Circles of Influence: Thoughts on Community

Rashaan Alexis Meneses posted this today on Facebook and posed this question: “How you might draw a diagram of your own circle of influence? Who would be in yours?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to Maria Popov who collaborated with Michelle Legro and Wendy MacNaughton on this diagram for Longshot Magazine, Circles of Influences is “a visualization of literary, scientific and artistic influences. It’s designed to illustrate the enormous creative indebtedness that permeates humanity’s proudest intellectual output, while also demonstrating the cross-pollination of disciplines across science, art, literature, film and music.”

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Below is my Circle of Influence (thank you, Paint!).  Instead of renowned white male literary figureheads dominating my circle, there are writing communities such as Kundiman and the PEN Emerging Voices Fellowship, which have shaken up my world, splashed a bucket of icewater on my head, and said, YOU!  These communities have expanded my worldview, poetics, process, life.  There are teachers, mentors, fellow “emerging” writers (who are the heart/soul of these communities), the first Pinay writers I read, the first writers who I loved first.  There isn’t enough space for all of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve linked the different writers and artists in my circle by community: where I was when I first met/read them, who influenced/influences their work, other communities in which they belong and overlap.

I forgot to mention The Blood-Jet Writing Hour, a place where I try to link all of these communities and influences.

Pearl Buck, author of The Good Earth, is here.  She was the one of the first writers who pissed me off when I encountered her in high school.  Her stereotypes of Asian folks, her limited scope, her access to a world and a community that didn’t belong to her.

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Last night, I met with the former 2009 Emerging Voices Fellows (now MMIX Writers Los Angeles) at Sylvia and Bonnie’s house for our not-so-regular potluck and sharing of work.  We ate our usual Trader Joe’s pizza and drank sangria. We sat on Sylvia’s brilliant red couch to read last chapters of novels and memoirs, fresh poems, a new collection of photographs.  Projects we began at the PEN Fellowship are being revised and close to finished.

I shared poems inspired by Sylvia’s photography collection, “I forget myself (I forget you).”  A true mix.  Many of us have/are attending conferences and residencies frequently, or signing up for the MFA, or getting promoted at work.  This was the first community where I truly found home, and I’m grateful to come back and shake my head and laugh at how fast time flies.

Cacti & Other Updates

Four brand-new cacti gracing my window sill

I think I’m settled in now.  I have about a gazillion books checked out from the UC Riverside Library; I made tatertot casserole and apple pie for new friends in my MFA program; I take the bus for free; new friends and I have a “table” at the local Pho place.  It feels good to be writing lots and lots.  Even though the lots and lots turn out to be mostly crap, it’s good practice, plus it’s fun.  And as it turns out, I’m challenged everyday by new friends, professors, the writers/poets I’ve been reading.  I’ve written my first fiction piece (ahh!), and I remembered how nice it is to have that beginner’s mindset.  There’s tons of risk involved, and you don’t know if it’s good or not but you just keep writing to see what happens.  I sometimes miss that in poetry.  Occasionally when I start a new poem, I have a lot of expectations of what should be on the page.   So, it’s refreshing to not have that in prose.

Okay, here are a list of work/poetry things I’ve been thinking about recently (I apologize — this might be more for me than for you, reader, though maybe you can answer some of my questions):

*ASWANG PROJECT.  Is it appropriate to workshop poems from a larger series of poems?  I understand that poems should stand alone, but must EVERY poem need to summarize or define what the aswang is or detail the world in which the poem is set?

*MANUSCRIPT?  I’ve just re-read Barbara Jane Reyes’s post on the “doneness” of poetry manuscripts on her blog here, which she wrote in response to a question I had.  I’ve sent out a manuscript to a dear Kundiman friend and am planning to send it out to others.  I had originally planned on writing an entire book on the aswang, but now I’m not so sure.  Maybe I’ve been sitting on these poems for too long?  Some of the poems I’ve lightly revised, but now I feel like they’re too dusty to even touch.  I’ve been writing a lot of non-aswang poems and wonder where these poems will go.  Lots of questions on this.

*THE BLOOD-JET.  I’ve put the radio show on hold, since I’m back in school, but I’ve now finally found some time to broadcast it.  I’m excited to talk to Aimee Suzara, writer and performer, about her new play, A History of the Body.  She’ll be on the show this Wednesday morning.  Check it out.  I’m still planning the Fall/Winter schedule, and it’ll be fun to get into the full swing of things again.

*BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS.  I’m taking a craft of fiction class, and I often feel like I know nothing, which is good because this means I need to read more.

Here’s my short list:

-THE ENGLISH PATIENT by Michael Ondaatje

-THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy

-DRINKING COFFEE ELSEWHERE by ZZ Packer

-INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri (I’m re-reading this)

-Both books by Junot Diaz (re-reading)

-SAG HARBOR by Colson Whitehead (Thanks to Rio)

-suggestions?

*AND, YAY.  I’ve just signed up for winter quarter classes, and wow, the time just zips by.  I realize how lucky I am to be writing full-time.  Most people don’t get to do this.  I hear it all the time — the two years in grad school go by quickly– and I want to take full advantage of it.

Things that Renew My Writing

and me.

A list:

-Flashes of observations on a bike ride.  A couple in a green Jeep making out near Stoner Park, purple flowers overtaking an apartment facade like ivy, a black shaggy dog with a branch between his teeth, a coffee table without a surface on the sidewalk.  Not realizing how far I’m going until I’m there.

-The Blood-Jet.  Being able to thank writers for their work.

-A fresh pair of sunglasses that remind me of owls.

-A meal with family.

Hibernation

As I wedge in time to write poems in the morning before commuting to work, or the small break between my jobs, I find the “poem-a-day” a lot more challenging this time around.  I see poems in the mystery books I file away on dusty shelves, in the brightly colored calaveras (skulls) my students are making for Dia de Los Muertos.   As the seasons distinctly change, I feel it too.  Sometimes this means more time in bed.  Which hopefully means, more writing in bed, and not hibernation.

I’ve been flipping through Jeffrey Yang’s An Aquarium, which I hope will spark some aswang stuff.  I’ve also been reading through Letters to Poets (ed. Jennifer Firestone and Dana Teen Lomax), which is a really great anthology with the actual emails/letters between veteran and emerging poets.  It’s been helpful in thinking about The Blood-Jet, too.

Exercise

Speaking with poet Rachel McKibbens last week on “The Blood-Jet” was refreshing and timely.

I never laughed/giggled so hard on the radio show before, and I remembered that poetry is about communion with writers we’ve never met (and in many cases, we’ll never meet) and that it is FUN sometimes.

Prior to Oscar Bermeo’s recommendation, I had never heard of Rachel before.  We talked briefly on the show about writing exercises on her website and fresh ways to approach poetry.  Definitely check out her website. Find some of the exercises on her blog and write!

More daily poems coming soon….

Fall Season of “The Blood-Jet”!

I’ve been working towards compiling the fall season of “The Blood-Jet” and I’m excited!

I’m still trying to get more writers on the show, and it’s been an arduous process figuring out dates, review copies, etc with editors and writers, but very rewarding.   Thanks to Oscar Bermeo for suggesting Rachel McKibbens’ new collection of poems Pink Elephant. I’ve just started reading the PDF copy that Cypher Books sent me, and so far, it’s quite an honest and unforgiving collection, which I like.

Check out “The Blood-Jet” website.  And please, do suggest more writers for the show!

New Apartment

It has built-in bookshelves inside the closet! (I’m told they’re meant for clothes).

Nope, books.

I will have limited internet access for a bit, but I will try to steal some internet time at work!

In the meantime, I’ve been working on a post-Emerging Voices post for the PAWA blog, corresponding with authors and publishers for my radio show “The Blood-Jet” and unpacking.

So far, on the fall calendar for “The Blood-Jet,” I have Jayne Cortez and Kim Addonizio.

I’m still looking for more folks to interview.  Which writers do you recommend I bring on the radio show?  I’m open, and like a mixed bag of writers who’ve been around for a while and emerging writers.

Feel free to comment!

The Blood-Jet Writing Hour

Today with Barbara Jane Reyes at 10 am PST!

If you don’t already know:

http://thebloodjet.wordpress.com/