First Book Interview #42 - Bobby C. Rogers

I can't really express how thrilled I am that Bobby C. Rogers decided to answer some questions for me.

I've been a fan of his work for years. From the first poem I saw of his in a journal, "Night Air" in an older issue of Meridian six years ago, I was absolutely floored. It continued from there.

So it's no surprise that I hold his first book, Paper Anniversary, in such high regard. There's the spirit of late-life Larry Levis. There are the cinematically poetic flourishes of Terrence Malick. There's beauty in the most menial tasks. There's the southern romanticism of Joe Bolton. I could go on.

It's a beautiful and necessary book of poetry, first book or not.

So here we go...

First Book Interview #42 - Bobby C. Rogers

Neglect

I've obviously not been doing a lot of blogging lately. So, while I'm up not doing work I'm supposed to be doing...

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The second manuscript has officially been sent out for the fall. Trying to send to a lot of places this year (or, rather, fall 2010 to fall 2011, if needed).

When I first sent it out a year ago, it was short, uneven, not really a manuscript.

I probably should've waited until now to begin sending it out, but I've had a year to work on it and get it into shape. A lot of time has been spent on it. It's better. I hope it's officially ready now, but time will tell.

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Had a few poems picked up over the last month or so from said manuscript.

Have five unpublished currently from the manuscript that are still out in the world, but mostly I've begun to send out some new ones. Finally.

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Speaking of which, I've had a productive last few months. I have twenty new drafts I'm working on, about half of which have been sent out.

Not thinking of a direction so much as trying to write new work that I like. Had a burst after the reading tour. And had a burst last weekend in Florida, where I wrote eight drafts. I think five have potential.

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Facebook's flooded now, if you're friends with certain folks, with MFA-related information. People "fighting" with each other. "Essays" being written and published in good journals about MFA programs.

I think everything's really gotten out of hand. I made a comment today, and I've probably said it before, that if those "books" and "essays" were around when I was applying in the fall of 2003, I'm not sure I would've wanted to do it. Confusion. Paralysis. Unrealistic goals set. Eye on the "prize." Too much pressure to succeed. Win awards. Study under certain professors.

Beyond college, the MFA should be a formative time, not one to worry about how much money they'll pay you, how much you'll teach (though if you hope to actually go into academia, which many don't choose, and that's fine, teaching should be something you make a point to do a lot), how many books you can write before you leave with your validating piece of paper in your hand.

Maybe I'm nuts, but I wish everyone luck who has to deal with all of this right now. I know I wouldn't want to. Hopefully, whoever you are out there, you won't be affected by those things that you need to ignore, and you'll survive, grow as a writer, and figure out what you want to do when you're done with those very few years in the entire span of your life.

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Really liked Enter the Void. Have a lot to say about it, but I only saw it once. More viewings will come with the Blu-ray in the future.

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Buy Paper Anniversary by Bobby C. Rogers.

Along with Elyse Fenton's Clamor and Gary L. McDowell's American Amen, those are my favorite first collections of poetry this year.

My hope is that they'll all want to do first book interviews...

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Not a lot of first collections have blown me away lately.

Those above aren't the only three I've really enjoyed thus far (there have actually been many just within the last six months), but it seems like this trend is growing.

I don't like it.

But I guess we can't be blown away all the time. Truth dazzling gradually and all that...

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Can't stop listening to Hammock. Have mentioned them too much. One of the best bands to write to, and their music never gets old to me.

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Reading in NYC at the Bowery this Sunday, October 10th.

With Amy Holman, Diane Kirsten Martin, and Kyle McCord.

Hopefully you can make it if you're in the area.

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A lot of good first book interviews on the way...

Fly

Now that I look back on my previous post about the tour, I realize that I probably left a lot out. But mainly that would consist of important things only to me, most of which would be fairly boring to others.

Like driving through Brooklyn and saying, "That looks exactly like the street of family in The Squid and the Whale," which is one of my favorite movies, and then realizing that though the streets all kind of look the same in that sense, one of them may have been their exact street.

Or the guy at one of the toll booths giving me 17 one-dollar bills instead of fives and tens, prompting me to tell my friend who I was talking to on the phone, "Apparently I was mistaken for Pacman Jones, because I'm gonna make shit rain."

Or the Full House trivia session at Manuel's Tavern in Atlanta with Blake Butler, who lost. I'm not sure Blake would want me to include him in this section of the post, and I'm going out on a limb by including myself, but I can answer many questions about Full House. And you probably don't want to challenge me, regardless of how embarrassing it is to say such a thing.

So there you go. Things like that. The post would've been longer and more drawn out, and I wanted to get to the heart of things. Hopefully you found it worth your time.

Also, I need to say thanks again to my beautiful and understanding wife, who let me go on the trip in the first place. Without her, I probably wouldn't even have a book out, so she does deserve more credit than I can give her.

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School's starting in less than three weeks. I'm excited to get back to it, get teaching again, read novels, write non-fiction, work on manuscripts.

Two more semesters of coursework to go.

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I was planning on going to New York City if need be to go see Enter the Void. I think it's going to be one of the best of the decade.

It's been eight years since Irreversible. That's way too long.

That said, I found out that it'll be part of On Demand IFC in Theaters, which is amazing. If I were closer to NYC, I'd go, but being able to get the HD version, though it won't be as good as the theater, will make me happy enough.

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If it wasn't enough that Enter the Void is premiering in theaters on September 24th, I also pre-ordered, as should you: The Thin Red Line Criterion Blu-ray and Bobby C. Rogers' Paper Anniversary.

Add to that list Gary L. McDowell's American Amen.

September's going to be a good month for good art.

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I love the new Ra Ra Riot record, The Orchard.

They're doing amazing things. They're a bunch of young and extremely talented kids. The strings are gorgeous. The melodies can't stay out of my head. And the production's top notch.

And finally bands are starting to realize that records in the 30-minute range are the way to go.

If only poets could get a clue about this...

What's that? Actually, no, I don't want to read your 110-page book if it's not a Selected or Collected. Sorry.

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The NFL season will soon be underway. Can't wait to see how the season plays out for the Giants. Many have them collapsing, with Coughlin getting let go after a losing season.

But I'm optimistic.

I can't wait for Sundays... bring it.

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And finally, a big congrats to Luke Johnson, whose first collection, After the Ark, will be coming out in in spring 2011 from NYQ Books.

Luke and I traded manuscripts a few months back, and I told him I gave him two years until it was contracted. I pride myself on usually being right about good collections I've read when it comes to publication and the like, but I have to say, he demolished my window into a thousand pieces.

It's a strong, strong collection, and one you should certainly pick up once it hits the shelves and the streets.

Bring

I have a poem at Linebreak this week. It's the longest poem in the new manuscript (but only one of the few longer ones) and it's one of my favorites I've written at this point in my life.

Also got my contributor copy of Blue Mesa Review. Thanks again to the editors. The issue looks great. You can check out more information regarding the table of contents here.

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Sent out a bunch of submissions on September 15th. Already got three rejections. I'm actually happy that they came back so quickly. Hopefully more journals will make these quick decisions if they don't like the work. I have more respect for their process that way, quite honestly.

There are maybe four or five poems in the new manuscript that haven't been published, and those are the ones out in the world. I've been lucky with submissions over the last two years or so with these poems, so I figured I'd keep everything out there.

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Narrowed contests and open reading periods for the next year to around twenty places.

It's at 59 pages now, which I think is a good number.

I keep working on the poems and structure, of course, and have put a lot of time into it for... well, a long time now. I have more confidence in it now. So now it's time to see what happens, if anything.

The first wave of manuscript submissions is in about a week.

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Started reading Alice Sebold's Lucky yesterday, and I couldn't sleep last night.

The imagery in the first chapter made me physically sick to my stomach. Not the best before-bed reading. Yet she manages to write so simply about all of it, seemingly, as far as her sentences and word choices. But there are a few specific passages that I don't think will ever leave my thoughts.

Another reason why I couldn't sleep, however, is that I decided to look up the locations of her police report on Google Earth. It's frightening to see the bird's eye view of the real locations, and it adds a new depth to the term "imagination," especially when you can click on the blue squares to see actual photos of certain locations.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest, but I don't know how hard it's going to be to get through.

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Switching to something happy, The Giants look good.

Starting 2-0, within the division, is always a good thing. Getting healthy and stopping the run need to be priorities.

I have more confidence this season than I did last year, and not because the record's 2-0.

A lot of the season to go, though, so there's no point in all the speculation.

But how great was it to see Romo look awful in "Jerry World," or whatever they're calling that egregious and nonsensical eyesore these days? Beautiful, I say. Beautiful.

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Though I don't know the specific news, word 'round the campfire is that Bobby C. Rogers' first book of poetry is coming out.

I've mentioned him here before and here before.

He's a poet who blew me away when I saw his work in journals during my first weeks and months at VCU. I'd emailed him how much I liked his work, out of the blue, and he was very gracious when he emailed me back.

I've literally been confused like crazy about his book not being out in the world, so I'm saying an official congratulations right now, and I'll let you know the details when I know them. You need to get this book of poetry.

There's this meditative, usually long-lined, semi-religious without-sounding-didactic tone to much of his work, where pulling stumps from a lawn can turn into a meditation about God, and he's able to do this beautifully and seemingly effortlessly.

His work is something to be admired. I can't wait for the book.