12 or 20 (second series) questions with Luisa Muradyan
Luisa Muradyan
isoriginally from Odesa, Ukraine, and is the author of
I Make Jokes When I'mDevastated
(Bridwell Press, 2025), When the World Stopped Touching(YesYes Books, 2027), and
American Radiance
(University of NebraskaPress, 2018). She holds a Ph.D. in Poetry from the University of Houston andwon the 2017 Raz/ Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize. Additionally, Muradyanis a member of the Cheburashka Collective, a group of women and nonbinarywriters from the former Soviet Union. Additional work can be found at BestAmerican Poetry, the Threepenny Review, Ploughshares, and OnlyPoems, among others.1 - How did your first book change your life? Howdoes your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
My first book will always be a reminder to myselfthat what I have to say matters to someone out in the universe. When I startedwriting poetry, my wildest dream was that a press would actually take myridiculous poems about sentient sexy potatoes, Prince, and Predator seriously.I am still amazed that my poems find readers and now that I have a second bookout, I am constantly pinching myself that this is my reality. After I finishedmy first book, American Radiance,which is largely about my family, I promised myself I would move on and writeabout a new topic. My second book, I MakeJokes When I’m Devastated, is even more focused on my family. I realizedthat I’m essentially going to write the same book over and over again, becauseevery poem about my grandmother is ultimately a poem about the moon, andeveryone knows how poets feel about the moon.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposedto, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I am drawn to poetry for the privacy. Most of thetime, I feel naked writing in prose, and while I love reading novels andessays, I need the distance that the lyric provides, or to put it lesspoetically, I want to keep my top on.
3 - How long does it take to start any particularwriting project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slowprocess? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or doesyour work come out of copious notes?
Writing is a long process for me. I think of mybrain as a crock pot that I’m constantly shoving images into. Eventually, Ipull images out after a few hours of staring at my computer screen. A finaldraft often looks nothing like the original version of that poem, and that’stypically because I don’t have a clear idea of where the poem needs to go. Occasionally,I’ll tell myself “I’m going to write a love poem that starts with prunes,” but that’sabout as much direction as I tend to give myself.
4 - Where does a poem usually begin for you? Areyou an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, orare you working on a "book" from the very Beginning?
Poems often begin for me with images. I’ll see abursting peony bush and immediately think, “obviously I’ll be writing about youlater,” and continue on my day. I am rarely a writer who works on “projects”and mostly just assembles manuscripts slowly over time. I obsessively writeabout ten different things over and over again, and eventually those poemsbecome a book.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter toyour creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I adore attending readings. I often think of themas a place of tremendous inspiration, and I often feel energized when they areover. For me, there is something magical about hearing poetry read out loud byfriends or poets whose work I am not familiar with.
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behindyour writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work?What do you even think the current questions Are?
My concerns are endless. I have a thousandanswers for “what do poems actually do?” but none of them feel like the rightone. As a poet who often writes about war in my birthplace, I think about thisquestion often.
7 – What do you see the current role of thewriter being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think therole of the writer should be?
I generally avoid prescribing what the role of awriter should be. As a teacher of young writers, I see firsthand the tremendousimpact that poems have for helping people understand themselves, and also forunderstanding others. To me, empathy and poetry are connected in a way that isessential. I teach “Try to Praise the Mutilated World” by Adam Zagajewski everyyear because that poem saved my life; I don’t know what role that gives me as awriter. Mostly, I’m not that different than a person handing out pamphlets onthe street. I’m giving you something that has transformed the way I see the world, Maybe you’ll remember a line from thispoem when you need it, maybe you’ll immediately throw it into the recyclingbin.
8 - Do you find the process of working with anoutside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I have been lucky to work with some reallygenerous editors throughout the years. For individual poems, I really onlyshare them with a handful of friends and mostly as proof that I am stillliving. When I am struggling with a poem, I find that sharing drafts with a friendI trust is tremendously helpful. I worked with Katie Condon on my last book andshe was essential in helping me iron out some poems that I had over-edited whenI was putting my manuscript together. Since Katie understood my work, she wasable to provide some suggestions for not only how to make the poems better buthow to shape them towards what I wanted them to be.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard(not necessarily given to you directly)?
The best way to learn about writing is by readingas much as possible.
10 - What kind of writing routine do you tend tokeep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
Admittedly, I am on the “parent of three youngchildren” routine which means I’m often writing poems on my phone in betweenhockey practices, in a school pickup line, or during my lunch break betweenclasses I teach.
11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do youturn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Stanley Kunitz reading “Touch Me” will likelybring me back to earth for a few seconds after I’ve died. When he leans intothe microphone and says “remind me who I am” at the end of the poem I gaspevery single time.
12 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Home is a complicated idea for me as I came tothis country as a refugee when I was a child. What reminds me of Odesa? Thesmell of meat section in the Pryvoz market or the peonies that grew outside ofour apartment building. What reminds me of Kansas City? The smell of bbq andthe park after it rains. My current house smells like mint leaves from tea Imake throughout the day, scented markers in my children’s playroom, or theabsolutely horrific scent of unwashed adolescent hockey gear that lives in my garage.
13 - David W. McFadden once said that books comefrom books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whethernature, music, science or visual art?
I am moved by visual art and often begin writingpoems in my head as I walk through museums or galleries.
14 - What other writers or writings are importantfor your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Gerald Stern is a poet that will always pull meout of whatever writing hole I find myself in. I also have a deep love forMarina Tsvetaeva, Wisława Szymborska, Robin Coste Lewis, Kathleen Peirce,Mahmoud Darwish, Ross Gay, Stanley Kunitz, Adam Zagajewski, Anna Akhmatova, Ada Limon, Tiana Clark, Ilya Kaminsky, Ruth Stone, Matthew Olzmann, Li-Young Lee,Safiya Sinclair, and so many others.
15 - What would you like to do that you haven'tyet done?
I’d love to write a children’s book length poem.I promised my oldest child that this would be our summer project.
16 - If you could pick any other occupation toattempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would haveended up doing had you not been a writer?
This might be too close to the same wheelhouse aswriting but I think I would be a very good namer of things. I want to bewhoever is in charge of naming nail polish colors, newly invented cheeses,flavors of candy, or recently discovered insects. Are you a beverage companywho doesn’t know what to call your strangely hued newest creation? Allow me tobe drunk with power and name that juice.
17 - What made you write, as opposed to doingsomething else?
For a long time writing was the thing that Isaved for myself as a reward for doing all of the other things I had to dothroughout the day. Eventually, I got tired of putting my joy Last.
18 - What was the last great book you read? Whatwas the last great film?
I just finished Traci Brimhall’s Love Prodigaland I recommend everyone with a beating heart buy this incredible book. I alsosaw Sinners last night and it was brilliant.
19 - What are you currently working on?
I typically allow myself to go through a quietphase after I have a book come out. I am currently working on getting back to writing poems morefrequently.
