12 or 20 (second series) questions with Hannah Green
Hannah Green is a writer and poetry editor at CV2. Shewas a poetry finalist for the 2021 Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers.She lives in Winnipeg.
1 - How didyour first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare toyour previous? How does it feel different?
Xanax Cowboy (my recent work)is completely different from the way I used to approach poetry! XanaxCowboy feels different because it is loose, unhinged, and most ofall--vulnerable. I let myself live in the poems instead of writing myself out.
Ican get very caught up in the technical aspects of poetry, the showiness oflanguage, like “OH, LOOK WHAT I CAN DO, DID YOU CATCH THAT?”. I let all that goin Xanax Cowboy. I gave up thecontrol and just said fuck it and wrote something completely new to me.
2- How did you come to poetry first, asopposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
Ithink when I was just starting out as a writer, I could see it was easier to complete a poem, than say a work offiction. It was easier to stay up revising & revising & revising a poemuntil it was finished, since it was a shorter piece of work than fiction wouldbe.
Igotta feed the dopamine rabbit in my brain, and to finish a poem is to give ita carrot. I would have been starving it if I started out trying to write anovel.
ALSOOF NOTE: poetry just sort of clicked with me. I felt like I could finallyarticulate what was in my head and have it come out the way I wanted and thatwas an amazing feeling.
3 - How longdoes it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writinginitially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear lookingclose to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
Iam an extremely slow writer, and my drafts are absolutely batshit. Most poems Iwrite have drafts of at least 10 pages. It is a lot of labor, but I love it. Afinished poem for me is generally very different from the first draft. Therewill always be lines from the first draft that haunt their way to the finalversion, but a lot is exorcized through revision.
4 - Wheredoes a poem usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that endup combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book"from the very beginning?
Anindividual poem almost always begins with the last line, and I rarely changeit. I need to know where I am going or I get lost along the way. Expanding uponthat, I need to be working towards a larger project, because then I really knowwhere I am going. I think that is why I <3 the long poem so very much.
5 - Are public readingspart of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer whoenjoys doing readings?
IfI had a checkbox available here I would select “Neutral”.
I’mfine with doing readings, but I wouldn’t say they are part of or counter to myprocess.
I’mjust going to chill on the fence here with a Coke in one hand and a Pepsi inthe other.
6 - Do youhave any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions areyou trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the currentquestions are?
I’mlooking at the romanticization of addiction and mental illness in relation tothe artist, and I use the Wild West as a backdrop. I’m interested in how theimage of the Wild West/cowboy is forever shifting to match what the current erawants/needs, much like a diagnosis does. Those are some of the themes andimagery I am calling into question.
SoI guess I am trying to answer--what does all that look like, how can addictionand mental illness manifest in daily life, impact someone’s daily life, destroya “normal” life.
Andthe current associated question might be: whythe fuck don’t we feel well?
7 – What doyou see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they evenhave one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
Toentertain, to puzzle, to make you think or see something differently.
Toexpress something and to have someone find the words that they need within it.
Language= framework = visibility, understanding, community.
8 - Do you find theprocess of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
Essential!I love working with an editor. I trustmy own instinct enough to know what I am wanting to do, and the feedback Ireceive is almost always what I already know I need to do, and was sort ofhoping I could get away with not fixing (sort of sweeping under the rug andhoping nobody will notice).
Andif the feedback I receive doesn’t match what I am wanting to do in the poem,then I can work through that with an editor--see how/why it isn’t comingthrough, figure out what window I need to open.
9 - What is the bestpiece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Sue Goyette came and spoke at the University of Winnipeg when I was doing myundergrad. She spoke about how no matter what we do, no matter where we are atas a writer, that all we would ever really want was to outwrite the poem wewrote yesterday, to push ourselves farther than we previously had. And it stuck with me.
I’mhappy it did. She was right. It is what makes me keep pushing myself and myboundaries and expectations for what a poem can be and do. It taught me veryearly on not to measure myself/my writing against anyone else. I’m of courseinspired by and in awe of the work of other writers, but I’m just out heretrying to be a better writer than I was last week.
10 - What kindof writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does atypical day (for you) begin?
Routineisn’t something that my brain can seem to wrap itself around, so I don’t have awriting routine. I try to write at least a little bit every week though, evenif I don’t feel like it!
11 - When your writinggets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word)inspiration?
LitMags! If I am stalled, I curl up with a pile of Lit Mags, and I always find apoem that gets me thinking differently, a line that inspires me. I like LitMags for inspiration because I am introduced to so many new voices and stylesand forms to fall in love with.
12 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Ireally want to give an answer for this, but I have a terrible sense of smell.
13 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books,but are there any other forms thatinfluence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
Science!But I guess that is still “book”, damnit. Research is very important to mywriting, so reading books or articles that aren’t literature is great because then I better understand all the cogsof my own experience, rather than just accepting the machine and leaving it atthat.
14 - What other writers or writings are important for yourwork, or simply your life outside of your work?
Anne Carson is my favourite poet. She does not give a FUCK. When I am lost, I readher work, and I’m reminded of tomfoolery and cheekiness, and not being afraidto get outside the boundaries of every other poem I have written. She neverdisappoints and is never boring.
15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
SOMANY THINGS. I’m trying to just relax though. I’m realizing that I never learnedhow to slow down or take a break so I am trying to figure it out now. I’m goingto leave it at that, or I’m going to get myself excited about some unfinishedproject and be off to the races on it.
16 - If you couldpick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, whatdo you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
Mechanic!
17 - What madeyou write, as opposed to doing something else?
Ialways wanted to be a visual artist. And when I knew I wasn’t meant for that Itried music. And the list goes on. I tried a lot of stuff. I tried all of thesedifferent forms of expression but I could never get what was in my head outcorrectly. It never looked right. Poetry just stuck. I didn’t ask for words to be my bitch, but they are. Poetryfound me and I am happy it did.
18 - What wasthe last great book you read? What was the last great film?
OceanVuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeousis definitely a stand-out for me when thinking about books. For film, I’m goingwith X and Pearl ( I love horror movies).
19 - What areyou currently working on?
Iam working on Xanax Cowboy Vol. II!This rodeo ain’t over.
