The Next Big Thing: Melanie Noel's "The Monarchs"

 

 What is the working title of the book?

The Monarchs

 

Where did the idea come from for the book?

California?  The fortune teller in Cleo from 5 to 7.  Yuri Norstein.  Grin Without a Cat.

What genre does your book fall under?

Mime, and poetry.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Yolande Moureux, Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin, and Charlotte, from Charlotte's 

Web 

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

What is higher innocence?

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

about 8 years

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Sounds and second-hand stories of places (Lake Erie, the Arctic and Chernobyl are three; inspire might be the wrong word).   My nephew Evren’s birth, which I witnessed.  Lost things.  Subtitles and images from films inspire me.  Heartbreak.  Conversations and exchanging work with friends, particularly Heide Hinrichs, with whom I talk often, whose work I love (she's a visual artist).

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Heide created the artwork for the cover.  She worked with some of the lines from a painting by another dear friend, Bob Gronhovd.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Lori Anderson-Moseman, the wonderful poet and publisher of Stockport Flats Press, publishedThe Monarchs as a part of her Meander Scar series.  I love the books in the series, and am honored to be included.

My tagged writers for next Wednesday are:

Laura Neuman, Karena Youtz, Cody Rose-Clevidence, Matthew Klane, Giovanni Singleton

The Next Big Thing

     

A friend of mine here in Denver, the poet Serena Chopra, recently tagged me for "The Next Big Thing." This, if you don't already know, is an entire internets worth of poets responding to a specific set of questions about their recent publications. Then, because we're curious, and because we want to help and support each other, and because we require help and support from each other, we ask our friends to do the same. Here, for better and for worse, are answers.

_________

What is the title of the book? 
“North of Order”

Where did the idea come from for the book? 
The book came into itself because I was living in a specific place and point in time, writing for, or rather toward, a specific person in a very different but equally specific place. I wanted to bring both her and the world which kept us distant into reach. The book tries and fails to do this, over and over, without end.

What genre does your book fall under? 
A poem, the book is one long poem.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition? 
This question is offensive.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book? 
This question is equally offensive.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript? 
Two months, at least initially, but then it took three years.

Who or what inspired you to write this book? 
The desire, which is human, to listen to and speak of what is (and isn’t) there (“perfectly, in this material”).

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? 
Justin Boening, whose own work is incredibly remarkable (really, seek it out), helped me edit the thing in more ways than I can ever give him credit for.  Really, the book was stuck and he got in there and hauled the thing up out of the mud.  


Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? 
The book will be published this September by YesYes books, for which I am very, very grateful. 

My tagged authors for next week are Melanie Noel and Nicholas Butler