This is Melissa Ford Lucken, Rosalie Petrouske, Susan Serafin-Jess, editors for the Washington Square Review. Washington Square On-Air showcases the poetry and fiction of the latest edition of LCC's literary journal, The Washington Square Review, read by the poets, authors, and editors themselves. Expect the unexpected as our contributors express experience and fantasy with humor, imagination, poetic license, irony, and passion. If you love language at its most original, please join us in our audio Town Square to celebrate a community of writers spanning from around the world to Lansing.

Hello, I'm Susan Serafin. Jess I am the poetry editor of Washington Square Review, which is the English department literary publication for Lansing Community College, and we have begun doing a series of interviews with the poets and authors who we've selected to appear in our journal, and we haven't published the 2023 volume yet. We've accepted all of the contributors, but it's still in production. However, we wanted to get started in interviewing so that our listeners could experience. Some of the wonderful poetry that is to come. So the first person I selected is a poet named J.C. riley, and I love her poetry. I love it so much that I copied it in cursive, which is what I do when I want to. I want to kind of feel and absorb the poetry. And when I asked her for her. Bio, I was amazed, and I'm going. To read what she sent me and. Then I'll ask her a few questions about it. So she is the author of four books, including what Magic May Not Alter,. And that is Magic Spelled with a. K. And it is a Southern Gothic. Novel, but it's not just a Southern Gothic novel, it's a Southern Gothic novel in verse. And most recently she's written a book called Amo I Canto, which is winner of the Sow's Ear Poetry Prize, which. I guess makes your book a silk. Purse if it's a Sow's Ears Prize. Now here, I don't want to be too gushy, but my goodness, you have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a Pulitzer Prize. I don't think I've ever met anybody who is nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. So we're going to put a pin on that and come back to it. And Georgia Author of the Year, you are the managing editor of the Atlanta Review, and you crochet, you play tennis, and you practice Italian, all in Marietta, Georgia. But right now you're at a writer's colony in Tennessee. So tell me a little bit about. The Pulitzer Prize and then we'll move on to some other questions.

Don't get. Too excited about the Pulitzer.

I am excited.

Well, I mean, you can nominate anything for a Pulitzer. I'm happy it was nominated, but, you. Know, you could probably nominate a hot dog for it.

Well, I doubt that. So which work was it that was nominated for the.

The Pulitzer it was nominated for? What? Magic May Not Alter My Whole Collection.

Okay.

All right.

And is that available on Amazon?

It is available on Amazon, and please go buy it.

I will buy it. I intend to. I also have some books on sale on Amazon, and I have a couple of friends who will do no business with Amazon whatsoever. They feel like it's the Evil Empire. And I get that. But. But my books are mostly self published. And for those of us who self publish, it's a really good deal because all they do is they print one at a time. Back in the day, if you were. Self published, you'd end up with a basement full of books that you couldn't unload or sell. So that's a pretty good deal. So you're practicing Italian, and I noticed. That one of your novels has an. Italian title, Amo I Canto. And so why are you learning Italian? Is it a love of opera? Are you going to Italy?

A few years ago I went to Italy and I had no knowledge of the language. And that is just a really bad idea to go somewhere where you do. Not speak the language. I had somebody I was going with. Who did, but she wasn't always around. But I fell in love with Venice. And Amo I Canto is from a quote from Joseph Brodsky. You know, I just wrote about my travels in Venice. I just loved Venice so much that I love that book.

And is that book also available on Amazon?

So Southgair Poetry Press published it as part of their journal, but they've gone out of business.

Oh, dear.

So.

I can absolutely send you a copy if you're interested.

I'm very interested.

I'll send you a copy. I have a bunch of them that I've been trying to give away.

Well, you can give one to me. I would love that. Okay, well, right now you're at a writer's colony in Tennessee. Tell me a little bit about that. Who's there? How many people are there? What is your day like?

It's wonderful. It's in the middle of the Tennessee. Hills and the big farm. It's called Rockdale Writers Colony. And they have a lot of free time. It's not structured time, but you can. Just write and read and you can. Interact with the other colony People here too. Usually you see them in the kitchen or walking around. My typical day is I try to read in the morning and I try to write in the afternoon and then I just goof off for the evening.

We'll allow it. You can goof off in the evening. Our listeners won't be able to see it, but I'm looking at the room you're in and it looks like there's a four poster bed with a canopy and a fireplace and everything is painted white. It looks lovely.

It is. You can't really see, but I call. It my princess bed because I feel. Like a princess when I'm in it because it's so big and it has these beautiful white drapes on it and the room is really. It's comfortable and I'm sitting at this. Wonderful antique desk that has all these little drawers and drawer pulls and it's. A great place to write, it sounds like.

And what a wonderful opportunity to be able to immerse yourself in your writing, which is what all writers long to do. And we don't always have the time to do it, especially when we have day jobs, especially now. I'm going to be a little bitter here when you're teaching people to write essays and you spend all your time reading their essays, so. All right, well, I'm glad you're having that opportunity and I'm sure that you're writing beautiful poetry. So speaking of your poetry, I wonder. If you would read some poems to us. And you sent us five poems and at least three of them are populated. With animals in intriguing ways. So I don't know if we'll have time for all three. But I selected how the Heart Works, which has mourning doves and Lavender Harvest, which has wild horses and bees and. And if time permits, existential, which has. A blue wolf of despair. So I wonder if we could begin with you reading how the Heart Works. Please.

I'd love to.

Thank you.

How the Heart WORKS Inside my heart lives the mourning dove. Cooing, cooing where is my mate? Will he come for me? My mate roosts in a mother's heart. Will he call to me? This is all mad dreaming, Sudden as a lake. This is all mad dreaming. One time at Savvy Lake I urged my dove to fly far and leave me and I died. It was to save the bird that I urged her to leave. I died until she flew back. Pity in her eyes like copper coins. She resettled herself in chambers, Pity like copper coins turning blood to snow. Still my mate, he does not Come, my blood turns to snow and still he does not come for me. A nest is lined with feathers and ice. I prepare for his arrival. A nest lined with feathers like ice. Inside my heart is a mourning dove Sighing, sighing.

You know, mourning doves are kind of irresistible symbols for poets. I think they're beautiful. And there's that word morning with a U, which is, you know, enables us to write a poem about some sadness or some grief. So I wondered if you could tell me about the genesis of this poem. How the idea came to you and so forth.

So most of my poems tend to be narrative. And this poem is sort of narrative esque. But I love mourning doves. You know, poets and birds, they just. We can't help ourselves. But I sort of have always thought about mourning doves as being special and. Being connected to them in an interesting way. And as I was saying, I tend. To write narrative poems. The form of how the heart works. Is actually based sort of on Jericho Brown's duplex form. Except I use it more to write a narrative. And if you don't know what a duplex is, it's kind of like an exploded sonnet mixed with a guzzle. So it uses repetition. It's 14 lines. But I guess how it came to. Me was I wanted to write a. Poem about doves and love. So that's kind of its genesis.

Well, I had not heard of that form. I was pretty sure that there was some kind of form working here that I was not aware of because of the looping, repetition and the recursion. I knew that you were working with some kind of framework. And I love it because it reminds me of why I love Shakespeare's sonnets, for example. How within this tight form, you can say so much, there can be so much emotion. Even though you would think that it's restrictive, but somehow, paradoxically, it is freeing. So I also love mourning doves and. Get very angry when periodically some people in the Michigan legislature want to make it so that you can hunt mourning doves. I don't know why anybody would want to do that. I also love watching birds. And yesterday I was watching a male cardinal feed his gal. He just kept taking seed from the feeder and feeding her. They're obviously in the courtship stage. Here's a question. It's probably a silly question. Is there such a place as Sadding Lake, or is that just a repetition. Of the sound Sudden as a lake?

It was. I made it up.

You made it up?

Yeah. It's definitely for the sound.

We call that poetic license. And it's just fine. Right. Well, I love the way that you play with sound, because I like to do that, too. In fact, sometimes you. If. If a poem seems too. Prosy for me, I'll start playing with sounds and repeating sounds. Which you do beautifully.

Thank you.

One thing I noticed was, is that this dove who has flown away is an errant mourning dove because they usually mate for life.

So.

This one is an anomaly.

That's right, yeah.

And I also wondered, have you read. John Keats's poem called Song?

I might have, way back in the day when I was an English major. But offhand, I'm also terrible at memory, so I might have.

Yeah, well, memory only gets harder. And I'm approaching a birth. I'm approaching a birthday. I'm not happy about approaching. There was a time, I think about 30 years ago, when one summer, I decided every day I would sit outside in the sun and memorize a sonnet. And I did. And I can maybe remember three of them now, and not very well. So memory is a struggle. But I'm just going to read this poem really quickly because your poem, I think it. I was about to say dovetails, which.

Is a pop heart.

So this is called Song by John Keats. I had a dove and the sweet dove died and I have thought it died of grieving. Oh, what could it grieve for? It was tied with the silken thread of my own hands Weaving sweet little red feet. Why did you die? Why would you leave me, sweet dove? Why? You lived alone in the forest tree. Why, pretty thing, could you not live with me? I kissed you oft and gave you white peas. Why not live sweetly as in the green trees?

Wow. That's fantastic.

Yeah, I love it. And your poem is. It's a different situation. This poem by John Keats is about. It sounds to me like somebody who's been captive or controlled. Whereas in your poem, it's the person who's been left behind who is waiting. For a dove to return. So it's a sad poem. But the next poem that I'm going to ask you to read, and this is one thing I admire about your poetry, is that you can shift mood. And the next poem is Lavender Harvest. If you would read that for us, please.

Yes. Lavender Harvest. Oh, that. Our garden is awash with lavender. The scent runs like wild horses. I breathe it everywhere like wild horses. The scent tramples me. I smell them everywhere, these spike flowers. My senses full and dizzy, my palms purpling. My senses grow full and dizzy As. I handle Buds, palms, purpling. I'll set them in jelly jars with water, dry the rest for sachets. I'll set them in jelly jars in the window and sachet from bunch to bunch like a honeybee nosing pollen. Bunch to bunch I'll split like a honeybee nosing pollen to fix bouquets to surprise you. Cheer up, Our little house so little surprises you these days. Cheer up, our little house will look like a walk through Provence and we can love Under a counterpane of Provence's blooms we can love. Oh, how our garden is awash with lavender.

I love it. It comes full circle. Oh, that our garden is awash with lavender and ends. Oh, how our garden is awash with lavender. And this is such a shift in. Mood from the previous poem. This poem to me is full of. Joy, even ecstasy, really. I mean, you're talking about feeling dizzy. And when you say that the wild horses trample me, I'm not getting the feeling that that's a deadly thing. It's more like being ravished by the wild horses of the senses. And then you shift to. You start addressing somebody called you. In. The fifth line, or fifth stanza, I guess it is. And you say, so little surprises you these days. And it makes me feel as though there's somebody whom you want to see also ravished by all this lavender and all these senses. So these are gifts that you're putting in the jelly jars to give to this person, right?

Yeah. I often will talk to a you. I don't know who that you is,. But I think I was trying to. Bring lavender, something else I love, and. Trying to bring it to the reader. As well as the you of the poet's imagination. And I do think that the horses are a kind of ravishing experience, but not a trampling in the bat, the bad sentence at all.

No, it is. I didn't feel that way. I felt as though the person. It's like the word awash, when something washes over you and you're overcome with ecstasy or with joy. And yes, I also felt as though you were presenting me, the reader, with all this lavender. And I guess I have to ask,. Do you grow lavender?

I wish I did. I have a black thumb and can grow nothing. So if I had a garden that I wouldn't kill, I would definitely grow lots of lavender. And also, you know, this is actually part of the project that I'm working on now. And lavender is a theme throughout, so. This stands alone itself, but it's also part of a. It's part Of a collection, part of.

A collection that is about lavender or uses the word lavender or how so there's one another.

It's my current collection and lavender is the theme. But I also just love lavender and wish, wish, wish I could grow it.

You needn't apologize. I knew there was something else we had in common. I'm no gardener either. In fact, I'm amazed how many people do garden because to me it seems like a very difficult thing to do. I also really don't like spider and so anything that brings me in proximity with spiders is not my favorite pastime. But I do wistfully admire other people with gardens. I'm kind of lucky because I rent and the house that I moved into already there was a lilac bush and a rose of Sharon bush and some daffodils come up and violets and periwinkle are already in the yard. So there's a lot that's just kind of running riot that it doesn't need any tending. So I still have something to look at that's wonderful.

My yard. I've planted things that do not last. I'm a murderous plant person.

Oh, dear. Well, perhaps you could write a book of poetry about the various plants that you've murdered. Which makes me wonder, have you ever been tempted to write? You've written Southern Gothic. Is there ever murder in your novels? Your novel in verse?

Yes, there's a big murder in there. And actually I had sent the. When I was trying to get blurb for that book, I had sent it to a poet that I thought was interested in place and he could read no more. It was too graphic. It was too gory. I guess it is, but it was. All sort of in the context of magic. And so I. I was surprised when she said no more. I. I don't know that I have a big appetite for murder in my writing, but there's certainly one there. And actually the question I'm working on. Now, also, there's a murder. So it must just be part of my thinking.

Well, I have written a book of nonfiction. It's called Wild Horses. Speaking of Wild Horses, A crime Revisited. And it's about something that happened when I was a teenager and, well, we. Won't get off on that. But. It wasn't murder. It was self defense. That's all I'll say for now. Okay. Well, I think we do have time to read the third poem, Existential. Would you read that for us, please?

I'd love to. Existential. I keep the blue wolf of despair on my shelf. He sings off tune at night when I braid my hair. He sings off tune or whines as I braid my hair. He creeps down from the shelf and walks the stairs unlike a wraith. Toenails tap against the floor. He stares at me when he re enters the room, waiting to be tossed a bone of memory. But if I toss that bone, his feral side awakens and I pale. His feral side brings teeth and growling and I pale. Hopelessness can tear through me like jaws tonight. I scratch behind his ears and at his jaw and wait quietly, and he waits quietly. Thumping his tail a pet or two, I bring him to his perch. So endeth the tale. I keep the blue wolf of despair on the shelf.

You have tamed the blue wolf of despair and I was so greedy to hear your poetry that we have run out of time. But I thank you so much for sharing the poetry with you and I know that our listeners will love them as much as I do. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

You're welcome.

Thank you for listening to our talented poets and authors. Until next time, this has been Washington Square On-Air, where we showcase selections from Lansing Community College's literary journal, The Washington Square Review, a publication featuring writers from the Great Lakes State, across the nation and around the world. To find out more about The Washington Square Review, visit lcc.edu/wsr. We hope you enjoyed listening as much as we enjoyed sharing.