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The Next Big Thing: Joshua Ware

The poet Joshua Ware asked me to post his self-interview. Check out his blog, and get his book Homage to Homage to Homage to Creeley, which is great.

What is the working title of the book?

The title of my forthcoming chapbook is Imaginary Portraits.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The title of this chapbook comes from Walter Pater’s book of the same name. The general concept of the collection stemmed from imaginary explorations of real events and conversations with another poet.

What genre does your book fall under?

Poetry.

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

Since one of the poems deals directly with the Arthur Miller penned film The Misfits (1961), starring Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, and Montgomery Clift, those three would make sense. But they’re all dead. So maybe James Franco, my brother, and Selma Hayek (my celebrity crush).

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Imaginary You is a meditation on love, pronouns, the imagination, and the complex relationship between the three.

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

I wrote the first draft of these poems from April 2011 through May 2011. I’m a chronic revisionist, so I’ve worked on these poems as recently as last week.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Several things acted as inspiration for Imaginary Portraits, most prominently an amazing and beautiful poet I fell in love with at the time. Other sources of inspiration are: Ted Berrigan’s “Red Shift” (specifically, the recording of the poem found on PennSound), the aforementioned film The Misfits and Pater’s Imaginary You, Michael Earl Craig’s “Bluebirds,” Tina Brown Celona’s unpublished chapbook My Cat Jeffrey, Wallace Stevens’ “Snowman” and “The Idea of Order in Key West,” Joanna Klink’s “Lodestar,” and William Carlos Williams’ “The Red Wheelbarrow.”

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

Well, individual poems appeared in Country Music, diode, and The Journal; while the collection these poems come from, titled Imaginary You, was named a finalist for last year’s National Poetry Series, Cleveland State Open Book Competition, Akron Poetry Prize, and Coconut Books’ Braddock Prize. If you find these journals and presses interesting and appreciate their editorial tastes and aesthetic choices, then you’ll probably like these poems.

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

Greying Ghost Press will release Imaginary Portraits soon, probably in the next couple months. Carl puts together great artifacts and possesses a terrific editorial eye, so I’m very happy that he selected these poems. To my mind, Greying Ghost has been one of the best chapbook publishers putting out work over the past several years. I’m pleased with its home.

New Chapbook

Very excited that How We Remake the World: A Concise History of Everything, a collaborative chapbook I wrote with the venerable Joshua Ware, is now out from Slope Editions as their first chapbook! Inside, you’ll find all kinds of facts, lies, and everything in between. Click here to investigate/buy.

Joshua Ware reviews my chapbook…

…and says some really nice things about the “A Weather” sequence. He recorded me reading two poems. Check it out on his blog.

“…I steal from Walgreens…”

Joshua Ware discusses his photography and collaging in this interview at Open Letters Monthly.

“Alessandrelli overlays his penchant for bathing upon his Erik Satie”

Check it out: Joshua Ware reviews Jeff Alessandrelli’s Erik Satie Watusies His Way into Sound up on HTMLGiant.