She's as Badass as Montaigne and as Cool as Virginia Woolf

Welcome to our first Tête-à-Tête Thursday of 2014. Today, I am blessed and blissful to be Bourbonista bantering with Bobbi Buchanan, and with all the alliteration that goes along with it. 

Bobbi is the author of Listen: Essays on Living the Good Life , published by Ginkgo Leaf Press in September 2013, and founding editor of New Southerner , an e-zine that focuses on self-sufficiency, environmental stewardship, and local economies. She received the 2010 prize in nonfiction from Still: The Journal for her essay "In the Woods," which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, Brain, Child Magazine, Sojourners, the Motif anthologies Come What May (MotesBooks, 2010) and All the Livelong Day (MotesBooks, 2011), Greenprints, Literary Mama, and Flycatcher, among other publications. She teaches writing at Jefferson Community and Technical College’s Bullitt County Campus. A member of the advisory board for the Green River Writers, Bobbi is co-founder of the Homegrown Art, Music & Spoken Word Show, an open-mic and arts exhibition series held bimonthly in Shepherdsville, Ky.

The Bourbonista: In honor of a Bourbonista/Bobbi Buchanan blend, I will bombard the blogosphere with a bevy of B’s throughout this bandinage. Let’s get started, tell me about yourself in 50 words or less. At least one word must begin with the letter “X” and none can begin with the letter “S.”
Bobbi: I’m a writer, college professor, lover of nature, literature, art and flea markets. People may have mistaken me as being xenophobic for derogatory remarks I’ve made about buying cheap Chinese junk for the love of our consumer-driven economy. I’m mostly a homebody. I binge on people and then crave isolation.

The Bourbonista: Binging on people is much healthier than my bacchanal binges on bourbon, bacon Bleu burgers, and Breaking Bad reruns. Moving on, if you were a circus performer, what would you be and why?
Bobbi: Circus work is my secret dream, and I’ve always loved entertaining people. Although there are several jobs I’d probably love, I think tightrope walker would be the best fit for my personality. I want to be riveting and suspenseful. I was fascinated by the documentary “Man on Wire” about Philippe Petit’s tightrope walk between the World Trade Center Towers. However, I think I would naturally gravitate to the role of ringleader because I love to orchestrate events and boss people around.

The Bourbonista: And the ringleader gets to be bombastic and boastful and be bedecked in a bedazzled bolero, black boots, and bullwhip. What would you do if you won the lottery?
Bobbi: I would take my husband, David, to Italy. In fact, we’d probably move to Italy for a while. Then we’d move back to Kentucky, buy a letterpress printing press and start a publishing company.

The Bourbonista: So, you'd become a bibliopegist...that's a baroque word for book binder. If you were on death row…don’t act like you don’t know who you killed to get there…what would be your last supper?
Bobbi: Vegan pesto with a shitload of garlic and pasta. Or mountains and mountains of pad thai. Third choice would be enough peanut butter and banana to put me in a tryptophan-induced coma for the execution part. By the way, I oppose the death penalty. Can I be political here? There are so many flaws in the logic of killing people for killing people I would need a soapbox and a separate blog to air them all. Maybe a more appropriate response to this question would be, I would eat nothing in protest of state-sanctioned murder.

The Bourbonista: I agree, the death penalty is barbaric and bootless. But, your bold beliefs are the badge of a beautiful, benevolent, and brilliant broad. Now, write a short “Thank You” letter to your future self for all the cool shit you’ve done twenty years from now.
Bobbi: 
Dear Old Bitch.
Thanks for leaving the corporate rat race 26 years ago. Now you’re getting a pension from the conglomeration—it’s not much but it helps the old starving artist. So glad you decided to hole up, away from the world for 10 years to produce several volumes of work. You’re as badass as Montaigne, as cool as Virginia Woolf. I’m happy that you took up teaching and that you still get inspiration from your students. Academia looks good on you. Congratulations. You are now officially a member of the literati.
Love,
Me

The Bourbonista: Being bibacious, I must ask this next question, If you were a booze, which booze would you be and who would you want to drink you?
Bobbi: Blanton’s bourbon, and I’d want Tom Waits to drink me—a double, neat—preferably while smoking a cigar and belting out “The Piano Has Been Drinking.” 
UPCOMING EVENTS

Bobbi will be reading from her chapbook at Carmichael’s Bookstore on Frankfort Avenue in Louisville at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 11. Check out the event is on facebook by clicking HERE.

She will also be hosting the 2013 New Southerner Literary Prize Winners Reading at the Bard’s Town in Louisville from 5 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 18. More information, check out this LINK. 

Purchase your copy of Listen: Essays on Living the Good Life.