Posts tagged press

Megan Falley tagged me in an online project called “The Next Big Thing” where writers with a recent or forthcoming book answer a series of questions, and then tag other writers to do the same. :)

WHAT IS THE TITLE OF THE BOOK?

“The Life and Times of Susie Knuckles.” Susie Knuckles is my alter ego, and basically just the part of me who is going to be a rapper in my next life. I think in the process of writing the book, Susie Knuckles was functioning as my conscience, that voice in my head that is stronger than actual Safia and would say “you’re being an idiot” at times when I was too busy being an idiot to admit that I was being an idiot. I felt myself getting stuck in a rut when I was working on the manuscript, and introducing the Susie Knuckles voice helped me look at some of the poems that were just not working in a new way. That voice isn’t necessarily in every poem in the book, but I think Susie Knuckles is the element tying a lot of the poems together…so, “The Life and Times of Susie Knuckles.”

WHERE DID THE IDEA COME FROM FOR THE BOOK?

Before this book, I’d self-published a chapbook full of sad poems about my ethnic-girl problems, and I feel like a lot of my performed work is sort of in the same vein, so I wanted my next book to make room for some other aspects of my life and personality. I love Wu-Tang, and the whole notion of having multiple alter-egos, so I definitely wanted there to be an element of different voices coming together to tell one cohesive story. I also wanted to work on writing poetry that was less serious but still cathartic, and that was just WEIRDER than the stuff I’d been putting out before. The book got finished because I finally started letting myself be strange instead of just being this human wound in all my work. 

WHAT GENRE DOES YOUR BOOK FALL UNDER?

Grimy 90’s hip hop meets nursery rhyme?

WHAT ACTORS WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO PLAY THE CHARACTERS OF THE BOOK IN A MOVIE RENDITION?

Hahaha I love this. I think I’d want the movie to be animated so it would really just be who would do the voices. I’d want the voice of The Boy to be Andre 3000 because SWOON, obviously, and Susie Knuckles to be whoever does the voices for Alvin and the Chipmunks, or Lil’ Kim, or the little girl from Beasts of the Southern Wild because in my mind Susie Knuckles is a rapper and a little girl at the same time. I’d want Padma Lakshmi from Top Chef to do my voice because her voice is so soothing that I mostly just wish that my speaking voice sounded like that. I’d want Miles Davis’ trumpet to be voiced by Chandra Wilson, who plays Miranda Bailey on Grey’s Anatomy because I just imagine that my voice of reason sounds like her.  And I’d want Ol’ Dirty Bastard to play Ol’ Dirty Bastard, because it would just be wrong any other way.

WHAT IS THE ONE-SENTENCE SYNOPSIS OF YOUR BOOK?

A heartbreak is cured with help from a supporting cast of dead rappers and inanimate objects.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO WRITE THE FIRST DRAFT OF YOUR MANUSCRIPT?

About a year, then I ended up completely scrapping that draft, not touching the manuscript for a few months, then coming back and starting from scratch. All in all the process took about two years, even though I really just spent the last few months messing with the margins and feeling lots of feelings about commas and negative space and “how the poems look on the page” and all other sorts of lunacy. 

WHO OR WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS BOOK?

Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and the character of Miss Peach in Catie Rosemurgy’s “The Stranger Manual”

IS YOUR BOOK SELF-PUBLISHED OR REPRESENTED BY AN AGENCY?

My book is published by Well&Often Press (www.wellandoftenpress.com) and they have just been so wonderful (by which I mean they are my fairy godparents)

My next tagged poets: (check them out!)

Aziza Barnes, Nate Mondschein, Rose McAleese

I will be featuring at Busboys & Poets on Monday and Tuesday night next week (1/21 and 1/22)

Monday at Busboys & Poets in Shirlington, 8pm-10pm 

4251 South Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA 22206

Tuesday at Busboys & Poets 14th & V, 9pm-11pm

2021 14th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009

and if you can’t make it, you can watch the live stream here:

http://busboysandpoets.com/videos/live-streaming

i will also be selling copies of my book, The Life and Times of Susie Knuckles (which we will be restocking online soon i promise!)

see you there, right??

:)

caitsmeissner:

Check out the immense talent we’ve gathered as contributors the online lit mag, The Well&Often Reader. We are hosting a live version of the magazine on December 18, 2012 at La MaMa Experimental Theater (8pm)… for $10! You won’t want to miss this. Trust me. Here’s the who’s who of the fantastic evening: 

-

HOST BIOGRAPHIES:

Caits Meissner is a multi-disciplinary storyteller and arts educator. Winner of the OneWorld Poetry Contest, Caits studied under Yusef Komunyakaa at the  2008 inaugural Pan-African Literary Forum in Ghana. She has been published in various literary journals and books, including Saul Williams’ anthology, CHORUS. Her poetry/music EP, The Wolf & Me, was released in May 2010 to acclaim on websites such as Okayplayer. The Letter All Your Friends Have Written You, Caits’ collaborative poetry book with poet Tishon, arrived January 10, 2012 on the Well&Often imprint, a press and online literary magazine where she also serves as a Founding Editor.

Tishon is a designer, writer and poet who has read his work at Bowery Poetry Club, Nuyorican, The Blue Note, LouderARTS Reading Series, La MaMa and other venues in New York and New Jersey. His first book of poems, The Letter All Your Friends Have Written You, which he cowrote with poet Caits Meissner, was published in January 2012. Tishon is the founder and creative director of Well&Often press. 

POET BIOGRAPHIES:

Safia Elhillo is Sudanese by way of Washington, D.C., by way of Brooklyn, and is currently a senior at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a concentration in “Poetry as a Tool for Therapy” and a minor in Middle Eastern Studies. Safia has performed at venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and the New Amsterdam Theater on Broadway, and has shared the stage with ?uestlove and Black Thought of The Roots, Gil Scott-Heron, The Last Poets, and Sonia Sanchez. She is a founding member of Slam NYU, the 2012 national collegiate championship team, and was a three-time member and former coach of the DC Youth Slam Poetry team. Safia was a finalist in the 2011 Women of the World Poetry Slam, and is currently working on her second chapbook, “The Life and Times of Susie Knuckles”.

Camonghne Felix was featured on HBO’s Brave New Voices as a member of the Urban Word 2010 team, who became the 2010 National Brave New Voices Champions. She is currently (2011) the 17th slam ranked poet in the world. In early 2011, Camonghne opened for esteemed writer Sapphire, author of the book PUSH and has been honored to share stages with Talib Kweli, Common, Rosario Dawson, Mahogany L Browne, and La Bruja. In November of 2011 she was profiled in The Forward as a Young Jewish Philanthropic Hero. You can find her work in various publications, including Pank Magazine and Kill Author Magazine. She writes about the small things that happen when we’ve stopped looking.

Read more …