It’s A Book Thing Presents: An Interview with Matilda Young, co-author of I (want to) love you, Baltimore
Author’s
Bio: Matilda Young (she/they) is a poet with an M.F.A. in Poetry from
the University of Maryland. She has been published in several journals,
including Anatolios Magazine, Angel City Review, and Entropy
Magazine’s Blackcackle. She enjoys Edgar Allan Poe jokes, not being in her
apartment, and being obnoxious about the benefits of stovetop popcorn.
Deliah
Lawrence: What inspired you to write your book?
Matilda
Young: This spring, I was selected as one of Yellow Arrow’s 2022 Writers
in Residence. I had the privilege of collaborating with three amazing writers
and the great team at Yellow Arrow. The chapbook came together around the theme
of Catrice Greer’s fabulous poem “I Want to Love You, Baltimore.” I think of
our book as a complicated love letter to a complicated, lovely city. I’ve
learned so much from Catrice, Arao, and Amy. It was such a joy to be part of
this true fellowship of writers, and I am so grateful to Yellow Arrow for the
opportunity.
DL: How do you handle writer’s block?
MY: I have a
couple of tactics. One of my favorites is to do a poetry marathon. Inspired by
Tupelo Press’s 30/30 Project, I write a poem a day in April.
Since 2020, I’ve been inviting other poets and writers to join me. I encourage
folks to share the opportunity with their friends, so I’ve gotten to write alongside
poets and writers I’ve never met before. I share a brief prompt for each day,
and we all share what we write each day in a giant, sprawling series of google
docs. The time pressure helps me be generative, and I get so inspired and fired
up by my collaborators.
DL: What was the best writing advice you’ve ever been given?
MY: My
favorite writing advice comes from one of my favorite poems,“Berryman,” by W.S. Merwin. The young poet asks
how you can know if anything you write is ever good. And Berryman responds,
“you can’t you can never be sure / you die without knowing / whether anything
you wrote was any good if you
have to be sure don’t write.” I find this ultimately really liberating. It
reminds me to focus on the process and the joy I find in writing and letting go
of expectations – mine and other people’s.
DL: If you were hosting a dinner party which three authors would be your
dream guests and why?
MY: I’d love
to sit down with Ross Gay and Aimee Nezhukumatathil. I admire them both as
individual writers, and they wrote a wonderful collaborative chapbook about their gardens.
I want to hear about their process, what they’re writing now, and what they’re
growing. I will cheat and say I’d invite two other poets I know to join us,
Sara Burnett and Rachel Carstens, who are my first readers, my writing
cheerleaders, and wonderful gardener poets themselves.
DL: What
tips would you give to aspiring writers?
MY: Don’t get
discouraged by rejection when you start sending stuff out. It will likely
happen a lot. I like the “try to get 100 rejections in a year” goal which some
brilliant person on the Internet suggested. If you need to take a break from
sending stuff out for a bit, that’s totally fine! But don’t get daunted or
deterred. Just keep doing great work and sharing it with the world.
DL: What
do you like to do when you are not writing?
MY: I love
rock climbing, going on walks with friends, baking, and dancing. I love seeing
people perform, and I love performing as well. What keeps me going is the
connections I have with friends and family and my broader communities.
DL: What
are three things you can’t live without?
MY: Good
company, good books, and good cheese.
DL: Would
you like to share an excerpt from I (want) to love you, Baltimore?
MY: Sure, here
you go:
Kintsugi
At an
exhibit on Kyoto at the Met,
My young friend
Alice told me
how
artists will take broken
shards of
porcelain, misfired,
fractured
by table corners
and wrong
footedness, and make
them whole
again with lacquer
mixed with
heated lines of gold.
Who am I
then – in the story where
I stayed,
commuting nowhere,
Baltimore
with a window that opens
in
grudging inches, aches that never go
away in
that bad ankle on a cold hard
Tuesday at
3 am. Across from a parking
lot where
the tow truck’s lights gleam
in steady
patterns, ambulances’
visitations,
still unfixed, cypresses
baring
themselves to December,
cartilage
clacking in the cold.
At the
Met, the gleaming stag stood
before us
at the heart of the exhibit,
transformed
into a messenger
whose
element was mirrors, rows
of
ornaments impossibly lit within.
I wanted
to run my hands
over the
glass. I wanted to be
the person
who believed in repair,
clean
breakages.
DL: What
new projects are you currently working on?
MY: I’m
currently working on a chapbook called Women and Other Monsters. I love
writing persona poems, and I’ve written a lot from the perspective of women
monsters, villains, and anti-heroes. In these poems, I get to be someone else
for a bit. And I get to explore ideas around myth, gender, queerness, history
and more.
DL: Where
can readers learn more about you and purchase your book(s)?
MY: Readers can
get more information here:
Website: https://www.yellowarrowpublishing.com/store/love-you-baltimore-wir-2022-paperback
DL: Thanks so
much for being here with us today. I know my readers will enjoy getting to know
you and your work.
MY: Thanks so
much! Greatly appreciate the opportunity!
Originally Published on https://vocalexpressions.blogspot.com
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