I'm very pleased to share the following interview with Tom C. Hunley. Recently, Logan House released his third full-length collection, Octopus. He also published The Tongue (Wind Publications) and Still, There's a Glimmer (WordTech Editions) in 2004, in addition to three chapbook collections.
When he's not writing poetry, he's an assistant professor at Western Kentucky University and the director of Steel Toe Books. Plus, he never misses an opportunity to mention that he's a devoted husband to his wife Ralaina and doting father to Evan, Owen, and Blake.
Here's a poem from Octopus that I especially enjoyed (which Tom has pointed out was recently read by Garrison Keiller on October 26 at http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2008/10/26):
The Dental Hygienist
She said "open up,"
so I showed her my teeth,
a chipped-white fence
that keeps my tongue penned in.
She rinsed my mouth.
She suctioned my cheek.
She said "How do you like this town?"
so I said "Mmpllff,"
though I meant "More every day,"
and she said "Gorgeous weather!"
so I said "Mmpllff"
though I meant "In my mouth?"
and she didn't say anything,
so I said "Mmpllff" and "Mmpllff"
though I'm not sure what I meant,
and she took me to mean
"Would you like to go out tonight?"
and "to an expensive restaurant?"
When I arrived with a bouquet of roses,
she stuffed them in my mouth.
She told me all about her feelings:
how she feels about fillings,
how she feels about failures.
She said "open up."
She said "It's like pulling teeth
trying to get men to talk about their feelings."
So I said "Mmpllff,"
though I meant "You smell prettier than the flowers in my mouth,"
and I said "Mmpllff,"
though I meant "I'm afraid of dying alone."
She said I was a good conversationalist
and showed me her perfect teeth.
I felt an ache in my jaw.
I felt drool crawling down my chin.
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And with that, let's get into the interview:
What are you currently up to?
When I'm not looking after my three small kids or my 85 not-so-small students, I'm mostly working on a poetry writing textbook tentatively titled The Poetry Gymnasium: Ninety-Five Poem-Strengthening Exercises. In my experience, most poetry writing textbooks treat exercises sort of as afterthoughts. My textbook-in-progress includes a clear learning objective for each exercise, a little historical background on the poetic subgenre the exercise aims to teach, a clear rationale for each particular exercise, model published poems, and poems written by my students using each exercise. It is the follow-up to my theoretical book, Teaching Poetry Writing: A Five-Canon Approach, and like that book, it uses the five canons of classical rhetoric (invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery) as an organizing principle. I've been at it for almost two years, and I hope to begin shopping it in a few months.
You're the director of Steel Toe Books and accept manuscripts during open submission periods. What's the most common mistake poets make when submitting?
Failing to follow guidelines. For example, in October we advertised an open reading period for predominately formal verse, but many poets sent us manuscripts that were written primarily in free verse.
In your opinion, what makes a good collection?
Arranging poems into a collection is a lot like arranging lines into a poem. I think there should be the same kind of movement, from problem to solution, from buildup to crescendo, from exposition to denouement, whatever it may be. I also find it helpful to think of a book as a concept album. I have an exercise in my textbook-in-process that asks students to analyze the way an album like Tommy or The Marshall Mathers LP or Electric Ladyland is organized. Why does one track follow the next? How would the album be enhanced or damaged if one song were moved or taken out? Then I ask them to discover an organizing principle and try applying it to a chapbook of their own poems.
Octopus won the 2007 Holland Prize from Logan House. Do you usually enter contests, wait for open submission periods, or take a by-any-means-necessary approach to shopping a completed manuscript?
I would like to see presses put more of their energies into sales and less of their energies into running contests. I would also like to see poets put their money into buying poetry books rather than spending it on contest fees.
My first two full-length collections, The Tongue and Still, There's a Glimmer, were both published in 2004 by presses that do not run contests (Wind Publications and WordTech Editions, respectively). I am grateful to those editors, Charlie Hughes at Wind and Kevin Walzer and Lori Jareo at WordTech, not only for publishing my books but also for teaching me a good deal about the business end small-press publishing.
I won Pecan Grove Press's chapbook contest for My Life as a Minor Character (2005). I submitted to them because I had heard good things about the editors, Palmer Hall and Louie Cortez, from a couple acquaintances who had published with them.
Then I entered the Holland Prize because I got a kick out of Logan House Press's web site (http://www.loganhousepress.com). I liked the fact that they once had an "Imagining Editor," rather than a managing editor (Jim Reese, who has since moved on). The current editors, cowboy poet JV Brummels and musician/book designer Eddie Elfers, are clearly enjoying what they're doing, which was evident from the web site. Also, I liked the fact that they sell books through a subscription service called the Live Poets Society, and I like the fact that everyone who enters the contest gets a copy of the winning book; that's a win-win for the published poet and for everyone who enters the contest.
Some of your poems in Octopus (such as "Ism-Ism" and "Interdisciplinary Studies") deal with big ideas in a pretty direct way. Such poems often run the risk of getting too abstract so that the reader is not drawn into the poem, but yours work. Why do you think yours do work?
First of all, thanks. I suppose the key is finding a good hook that gets both the writer and the reader into the poem. In both cases, I didn't start out with big ideas; I started with an image which I built on and riffed off until the big issues sort of emerged out of my unconscious.
Do you have any poetic pet peeves?
I don't like poems without any clear ideas, poems without any clear emotions, humorless poems, poems that pretend to be smarter or dumber than they are, poems that disdain their audiences, political poetry that puts politics first and poetry a distant second, religious poetry that puts religion first and poetry a distant second, or poems where the poet pretends to be taking great risks but is in fact preaching to some choir. That seems to be a long list, I know, but actually my tastes are pretty eclectic; I'm open to all sorts of poetry and I'm glad there's so much diversity of style.
Who are you currently reading?
As book review editor of Poemeleon, I'm currently reading Manthology, a
2006 University of Iowa Press gathering of both male and female poets discussing the male experience. There are great poems in it by Stephen Dunn, Jane Hirshfield, Sharon Doubiago, Norman Dubie, Jeffrey Harrison, and others. I also just finished Kim Addonizio's collection What Is This Thing Called Love, which is so beautiful and poignant and bluesy.
I just finished teaching A Confederacy of Dunces which I find brilliant and hilarious but which many of my students find annoying and confusing. I just began A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, and so far I'm enjoying its formal inventiveness while also finding deep, authentic feeling in it.
If you could pass on only one piece of advice to fellow poets, what would it be?
Read as many other poets as you can. Buy their books. Get in touch with them. Learn from as many people as you can.
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To learn more about Tom C. Hunley, you can check out his bio through the Steel Toe Books website at http://www.wku.edu/~tom.hunley/steeltoebooks/.
And here are some of his poems found online:
* From Verse Daily
* From storySouth
* From Gumball Poetry
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