Former Flame Fridays - Susan Kay Anderson
11/8/24
Susan Kay Anderson is the recipient of an Oregon Young Writers Award, a Jovanovich Award, fellowships from the University of Colorado, Telluride Writers, Aspen Writers, Ragdale, and stipends from the Student Conservation Association, AFS –Finland, and Study Abroad-Tuebingen University. (courtesy of pw.org) We have someone lovely and famous in Oregon with us today! She is also a paying!!? subscriber, which I am so honored.
You were featured in volume 5, what has happened since?
Since my poem “A First Fire” and “Human Being” were featured in volume 5, I’ve continued to write and submit my work. “A First Fire” is in my manuscript, Science Gossip: Leaves from Modern Trees, or just Science Gossip.
A First Fire
But I can make it bigger I said to the German twins my
best friends (we said Tante to their mom
in Missouri
at one of the parties
the adults rolled up the rug the house with music
Outside the bonfire we were supposed to keep our eyes on—
so small so forgotten its smoke a quiet question
then I pictured
Dad’s gas can for his boat (at the lake
(he drove round and round in circles
the peach trees the open meadow our boy cousin
came to stay for a few weeks showed us how
OF MANY PEACH FIGHTS OF OVER-RIPE PEACHES
I can still taste them smell them it was Germans
vs. the Americans from the upturned cement culvert to the peach tree
& I fetched it
from the shed
where the boat
waited forgotten the fire blew up with just a few drops
what I meant was not the explosion jumping
away from the can
too heavy for a second-grader the twins their faces
upside-down
not like at their house on the front lawn learning
to ride a bike
they said to eat the toadstool a colorful one
just like in the fairytales
when animals watch and wait—
the fire catching grass and moving toward the house
all the adults inside until they were all out big faces
the boat suddenly on the driveway looking taller & official & blamed
I thought of the teenager I saw
running from the motorcycle gang she was on fire
she was burning up and disappeared into a desert landscape into sage and rocks and dust in the movie
Dad took us to—
I was not her I was very lucky ( they said one by one
my escape my funeral not counting the fire
my idea (the twins watching What/who inspired Human Being & A First Fire? How does it fit into your style/body of work?
“Human Being” was inspired by all the refugees from Africa attempting to cross the Mediterranean by boat. This was in the news a lot in 2016 when I wrote the poem during my M.F.A. studies at Eastern Oregon University.
“A First Fire” was written for Fred Marchant’s workshop through the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown's online arm, 24 Pearl Street. We wrote about the elements, and this was a memory. As I wrote, I remembered more and more details of when we lived in Missouri. I was friends with twins who were a few years older. I wouldn’t call them bullies, exactly, but they did egg me on to do things I would never have done on my own (like eat a mushroom growing on their lawn). To keep up, I probably was showing off to them. Their parents were from Germany, as my mother was, but from the northern region, and their accents were unfamiliar.
I usually write in a fragmented style. Although “A First Fire” appears narrative and long, it is fragmented. “Human Being” is short and I usually write this way but it seems more narrative to me and I tend to make my writing even more fragmented.
Since I am a daughter of an immigrant, I have great interest in the plight of people leaving their homes. They have strong reasons to leave. It is heartbreaking to learn of the hardship, neglect, and persecution of people who are desperate to improve their lives, to stay alive, and to live peacefully.
Why Troublemaker Firestarter? What compels you to submit your work? Why be a writer at the end of the world?
Troublemaker Firestarter These words attract and repel me. The evoke danger and action. Also, signals to show some thing needs attention. The title of your journal sparks such mystery, rebellion and mischievousness. I believe these are qualities poets have and make use of in their work, in their art, in order to show what is possible and to draw empathy and wonder to issues, places, or to feel.
Why be a writer at the end of the world? This world is beautiful and contains us. We need to make something of our time here and that could be in arts, in writing, to connect with being alive and to express what that is.
Who are your current favorite writers?
I read Jean Valentine because everyone says my poems are like hers. Same with Lorine Niedecker. Idra Novey is super interesting. I wish I could crack her code! Every time I read something by Cynthia Cruz, I am enchanted. I have new translations of Judith Kiros and Marie-Noelle Agniau. This morning I read Sean Singer’s blog, The Sharpener, and it featured Gustaf Sobin. I loved discovering him and discover so many new (to me) writers this way. I get Nick Cave’s blog, Red Hand Files in my email, also ones from Andy Borowitz, Chris La Tray, and Esther Cohen. For many years, I read Tom Clark’s blog, Tom Clark Beyond the Pale. It is like an encyclopedia of poetry and art. Joan Houlihan and Martha Rhodes continue to be inspiring poetry magicians. It is fun and humbling to study with them.
Where can people find you?
https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/susan_kay_anderson
https://twitter.com/SusanKayAnders2
https://www.instagram.com/susankayandersonpoetry/
https://www.facebook.com/susankay.anderson.1
https://hawaiiteacherdetective.blogspot.com/
What would you want the lovely readers of Substack to do?
Readers, read widely and variously. You just never know what may spark your enthusiasm and passion. Volunteer to be a submissions reader for a journal, do everything you can to expand your horizons. Take lots of workshops, go to readings, listen to and watch everything. Donate to writers and to publications and organizations. Become a member. Good luck and have fun!
I read Nick Cave's blog, THE RED HAND FILES. Sorry--wrong name above! I read a lot of other things, too! Ahhh! Thanks so much, Davi, for your interest and support of my writing! Appreciate this space and you for having this!