12 or 20 (second series) interview with Sophie Klahr
Sophie Klahr is the author of the poetrycollections Two Open Doors in a Field, Meet Me Here at Dawn, andthe collaborative prose work There Is Only One Ghost in the World,written alongside Corey Zeller. Her writing may be found in The New Yorker,American Poetry Review, Poetry London, and elsewhere. She teaches poetry courses online, and lives in Los Angeles.
1 - How did your first book orchapbook change your life? How does your most recent work compare to yourprevious? How does it feel different?
My first chapbook _____ VersusRecovery was published in 2007 by from Pilot Books, a small press (nowdefunct, alas) that hand-sewed gorgeous limited editions. I was 23, and it wasthe first time I’d had work out in the world that addressed my experiences withaddiction and (at the time, very new) recovery. Previous to that, I hadn’tpublished very much at all, and the warm reception the chapbook received wassurprising; suddenly, the most difficult things in my life drew people towardsme, not away.
My very recently published book There Is Only One Ghost in the World (FictionCollective 2) is wildly different from my previous two books, in that not onlyis it a collaborative work but that it is all prose, where my other books havebeen entirely verse. I’ve been writing in prose mostly for a year or so – it’sbeen interesting to take a breath from line breaks. At the moment, I don’t missthem.
2 - How did you come to poetry first,as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
My childhood was thick with an appreciation of sound. When he was home,no matter where my father was in the house, one could nearly always hear himsinging to himself. At simple everyday questions ( Q: Dad, where aremy ballet shoes?) he would often answer with some sort of poetic line ( A: Whosewoods these are, I think I know…), and at some point, I realized many ofthe verses he said to us (annoyingly, I thought back then) were inscribed inme—I came to know early what it meant to know something by heart. In this way,my becoming a poet became inevitable.
3 - How long does it take to start anyparticular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is ita slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, ordoes your work come out of copious notes?
What I end up revising the most heavily are my formal poems – some of mysonnets have taken 3 years to write. But there are exceptions – a sonnet ofmine which went viral a few years ago took about two weeks of tinkering untilit expressed that it was complete. I think it was Yeats who said (I may beparaphrasing?) “a poem comes right with a click like a closing box.” I justlisten for that click.
4 - Where does a poem usually beginfor you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a largerproject, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
It seems to me that a poem comes either from a memory like a toothache orfrom a moment of music in passing. Formally, I do fall into patterns -- most ofthe verse I’ve written for the past 6 years turns towards the sonnet, and in mylast book of verse poems, Two Open Doors in a Field, most of them weresonnets that had the framework of driving and listening to the radio. Whensomething feels good, I tend to want more of it, and because of that, I’ll stayin a single vein of form and subject until some natural conclusion feelsreached, or, i.e. I feel a type of satiation.
5 - Are public readings part of orcounter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doingreadings?
I prefer not to read my work in front of others; I think my body gets inthe way of my words.
6 - Do you have any theoreticalconcerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answerwith your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
The questions in the prose book I’m currently working surround the natureof honesty and center on an investigation of voice: what / who do we trust whenwe read? Where is the line between “fiction” and “nonfiction”? What does itmean to be an “unreliable” or “reliable” narrator? What stories are “worth”telling?
7 – What do you see the current roleof the writer being in larger culture? Does s/he even have one? What do youthink the role of the writer should be?
All writers do really in some ways ispoint to a moment or thing or idea and say Look! I’d hope that we allpoint to things that feel important, but “important” is defined differently foreveryone.
8 - Do you find the process of workingwith an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
These days, I tend to only ask for feedback from a friend or two when apiece feels too close to me, and the questions I put forth to them are usuallybroad. On a book level, I haven’t had much trouble, but that’s likely onlybecause the publishers I’ve had have offered very few edits.
9 - What is the best piece of adviceyou've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Dorothy Parker once said “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is nocure for curiosity.” I am not a person who ever gets bored, but it seems like agood piece of thought to pass along.
10 - How easy has it been for you tomove between genres (poetry to collaboration)? What do you see as the appeal?
I don’t sit down to write having any expectation for the form that wordswill become. Maybe the words will call for verse, maybe it will want to beprose. I’d like to collaborate more with people who work in visual mediums – afilmmaker friend recently invited me to collaborate on some pitches for adocumentary that won’t have anything to do with literature. I think it mightend up being about Komodo dragons. Collaboration is energizing in part becauseit exercises the muscle of listening, and leans away from ego.
11 - What kind of writing routine doyou tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you)begin?
I have no routine whatsoever really. Each day begins with my cat beinghungry – his hunger is the most consistent thing in my life.
12 - When your writing gets stalled,where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
I don’t relate to the idea of being stalled with writing, but I think Iturn to physical activity when I get into psychic tangles of any kind. Walkingor dancing or swimming always feels clarifying, whether I’m in a moment ofwriting or not.
13 - What fragrance reminds you ofhome?
Roasted chicken and dust.
14 - David W. McFadden once said thatbooks come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work,whether nature, music, science or visual art?
I think books come from questions. Of the suggestions above, I would saythat nature influences my writing most deeply–I read more nonfiction about thenatural world than any fiction or poetry. As far as visual art, I’ve held keptEdward Hopper’s work as a touchstone for decades years – his spaces and lightand sense of pause. I come from a fairly musical & music-loving family, soreferences to songs actually do seem to often show up in my work naturally. About10 years ago I lived sporadically with the musician Cass McCombs, and living ina space that was really saturated with his music meant that while writing, Iwas also often pausing to listen to the muffled sounds of what he was creatingand playing, far off in some other part of the house, and I think some of thatatmosphere was knit into what I was writing at the time—I actually drew thetitle of my first book Meet Me Here At Dawn from the name of one of hissongs.
15 - What other writers or writingsare important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
I am consistently return to Rilke’s Duino Elegies. They feel likea touchstone for spiritual inquiry.
16 - What would you like to do thatyou haven't yet done?
I would like to write a musical with someone! Musical theater is the mostcollaborative art form, and can be profoundly moving. I have been simmering aroundtwo specific ideas for musicals for many years – the key now is finding my owntime that might align with a composer who has time. I’d love to work with mydear friend Daniel Heath, whose work you’re familiar with if you’ve ever heard thelush strings beneath some of Lana Del Rey’s most popular songs, but he’sendlessly busy, so if you are a composer reading this, write to me!
17 - If you could pick any otheroccupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think youwould have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I would have loved to be a paleontologist. It’s a bit late for that Ithink, but I’ve had a fascination with dinosaurs since I was little, and I’mfascinated by how our understanding of them continues to evolve. I recentlyread Steve Brusatte’s book The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World – highly recommend.
18 - What made you write, as opposedto doing something else?
I’m not even sure I can answer the question! Writing has never seemedlike much of a choice.
19 - What was the last great book youread? What was the last great film?
I will offer the two most recent collections of poetry I’ve read by peers:K. Iver’s Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco and Eugenia Leigh’sBianca – both are brilliant and incisive.
20 - What are you currently workingon?
I’m working on a chapbook of poems about an angel (which is also aboutaddiction and the penal system) and a book of prose tentatively titled that isin some ways a hall of mirrors to my collaborative book There Is Only OneGhost in the World, though this one is a solo venture. We’ll see whathappens.
