Ryan Call: Your bio says that you’re at work on a memoir. Perhaps this is too simple or odd of a question: will that memoir concern itself with MS (among other things), and how, if at all, do you find the writing of memoir/creative nonfiction to reach at the concept of ‘the suffering body’ in a way that is different than how your poetry (especially the poems from Veil and Burn) does so?

Laurie Clements Lambeth: I think both genres can cover the same territory but differently. In my Literature and Medicine class we’ve adopted a term from Lorrie Moore’s story, “People Like That Are the Only People Here”: collateral beauty. I hope that’s sort of what I am doing in both my poetry and nonfiction, but reaching it in different ways. In nonfiction I have the room to sprawl, to toss a salad of vignettes and science and discussion of art and language and film, of learning about the body and conceptualizing it, speaking to fears I may have about certain MS symptoms, or narrating the experience of MS. In poetry things are far more compressed, and some subjects seem to risk melodrama in a poem, whereas in an essay or memoir chapter they can breathe more. In between poems in Veil and Burn are lyric prose fragments about vision loss due to an MS attack, and about urinary incontinence, things that need to be in a different language, starker, than poems. I took those fragments–literally cut them out, sometimes cutting within them and changing the order–from essays of mine, one of which appeared in The Iowa Review and was runner-up for their Iowa Award in nonfiction. Then, in the fragments I tightened and tightened the language so that the fragments could brush against the poems and create a sense of juxtaposition. The fragments, though, perform a different function than they do within the essay. I still plan to include that essay in the memoir; it’s what drew my agent to my work and compelled her to find me. And I am quite attracted to the different ways we can tell the same stories and how they change.

Notice I’m talking about essays, too . . . I really want to work against chronology in the memoir, because that is so expected in illness narratives: I got sick, I got sicker, and then I died. Or then I got better. Perhaps it could be one of those choose your own adventure books . . . turn to page 80 for death but 60 for a cure. Anyway, for me, while my MS has worsened over the past 25 years (I got it when I was a teenager, but perhaps even earlier–we’ll never know; there is no real beginning to the story), but it’s just a series of relapses and remissions. Since there is no cure, I can’t really have that kind of happy ending, nor do I feel I need or want it, but I can consider the illness from different angles and craft moments of collateral beauty.

RC: Have you ‘shifted’ your poetry with this next collection? In other words, how do you feel your sense of language and focus has changed (if at all) with time? I’m interested in this idea that my writing and ability to work with language is shifting as I experience life, and my experiences allow me to write certain stories, but they also naturally cut of my ability to write others. What are your thoughts on this?

LCL: I used to place greater faith in metaphor and a sort of surreal sensibility that I do miss–that certainty that occupied my poems in my 20s. But my poems grew in other areas and deepened in complexity. Since Veil and Burn, I am seeing new shapes in my poetry, but also there will be poems in the next collection that are in conversation with ones in the first. For example, I have a poem entitled “Hypoesthesia” in Veil and Burn, which focuses on the inability to feel through the skin in the most intimate situations. But after that book was published I experienced dysaesthesia, which is feeling wrongly–an intense feeling of sparks or burning or the presence of something like sandpaper rubbing against the skin randomly, without source. So I wrote a poem about that. I often read them together, and they are together in an anthology that came out last year, Beauty Is a Verb, but they will go into their own respective collections. I used to ride and train horses, and I no longer do for various reasons, so a major subject of my older poems is no longer available to me except through memory. I do find myself writing about childhood games and childhood in general, lately, and I’m working on a sequence focusing on minor female characters–not the love interests–of Hitchcock films.

RC: You received both an MFA and a PhD from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program; what, if any, advice might you give to other writers interested in applying to creative writing programs? What drew you to the program at UH in particular, and how have you liked the city since you’ve been here? (I only ask this question because I saw that you’re not a native Houstonian; neither am I, though my wife is. I moved here in 2008.)

LCL: Ryan, I think I’m still here for a similar reason as you are: my husband has a good job here, so we’ve stayed. Neither of us are native Houstonians, though. He’s from England and I’m from California. I came to UH because a) it was the only creative writing program I applied to that accepted me, although Iowa put me on their waiting list, and b) it was considered the #2 program in the country at the time. I learned a lot, read a lot, and grew so much as a writer while I was in grad school. When I came back for the doctorate, UH was fairly loose about former students furthering their graduate work, so I just called a faculty member, reapplied, and got in. The poetry faculty changed a lot between the MFA and PhD, so it seemed a lot like I went to 2 programs and had two fantastic mentors, among other great teachers and peers.

I think persistence is necessary when applying to creative writing programs, especially in the current economy when a lot of people are opting for grad school over getting jobs straight out of college. It’s competitive.  So is publishing. I think that writers considering grad school need to think about why they want to go to grad school. If they want to hone their craft, revise better, learn more and have some time to write, I say, go ahead. But if they want to do it in order to get a job or show off, perhaps those aren’t the best reasons.

Personally, Houston is actually bad for my health; heat can drag an MS person into a state of melting, and I have melted and been reconstituted by air conditioning too many times to count. But I think it’s a vibrant city with a lot of great art and culture and food. I think both my husband and I still feel a little like outsiders here, but that suits us both.

RC: Finally, please introduce us to a poet whose writing you admire. Of course, this poet could be a well-known writer or an obscure poet whose writing you feel we should seek out and read anew.

LCL: I love the work of May Swenson (1913-1989), who was incredibly experimental in form, and whose poems have heart and cleverness, without too much leaning on the cleverness. I love her use of language, as though she’s recreating it. It feels so new, even coming to the same poem for the twentieth time. I’m not going to name anyone living because there are just too many great poets whose work I love and who are friends. But Swenson is seldom recognized to the level she deserves.

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Come hear Laurie Clements Lambeth read at this year’s festival at 11:30 a.m.!

Ryan Call: How did you first get in touch with Haneen Alshujairy, and what encouraged you to collaborate on Falcons on the Floor?

Justin Sirois: Haneen was one of 60 or so Iraqis I attempted to interview on a website called Mylanguageexchange. After a few months on interviewing her about her experiences with the war and relocating to Egypt, I revealed that I was working on a novel. At first I was nervous about sharing it with her, not knowing what she might think.  From then on, Haneen became my editor and a consultant on all the work I do relating to the Middle East. I rely on her to authenticate much of the writing, be it dialog or geographical details, language or cultural nuances.

RC: Could you talk a little bit about that collaborative process? I understand you wrote the book together over email. How long did that take you, and what was that like?

JS: With research, outlining, and writing, it took about two years to complete the first draft. And then another year or so to edit it down to something manageable.  The editing process with Haneen felt really natural. I’d email her a 30 word PDF and she’d give me feedback, saying, “An Iraqi woman would never do that.” And “You might want to think about depoliticizing this part…”

RC: How did you and Haneen decide to publish the novel with Publishing Genius?

JS: It was easy to trust Adam Robinson with this project. He knew exactly where to take it, editing the book down a bit and making a few shifts. And Publishing Genius is just a great press. When music people ask me what they’re like, I say well if McSweeney’s is the Sub Pop of indie lit, then Publishing Genius is the Dischord.  I grew up straight edge so I’d rather be with Pub G.

RC: Give us an update on The Understanding Campaign; what’s the latest news for that project?

JS: Right now we’re helping the Iraqi Student Project fundraise to support the students they relocate to the states to study. We’re also blogging as much as we can.

RC: What are you working on next?

JS: A kind of spinoff to Falcons on the Floor. It’s about Salim Abid’s mother, Nisreen, who lives in Baghdad during the Al Mutanabbi Street bombing. The new manuscript is a bit different from Falcons – it’s more violent in some ways, more political, but not partisan. It also explores themes I wanted to touch on in Falcons like the persecution of Iraqi Christians. It’s also nice to have a strong female lead in this new novel.

RC: Bonus Question! How do you pronounce your last name?

JS: Sir-roy-S

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Please stop by for a reading from Justin Sirois at this year’s festival at 12:30 p.m.

Jeffrey Lorien, also known as Dr. Oolong, is owner of Zhi Tea from Austin.  They will be presenting their wonderful arrays of teas at this year’s festival.  Jeffrey was kind enough to interview with Houston Independent Book Festival.

Piyu Sen: Could you please tell us a little about your philosophy at Zhi Tea.

Jeffrey Lorien: Our philosophy is pretty simple. At the end of the day it is all about the customer experience, whether it is a sit down customer enjoying a pot of tea, a new customer learning about teas, a wholesale customer, or online. We strive to create simplicity, encourage wonder, and provide a leaf to cup experience of integrity and quality for everyone that comes in contact with our teas.

PS: As you know, we love supporting our local authors, presses, and journals. We also love supporting our local eateries and beverage companies! How has it been for Zhi so far?

JL: Incredible! Our growth rate has been phenomenal in these first four years, especially considering we have no sales person or sales team. It’s all about word of mouth and diligent community partnering have really spurred our growth. We couldn’t be more pleased.

PS: How do you go about choosing which teas represent your brand? Is it a group effort or an individual journey?

JL: I drive that piece for the most part as it is truly one of my passions. With that said, we do have at least one tea in our line that was either created from one of our team’s vision (like the new lady lavender) or suggested to be added (like a particular oolong).

PS: Tea and literature, what comforts! Do you have any personal tea/book favorites?

JL: We love the book, Tea Chings by The Republic of Tea, as it is a simple primer for the tea newbie. As for books for intermediate or expert tea connoisseurs are harder to come by. The new Four Famous Chinese Teas by Jason Chen is fabulous and highly recommended.

PS: What are you reading at the moment?
JL: Ha! The Steve Jobs biography!

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Please make sure you check our Zhi Tea‘s table at this year’s festivities on April 14th!

Despite its namesake, Gigantic Sequins is not quite the flashy spangle you imagine it would be. In fact, it’s a solid little independent publication that features a diverse collection of poetry, fiction and in the near future, non-fiction. I talked with their poetry editor Sophie Klahr about what makes this bi-annual magazine shine.

Francisco Lo: How does Gigantic Sequins set itself apart from other self-published literary-arts magazine?

Sophie Klahr: We are a black & white journal– at first we hoped to someday publish work in color, but then we really fell for black & white. Each of our issues are uniquely designed; our house designer, Shereen Adel, overlooks the guest designers we bring in for every other issue, & makes sure that the visual aesthetic stays within our vein.

FL: Besides fiction and poetry, art also plays a prominent role in the journal. Can you tell me about the process of picking the right art for each issue?

SK: We don’t choose art based on the pieces we’ve selected– in other words, if we publish a piece about robots, we do not seek out art that has robots in it. We choose to prominently feature art because we don’t believe that the arts should be as disconnected as they sometimes end up being in print.   If we could publish black and white dance, or black and white sound, we just might.

FL: From my understanding, GS is expanding to include non-fiction soon. What can readers expect from future issues?

SK: We took our new non-fiction editor, Ian Carlos Crawford, on board to encourage more non-fiction submissions, and so far it has worked. It seems there’s frequently a good deal of controversy in the literary community about non-fiction, about who owns a fact, what the truth of an experience is, who has the right to write about the experience etc. etc….. it seems there’s always controversy about even what the term “non-fiction” means, and where “memoir” and “lyric essay” sit around/in and/or in relation to it. We’d love to publish writers who are actively engaged with these questions.

FL: What are the advantages of having staff members scattered across country and working primarily through the internet?

SK: With Submittable, the online submissions manager, much of what we do as editors would be done on the internet anyway. However, when one of our editors physically walks into a bookstore to consign our journal and drop off submission flyers, it creates a connection to the local community. that wouldn’t exist if we merely shipped issues around. We use social media more than we might if we were in the same city; Facebook and Twitter have become an integral way of staying in touch. All of us are in major cities – Kim Southwick in Philly, Zach Yontz in Chicago, Ian Carlos Crawford in New York, and Sophie Klahr in Houston – which means that there’s a wide potential for all of the editors to actually place our issues in the hands of readers, and plenty of literary fairs and festivals that we might not get to participate in were the journal based in one place. Lastly, one of the biggest bonuses is ability to host events and represent Gigantic Sequins across the country without having to pay for travel!

FL: Are you selling the new issue in the Houston Indie Book Festival? What else do you hope to do at the festival?

SK: We will be knee-deep in the design process for our 3.2 issue in mid-April, so we will have copies of our 3.1 issue that debuted this winter as well as a number of back issues. As always, we’ll have free stickers available and perhaps some handmade bookmarks! This will be our first year at the Houston Indie Book festival, and our poetry editor Sophie Klahr is excited to be representing Gigantic Sequins, which is currently available at Brazo’s Bookstore and at Kaboom Books. Sophie teaches poetry in the new creative writing program at the High School for Visual for Performing Arts, and has made attending the festival a requirement for all of her students. Hopefully, this will inspire some of these next-generation writers to excited about small journals and presses, and to become active members of Houston’s vibrant literary community.

Among the many local and regional independent publishers exhibiting at this year’s Houston Indie Book Fest will be our own neighbors to the north at Blue Cubicle Press. In adopting a unique and endearing approach to its choices in creative output, Blue Cubicle is committed to providing an artistic outlet to those writers among us seemingly stuck in the world of the mundane–that is, in the world of work and jobs and bills and responsibility. It’s a vehicle for wordsmiths who, in all likelihood, won’t soon be winning their bread by way of the written word, but who continue nonetheless to steadfastly beat down the path of their own literary self-expression. HIBF caught up with Blue Cubicle’s Robin LaBounty and bounced a few questions off of her:

Stewart Hadley: What is Blue Cubicle Press? What is its focus?

Robin LaBounty: BCP is a small press from Plano, Texas, that “supports writers trapped in the daily grind.” We focus on working class literature, mainly through our books and our literary journals, Workers Write! and Overtime. We are also the home of the internationally recognized (and one of the longest running continually published) literary journal, The First Line.

SH: What will you have for display/sale at the Indie Book Fest?

RL: In addition to our three literary journals and books, we’ll have our TFL on Tape podcast CD, t-shirts, David and Gabe’s Baseball and Bookstore zines, and some literary bling.

SH: What kinds of writing do you look for in terms of submissions?

RL: We look for honest and entertaining stories. Though, theme-wise, we are more particular when it comes to Workers Write! and Overtime, the purpose of The First Line is to encourage diversity. For TFL, there are no requirements on style, genre, form, or school of thought.

For more information about Blue Cubicle Press, visit their website at bluecubiclepress.com.

Thanks, Robin! Look forward to seeing you at the Fest!

Adorned with a cover made from recycled fabric, the chap books of the Little Red Leaves Textile Series stand out in the crowd of self-published poetry books. Founder and editor Dawn Pendergast, who is involved with every step of the book-making process, puts together a collection of poems by one author in each issue that is usually accompanied by artwork that is also one of its kind. I sat down with Dawn to chat about her labor of love.

How many chap books are there in this series and how do you promote them?

I try to do at least one book a month. I’m involved with every part of the process and do everything on my free time. I used to do runs at 50 and that proved to be a stupid idea because they are sold out pretty quickly. This year I started doing prints at 200 because doing 50 because you’re going to sell the books really fast and not everybody’s gonna get the book. I sell 100% [of the books] online, market through poetry listserv and email list.

What made you decide to bring sewing and poetry together?

I actually don’t sew anything but these books. I don’t make clothes or anything. When I think about a small press, especially a chap book-size kind of book, I want it to be tactile and special in some way. The majority of many poets’ work doesn’t usually come as monster-size 80-page poems. They are more likely to be 10 to 30 pages. I respect the feeling of creating its own case for that type of experience. It is something a little more special than a staple and easier than stab binding— the part that is a lot more time consuming than running the sewing machine down the pages. But you need cloth or some kind of good backing if you were going to do that. That was what I decided on and I started like how you can do so much with fabric. Also, because I work with remnant fabric, sometimes the same book may have a slightly different cover because I would run out of the fabric and I won’t be able to find it again. I’ve got to the point that it’s getting hard to find remnant [fabric] because I’m doing bigger runs now.

Besides the cover, each book also brings in another form to compliment the poems, such as scientific drawings of insects in one and tiny photo slides in another. How does the concept of each book come together?

The first one I did was just a straight shot— just poems on a page—and there’s nothing special about it, though I found some interior fabric to match the poem. But from the next book on, I was working on adding another element to these poems, which are not poems that you would understand immediately and they each have a certain kind of textural quality that I want to bring out on the page. In the case of Jimmy Lo, he sent me the poems with these pictures he took with a microscope. So I decided to publish the poems with the tiny pictures on the side. Other poems I just feel like they are fun enough to work with some kind of illustrations.

What got you into self-publishing?

The reason I started doing this is because I was a member of Dusie Kollektiv, a collective which each member made 100 copies of their chap book and sent it to the rest of the group. That means you would make 100 chap books and receive 100 chap books. I love that model of self-publishing. I got to read so much stuff that I would never know about because you won’t be able to find anything by experiment poets in mainstream bookstores while many indie stores are out of business. I started with my own work, which is not part of the [Little Red Leaves] series but then I wanted to publish other people’s work. It’s not that print is nigh because of technology like Kindle. Print has changed to become something more single, more creative and more interesting. Print is not just paperback novels that are all printed in the same size and shape with the same kind of stories. It has turned into something else with the small press scene. It has become more of an art object than just a pamphlet stapled together.

What do you hope to get from participating in the Houston Indie Book Festival?

I want to get more involved with the Houston literary scene since this press actually exists more online than as a physical thing and I would like to change that. The writers of a Houston experimental writing group, John Pluecker’s ¡COPY PASTE! Workspace, has supported my press and I want to do more on a local level. I would love to have readings here, bring people in and release these books in Houston.

Ana María Rodríguez is a Houston-based children’s authors writing primarily in the topics of science and health.  Mrs. Rodríguez takes her work as a scientist and brings new light to non-fiction children’s literature.   In 1999, Ana María became a full-time children’s science writer.

I spoke with Mrs. Rodríguez about her upcoming talk at our new children’s area!

PS:  What piece are you planning on reading for HIBF?

AMR:  I’ll read from one of my new books, released on February 2012, called ”Vampire Bats, Giant Insects and other Mysterious Animals of the Darkest Caves.” Specifically, I’ll read the chapter titled “It’s a Troglobite’s Life”, which is about the animals that live in the deepest caves’ zones and cannot live outside the cave, and the amazing adaptations they have to survive in their extreme environment.

PS:  Who would you say has influenced your writing the most?

AMR:  It might sound almost like a contradiction since I write mostly nonfiction for children, but I have learned a lot about writing from adult, fiction authors such as John Steinbeck and John Grisham. I find both are very inspirational story-tellers whose writing is crystal-clear, well organized and captures my attention completely. I try to infuse those traits in my writing.

PS:  Who are some of your favorite authors?

AMR:  Some of my favorite nonfiction children authors are Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Jim Murphy, Barbara Kerley and Melissa Sweet. Some of my favorite fiction children authors are Scott O’Dell (“The Island of the Blue Dolphins”) and Richard Peck. Some of my favorite adult authors are John Grisham and John Steinbeck.

PS:  What first got you interested in writing?

AMR:  I was a hands-on scientist for about 20 years when I decided to write about science. I enjoyed doing experiments in my lab at the university, but I liked more going to the library and finding out, more like ‘uncovering’ what others had found before me. And thankfully, that is what I am doing now when I research for my books. I ‘discover’ nature and science events, facts, and mysteries and get to write about them. I am fascinated about nature and science and love to tell people about natural and man-made wonders.

PS:  Are you working on anything new?

AMR:  Yes, I am working on a new nonfiction book that combines an amazing medical discovery and children. Cannot tell you more about it, just to say that without the children, that discovery-adventure would not had been possible.

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Make sure to check out Ana María Rodríguez’s reading at 12 noon in our new children’s section!