Jane Eyre

Post Modern THOT : Natalie N. Caro

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Natalie N. Caro is a Bronx-born poet and the 2013 recipient of the Bronx Recognizes Its Own Award in Poetry. She holds a B.A. in English Literature and Philosophy from Lehman College/CUNY and an MFA in Poetry from City College/CUNY where she was selected as one of the first recipients of the Creative Writing Fellowship. Sometimes, she swears that school saved her, but then she thinks about colonization of the mind and feels some type of way. Natalie likes to tweet at bars about teeth and trauma. Follow her and her scattered thoughts on twitter @scatteredstanza.

Who is your favorite female identifying written character and why?

I can’t pick one, and so my favorite renegades are Edna Pontellier, Jane Eyre, and Sula. There’s something about the way these women live their lives, a rawness to their experiences in context. They also have this deep connection to the earth. They feel every bit of the world in them, and perhaps it’s because they understand its language that they are so brazen.

What literary work by a female identifying writer had the most effect on you as a writer and/or person?

Nayyirah Waheed’s SALT has pretty much changed the way I view language and my own relationship to it as a reader coming out of the postcolonial condition. Her ability to pack so many ideas and images into a couple of lines of poetry is nothing short of brilliant. Her work is as rich and real as it comes.

How did your work/works in Alyss come about? 

Date-Rape emerged out of many discussions. A lot has been said about the under reporting of campus rapes and sexual violence against women, in general; the narrative is, unfortunately, often one-sided. Much of my reading on consent and duress has forced me to come to terms with the reality that young men can be raped too. The conversation, I felt, needed additional voices and perspectives.
What has been your greatest writing life moment so far?

My most memorable writing moment is being anthologized for the first time. I have two poems in the forthcoming Afro-Latino Anthology from the University of Houston Press. Many of the authors I find myself in the company of are pioneers and legends; it’s humbling, to say the least.
What is your favorite piece by another writer from Issue Deux and why? 

Making choices is difficult for me, and so I have two poems that stirred me: Almost Someone Coming Home by Alexandra Smyth & Baptism by Jamie Lyn Bruce. In the interest of full disclosure, I took workshops with these two powerhouses, and even then I was a huge fan of their work. They both arrest the reader with a strong sense of place; once they captivate you, they whisper something big and rippling in your heart.
What are you currently working on?

I’m working on getting my first chapbook published “Post Modern THOT,” It’s a collection of poetry that deals with trauma of being of being a woman caught in the Male Gaze, or something like that. In the meantime, I’m experimenting with my website/blog:     www.natalie-n-caro.com

Who/what is your favorite Alice/Alyss?

At the risk of sounding trite: Alice in Wonderland has always appealed to me—mostly, because her curiosity was always stronger than her apprehension.

The Mayor : Merie Kirby

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Merie Kirby

Merie Kirby lives in Grand Forks, ND and teaches at the University of North Dakota. She is the author of The Dog Runs On (Finishing Line Press, 2014) and The Thumbelina Poems (Red Bird Chapbooks, forthcoming 2015).  Her poems have been published in Willow Review, Midwest Poetry Review, Avocet, and other journals; she also writes operas and art songs in collaboration with composers.

 

Who is your favorite female identifying written character and why?

I have spent at least a week thinking about this. It is the hardest question in this interview! But I keep coming back to Jane Eyre – a book I first read when I was 14 because an aunt told me she wasn’t sure I was ready to read it. Which seems a very Jane thing to do, actually. And later I read it in school. And I’ve taught it several times now. What I like about Jane, what keeps me thinking about her, is that she is very contrarian (as she is accused of being) because she is very intent on being herself. All around her is a society that would very much prefer her to be otherwise, and she might waver, might try on something else, but ultimately she must be herself. Her inconvenient self.

What literary work by a female identifying writer had the most effect on you as a writer and/or person?

The poems of Emily Dickinson are one answer, but I think I have to give equal time to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Eve Curie’s biography of her mother, Marie Curie. I feel like each of these works taught me something about writing – about poetry, fiction, and memoir/biography – but also gave me models of women who followed the work or life they were passionate about.

How did your poem in Alyss come about?

The poem At six I wanted to marry Godzilla came about through that always curious mix of truth and fiction – I distinctly remember being, at around six, madly in love with Godzilla. Now, of course, that potential relationship is clearly problematic, but perhaps, I thought, there are ways that it might still be true. And, perhaps, sometimes I want to be able to be the hurt and angry monster and experience the safety net of another’s love.

What has been your greatest writing life moment so far?

Holding my first chapbook, The Dog Runs On, was a pretty great moment. Hearing my daughter read her favorite poem of mine to a friend was also pretty great. But I think the greatest moments of my writing life have actually been moments spent with poet-friends, writing together and enjoying hearing each other’s writing, and talking poetry with each other. Those are the moments that feed me.

What is your favorite piece by another writer from Issue Deux and why?

There are a lot of great pieces to choose from in Issue Deux! But I think Moth Queen by Ellie Slaughter, with it’s wonderful fairy tale imagery nestled up against very modern references is the piece that really caught at my imagination.

What are you currently working on?

Last September I participated in Tupelo Press’s 30/30 Project, writing a fresh poem a day and posting it. It was so much fun, and I could not believe that not only did I write a poem a day for 30 days, but I ended up with about 23 of them that I felt had a lot of potential. I went in hoping for maybe 10, so 23 is fabulous. I’m revising those 23 now, working towards another chapbook, or perhaps the kernel of a full-length manuscript.

Who/what is your favorite Alice/Alyss?

I think it has to be Alice who passed through the rabbit hole portal – I have always particularly loved her encounter with the pig baby and the pepper.