a court of law? Canmetaphor, though it distorts, also serve and protect in a way the law fails todo?”

Here is a link to that post: https://blog.lsupress.org/metaphor-as-shelter-in-the-court-of-no-record/

The theoretical questions are always evolving,but my work has always been concerned with what it means to say the unsayable,what it means to live in a female body in the world, both politically and inliterary spaces, and how poetry can get to deeper truths in order to looktoward positive systemic change.

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 think the writer has a responsibility to listen, toanalyze, to challenge, and to dream. Like scientists, writers must interrogatehistory and articulate the present in order to imagine a future that is more inclusive andopen to evolutions, both in language and in culture. Because words matter, and words last, I believe writershave an enormous responsibility to be empathetic, to challenge oppressivesystems of power, and to be open to new ways of seeing.

8 - Do you find the process of working with an outsideeditor difficult or essential (or both)?

For the most part, I find it essential and not difficult.My editors at LSU Press are fantastic, and I think they see my intentions andconcerns really clearly. I also have a few friends who are my trusted readers—Ithink it’s important to get others’ perspectives in order to fully beconsiderate of the reader.

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (notnecessarily given to you directly)?

From my mom: “one thing at a time”. I say this to myselfnearly every day.

10 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, ordo you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?

As a professor and editor, it’s often difficult to keep aconsistent writing routine for myself—I typically find larger chunks of time inthe summer, or at a writers’ residency, to really dedicate to craft. I try towrite and read something every day, but I need long periods of time toreflect, read, and imagine in order to create more than little scratchings on apage.

11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn orreturn for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?

I like to visit my local museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, or read fiction, which always renews my sense ofimagination.

12 - What fragrance reminds you of home?

Sunscreen, gasoline, chili, fresh-cut grass.

13 - David W. McFadden once said that books come frombooks, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature,music, science or visual art?

Yes—I am heavily influenced by visual art, music, andscientific study, especially (but not limited to) works and studies thatprogress our thinking about restrictive binaries of gender.

14 - What other writers or writings are important for yourwork, or simply your life outside of your work?

There are so many that it’s difficult to list.Writers I surrounded myself with while writing my most recent book include:Muriel Rukeyser, bell hooks, Maggie Nelson, Carolyn Forche, Natasha Trethewey,Vievee Francis, Shara McCallum, Anne Carson. Writers I’m always looking towardsas guides: David Keplinger, Kathryn Nuernberger, W.B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney,Sylvia Plath, Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich.

15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?

There are things I’ve done that I would like to do more,like travel, campaign for causes I care about, and spend more time with my grandmother.I’ve always dreamed of going along on a scientific research expedition of somekind.

16 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt,what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended updoing had you not been a writer?

I always wanted to be a marine biologist. If I could do itall again, I think I would go to medical school.

17 - What made you write, as opposed to doing somethingelse?

I really think I have to write. No matter what myjob is, I’ll always be a writer. At one point, I was working four jobs, barelymaking rent, and then, as now, I don’t know who I would have been if I hadn’tbeen writing.

18 - What was the last great book you read? What was thelast great film?

Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan, The Galleons by Rick Barot.I just saw the film Orlando for the first time, and can’t stop thinkingabout it (1992, starring Tilda Swinton).

19 - What are you currently working on?

I have recently beenawarded a studio residency at the Charlotte Street Foundation in Kansas City,and I’m excited to embark on a project that blends poetry with visual art,working with visual artists in my cohort.

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