{"id":114,"date":"2014-08-21T15:31:11","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T19:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/casit.bgsu.edu\/marblog\/?p=114"},"modified":"2014-08-21T15:33:12","modified_gmt":"2014-08-21T19:33:12","slug":"mar-asks-carrie-shipers-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casit.bgsu.edu\/marblog\/mar-asks-carrie-shipers-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"MAR Asks, Carrie Shipers Answers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Carrie Shipers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This latest contributor interview may go down in MAR<\/em> history for being the only one to include a sentence like, \u201cHis biggest decision is whether to lick his rear end before or after he takes a nap.\u201d But that kind of poetic insight is what we\u2019re here for, folks. Enjoy this lively interview with Carrie Shipers, whose poem \u201cHow Sandbag Lives Up to His Name\u201d appears in our Spring 2014 issue (Vol. XXXIV, Number 2). Carrie’s poems have appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Hayden\u2019s Ferry Review, New England Review, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, The Southern Review, <\/em>and other journals. She is the author of two chapbooks, Ghost-Writing <\/em>(Pudding House, 2007) and Rescue Conditions <\/em>(Slipstream, 2008), and a full-length collection, Ordinary Mourning <\/em>(ABZ, 2010).<\/em><\/p>\n

Quick! Summarize your story\/poem\/essay in 10 words or fewer. <\/strong><\/p>\n

My eleven-pound dog keeps me safe.<\/p>\n

What can you share about this piece prior to its MAR publication?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been in love with dictionary poems since being introduced to A. Van Jordan\u2019s amazing collection M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A<\/em> during my MFA program. Unfortunately, as much as I love those kinds of poems, I\u2019m actually pretty terrible at writing them. One of my challenges with \u201cSandbag\u201d was to let the dictionary definitions do their work without my over-explaining or simply repeating them. As I revised the poem, I trimmed as much as I could from the non-dictionary parts of the poem and tried to trust the juxtaposition between the authoritative voice of the dictionary and the more searching voice of the speaker.<\/p>\n

What was the worst\/best feedback you received on this piece?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the first times I sent this poem out into the world, an editor wrote on the rejection slip, \u201cOf these, Sandbag shows the most promise.\u201d On one hand, I was thrilled to get a personal note of any kind because I know how busy editors are. On the other hand, I kept thinking, \u201cOf course Sandbag shows the most promise! He\u2019s a dog! His biggest decision is whether to lick his rear end before or after he takes a nap.\u201d (Sadly, these are exactly the kinds of arguments I have in my head with editors, even when I know they\u2019re right.)<\/p>\n

You\u2019re at a family reunion and some long-lost relative asks about your writing. What do you say?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since I\u2019m currently writing a series of poems about professional wrestling, I really hope no one asks me this question. I\u2019d hate to knock over the potato salad while demonstrating some of my best wrestling moves.<\/p>\n

What do you consider your biggest writing-related success? <\/strong><\/p>\n

This might sound silly, but I\u2019d been submitting to 5 AM <\/em>for a decade and always got rejected, although sometimes I received an encouraging note. About a year ago, my poem \u201cA Bed of Grass and Stolen Hay\u201d appeared in the magazine\u2019s last issue before its current hiatus. I really hope the magazine eventually continues publication, but I\u2019m thrilled I finally made it in there.<\/p>\n

Tell us one strange thing about yourself that does <\/em>involve writing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My writing brain works best in the early morning hours, which means I\u2019m usually at my desk by 5:30 or so. In the four years since my husband and I adopted Sandbag, he\u2019s been sitting on my lap while I constructed most of my first drafts, including this one.<\/p>\n

Do you have another favorite piece of writing in this MAR issue?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m totally in love with Janet Smith\u2019s poem \u201cTo Do List.\u201d Every time I read it I\u2019m reminded how often we seem to make choices designed to make us miserable rather than happy, and how easy it becomes to justify these choices as necessary or responsible rather than seeing that they\u2019re really inspired by fear. It\u2019s easier to keep crossing items off our lists than to move through the world anticipating joy, even when the items on the list are making us actively unhappy. I especially admire these lines: \u201cDecide it\u2019s okay you never see \/ Prague. Work late for no reason. \/ Turn down the music. Keep your shoulders \/ hunched in case of unexpected attack.\u201d Reading them reminds me to do the opposite, for which I\u2019m grateful to their author.<\/p>\n

Thanks for the interview, Carrie!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Laura Maylene Walter, Fiction Editor<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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