Interview with Damon Marbut
Author Damon Ferrell Marbut who inspired readers with his novel "Awake in the Mad World" last year, is now offering a very personal and bold collection of poetry, "Little Human Accidents" published September 1, 2013.
Q: Was it difficult to select poems to include in "Little Human Accidents"?
A: It was easy, surprisingly. The paperback edition is 145 pages, and my editor at Bareback Press and I actually cut out about 15 poems to shrink it down to its current size. I wanted to cut about 7-8 more poems, but my editor pretty much said I was taking out some of the better pieces because I was suddenly afraid to offend the reader. He came just short of calling me names and we left them in. The poems in "Little Human Accidents" were part of probably a thousand poems written over the course of two years when I was halfway through graduate school, but I’d separated these off into their own volume a few years ago because they seemed to stand out from all that output. I discarded tons of writing from those years. It was far more difficult selecting poems for a new and smaller collection I’m publishing next year.
Q: What do you enjoy most about writing poetry?
A: I love that brief moment when I completely let go of any attempts at control and structure and write around a topic rather than hit it head on. But letting go can also just mean honesty and directness. There’s a real intimacy with the reader then, I think, when you as poet allow yourself vulnerability in turns of phrases and believe your audience will see it not as an obscurity but a different manner in which you can describe something familiar. In my shorter collection I do a lot of writing around a topic—for example, rather than say I’m sad and confused I wrote in a poem called History:
In the absence of warmth and light,
where in the trenches you or I or We survive,
the saline and cursed wave over my shoulder in the deep
is the monster of memory.
But in "Little Human Accidents" there is no room for confusion when it comes to what is being explained to the reader. It’s very direct, very much under control of a storyteller.
Q: What is the best piece of advice on writing you have received from another writer?
A: My fiction mentor in graduate school said, “Go slow.” I can still hear him saying it. That’s really difficult for some writers. It’s great life advice, too, but in terms of creative work I know it trips up authors on occasion. I’ve talked with plenty of writers over the last year since my novel published in summer of 2012, and they put so much pressure on themselves to write write write write write. Some got really annoyed with me when I told them I don’t write every day. There’s just no need to rush because then the work suffers. And we all have different processes. I’m not interested in cranking out a series just to capture readers as a loyal fan base. I don’t write to make money or impress people. I write what I think is germane to my life as I see it. That requires time and patience. So “Go slow” really works for me.
Q: Generally speaking, do you feel that poetry is more soul-baring than other types of writing?
A: No, not generally speaking. It can be incredibly intense and raw and emotional and evocative, and it can open a writer to elevated vulnerability. But I think the personal essay and memoir can be just as soul-baring. I’ve been working on a nonfiction collection of essays and stories and actually started crying in the middle of two different pieces as I was working on them. I’ve experienced that when reading and writing my poems, too. So they’re on an even par for me. But I also have to acknowledge that what I consider to be “soul-baring” comes from how I express something, whereas other writers might define it as what they put into a work. Good question.
Q: Is there one particular poem from "Little Human Accidents" that is a special favorite of yours?
A: Overall, there is handful of pieces in the book that remind me of people I’ve lost. They were written for some who’d already passed, and some have since died as this book was on its way to being published. So those generally stand out to me because they document how I was feeling at the time about the living and the dead versus how I see our relationships now, a decade later. But there is one poem in the book that really, still, makes me squirm. It’s the longest in the collection, a performance poem I wrote as a companion piece to two other poets’ work years ago. We used to slam together at bars and coffee shops. It’s lewd and brash and so much fun to do at readings. People will know which one I’m referring to once they read the book.
Damon Ferrell Marbut’s Social Media Links:
www.damonferrellmarbut.com
http://www.facebook.com/DamonFMarbut
Twitter: @dfmnola
Little Human Accidents Publisher: www.barebackpress.com
Q: Was it difficult to select poems to include in "Little Human Accidents"?
A: It was easy, surprisingly. The paperback edition is 145 pages, and my editor at Bareback Press and I actually cut out about 15 poems to shrink it down to its current size. I wanted to cut about 7-8 more poems, but my editor pretty much said I was taking out some of the better pieces because I was suddenly afraid to offend the reader. He came just short of calling me names and we left them in. The poems in "Little Human Accidents" were part of probably a thousand poems written over the course of two years when I was halfway through graduate school, but I’d separated these off into their own volume a few years ago because they seemed to stand out from all that output. I discarded tons of writing from those years. It was far more difficult selecting poems for a new and smaller collection I’m publishing next year.
Q: What do you enjoy most about writing poetry?
A: I love that brief moment when I completely let go of any attempts at control and structure and write around a topic rather than hit it head on. But letting go can also just mean honesty and directness. There’s a real intimacy with the reader then, I think, when you as poet allow yourself vulnerability in turns of phrases and believe your audience will see it not as an obscurity but a different manner in which you can describe something familiar. In my shorter collection I do a lot of writing around a topic—for example, rather than say I’m sad and confused I wrote in a poem called History:
In the absence of warmth and light,
where in the trenches you or I or We survive,
the saline and cursed wave over my shoulder in the deep
is the monster of memory.
But in "Little Human Accidents" there is no room for confusion when it comes to what is being explained to the reader. It’s very direct, very much under control of a storyteller.
Q: What is the best piece of advice on writing you have received from another writer?
A: My fiction mentor in graduate school said, “Go slow.” I can still hear him saying it. That’s really difficult for some writers. It’s great life advice, too, but in terms of creative work I know it trips up authors on occasion. I’ve talked with plenty of writers over the last year since my novel published in summer of 2012, and they put so much pressure on themselves to write write write write write. Some got really annoyed with me when I told them I don’t write every day. There’s just no need to rush because then the work suffers. And we all have different processes. I’m not interested in cranking out a series just to capture readers as a loyal fan base. I don’t write to make money or impress people. I write what I think is germane to my life as I see it. That requires time and patience. So “Go slow” really works for me.
Q: Generally speaking, do you feel that poetry is more soul-baring than other types of writing?
A: No, not generally speaking. It can be incredibly intense and raw and emotional and evocative, and it can open a writer to elevated vulnerability. But I think the personal essay and memoir can be just as soul-baring. I’ve been working on a nonfiction collection of essays and stories and actually started crying in the middle of two different pieces as I was working on them. I’ve experienced that when reading and writing my poems, too. So they’re on an even par for me. But I also have to acknowledge that what I consider to be “soul-baring” comes from how I express something, whereas other writers might define it as what they put into a work. Good question.
Q: Is there one particular poem from "Little Human Accidents" that is a special favorite of yours?
A: Overall, there is handful of pieces in the book that remind me of people I’ve lost. They were written for some who’d already passed, and some have since died as this book was on its way to being published. So those generally stand out to me because they document how I was feeling at the time about the living and the dead versus how I see our relationships now, a decade later. But there is one poem in the book that really, still, makes me squirm. It’s the longest in the collection, a performance poem I wrote as a companion piece to two other poets’ work years ago. We used to slam together at bars and coffee shops. It’s lewd and brash and so much fun to do at readings. People will know which one I’m referring to once they read the book.
Damon Ferrell Marbut’s Social Media Links:
www.damonferrellmarbut.com
http://www.facebook.com/DamonFMarbut
Twitter: @dfmnola
Little Human Accidents Publisher: www.barebackpress.com
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Jennifer K. Lafferty, author of Movie Dynasty Princesses, reviews a wide range of books and discusses various aspects of contemporary and classic literature.
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