Lori Desrosiers, Editor of Naugatuck River Review
Jendi Reiter conducted this exclusive email interview with Lori Desrosiers, editor of Naugatuck River Review. Launched in 2009, this literary journal based in Western Massachusetts specializes in contemporary narrative poetry. Contributors have included Lesléa Newman, Taylor Mali, Pamela Uschuk, Penelope Scambly Schott, Doug Ramspeck, Christina Lovin, and Thomas R. Moore.
Naugatuck River Review offers an annual Narrative Poetry Contest with a top prize of $1,000. Many runners-up are also published. The contest will be open for submissions July 1-September 1. The final judge for 2010 is award-winning poet and performance artist Patricia Smith.
Lori Desrosiers is the author of the poetry chapbook Three Vanities, published by Pudding House Press. Her poetry has been published in BigCityLit, The Equinox, Blue Fifth Review, Ballard Street Poetry Journal, November 3rd Club, Common Ground Review, Gold Wake Press' five-poem mini-chapbook series, and Silkworm. She teaches English Composition at Westfield State College and earned her MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry from New England College. Visit her blog at loridesrosiers.com.
Q: What is "narrative poetry"? How would you define it, both directly and by counter-example?
A: Obviously, I get this question quite often. I like to define narrative poetry as a poem with a sense of story, not necessarily the entire story. It could be a story of a moment, or have an implied story. A good narrative poem should be well-crafted, have a compressed narrative, a strong emotional core and be lyrical (after all, it's poetry!). We do not accept long poems; they are limited to 50 lines.
Q: What inspired you to launch a literary journal specializing in narrative poetry?
A: I write both narrative and lyric poetry myself, and found my lyric poems were easier to publish. Someone told me once that every great lyric poet has a drawer full of narrative poems they haven't been able to publish. I also think that having a book of "story poems" would be unique and marketable to the public, including people who are not necessarily poets. The name of the journal was inspired by the Naugatuck River in Connecticut, which I used to commute along to work when I lived in CT. It's a very dramatic river with huge boulders in it, cliffs on the banks and hawks flying overhead. Besides, there is already a Hudson River Review, so the name was taken.
Q: What are some strengths of the narrative poem as an art form, compared to other styles of verse? Which pitfalls are most common?
A: The best thing about narrative poetry is its accessibility to all, not only poets. Also, great narrative poetry is, well, great poetry. One pitfall of asking for narrative poems is that some poems we receive fall into the trap of being too sentimental, or clichéd. Another pitfall of narrative poetry is that there are misconceptions about what it is. The goal of our journal is to publish a high level of poetry, and so far we have been extremely fortunate to have a high quality of submissions. A common problem we encounter with submissions is the misconception that a narrative poem by definition must be a long poem with very long lines. I made the decision not to accept ballads or attempts at epic poems, although we have taken portions of longer pieces. We do accept prose poems, which are different from long poems in their format and poetics.
Q: How, if at all, does NRR reflect the culture or landscape of the Western Massachusetts region? (Choice of contributors, themes, aesthetics, imagery...etc.)
A: About 40% of our published poets are from Western Massachusetts, so by default many of the poems are set in the region. We have had poems about mill workers' families, rituals of life and death which are set in the area, farm work and life, poems set in Northampton and the Berkshires and many other images centered in the Pioneer Valley.
Q: Which trends in contemporary poetry do you especially like or dislike?
A: I tend to prefer poems that are about something, rather than abstractions. I don't have anything against LANGUAGE poetry per se (I love modern art, so there's a paradox) but I don't read it for pleasure, and I don't write in that style. I like concrete poems and postmodern poetics, though. We accept many styles and ways of presenting poetry on the page, so long as they fit in the format of the journal and fit our definition of a narrative poem.
Q: NRR does an impressive job promoting itself and its authors through poetry readings and social media, among other techniques. Do you have any advice for other publishers who would like to raise their journal's profile? Which publicity outlets have proven unexpectedly successful and which have disappointed you?
A: First of all, thank you. I enjoy promoting my poets. We had an off-site reading at AWP in Denver this year, which was a huge success. We are still having a "tour" of the journal with readings in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. My journal poets themselves are my best source of publicity. Word of mouth is powerful in the poetry community. I have spent nothing on advertising. Paid advertising doesn't work very well. I have been in business for myself before in other areas, and find paid advertisements work well only for services in certain areas. I keep an active presence on Facebook and send announcements to several listservs which promote independent small presses and literary journals, as well as websites such as Winning Writers.
Q: Describe the contest judging process. Who screens the entries, and how many are passed on to the final judge? Are entries read anonymously?
A: Naugatuck River Review is a member of CLMP, and as such adheres to ethical standards in judging. Our poems are blind-read by my editors, who screen the poems and come up with a list of twenty to be sent (still anonymously) to the final judge. For this year's contest, our judge will be Patricia Smith. The winners, along with the finalists and semi-finalists, are offered publication in the journal. We publish about 60 poems altogether. There is a $1,000 first prize, a $500 second prize and a $250 third prize.
Q: Please talk briefly about last year's winning poems and what made them stand out.
A: Our first place prizewinning poem, "Calving in Te Awamutu" by Thomas R. Moore of Maine, simply took our breath away. This piece about calving on a New Zealand farm had a song-like quality in its repeating first words of each stanza, "When the calves were birthing", "When the thick gorse at the paddock's edges". The language is gorgeous, continuing to surprise the reader with each new turn of phrase. One of my favorite images is "When we sat in the kitchen for breakfast/ of lamb chops and tea".
The second place prizewinner was Jeanne Julian's "The Lucky Spoon", a persona poem about a fantasy of love, which also contains wonderful images. "I woke with her body's ghost on me—stunned as snow must feel/ jumbled and abandoned by the plow..."
The third place poem by Kathryn Neel was less typically "narrative". Entitled "Resumé", it is in the form of questions and answers, the questions sounding like typical form questions you might be asked in an interview for a job, the answers a delightful departure, summing up a lifetime in three short stanzas. "What is your religious preference? / A rocking chair looking out / over my grandfather's fields / after his death. / The sound of my name / in my lover's laugh. / Dry socks / after 36 stream crossings."
Q: What have you learned from your experience as a published author that has made you a better editor, and vice versa?
A: I have to look at the "vice versa" first. The experience evaluating and publishing others' work has given me a heightened awareness of what makes a good poem, and has helped my own work enormously. I am challenged by this work as well as by reading great poetry. Editing the journal, which includes formatting and meticulous attention to detail, has helped me in the preparation of my own manuscripts for publication.
Q: Which poets do you particularly admire, and what can potential NRR contributors learn from reading them?
A: This is an important question, because if I were to suggest what a new poet should do to improve their writing, it would be to read, read, read great poetry. For great narrative work I recommend reading James Wright (for devastatingly beautiful imagery and poetry of place), Jane Kenyon (for an ability to go deep emotionally without being sentimental), Philip Levine (read What Work Is for his ability to incorporate lyric quality and narrative), Gerald Stern (for his humor and depth), Ilya Kaminsky (a spirit dance, great images, strong lines), David Ignatow (each poem suggests a deeper life) and Patricia Smith (her persona poems are extraordinary; she brings characters to life in performance and on the page).
Summer 2010
