Marilyn Johnson & Lisa Glatt, Editor & Publisher, Pearl Editions/2002 Pearl Poetry Prize Judge
Jendi Reiter conducted this exclusive email interview with Marilyn Johnson, editor and publisher of Pearl Editions, and poet Lisa Glatt, who is judging this year's poetry book contest for Pearl. The contest offers a $1,000 prize and has a deadline of July 15. Both are accomplished poets in their own right. Johnson's publications include A Necessary Fire, a collection of poems about coming of age as a woman in the 1960s and 1970s. Glatt's raw, edgy poetry addresses topics such as her mother's breast cancer and her own sensuality. Her books include Monsters and Other Lovers and Shelter. Pearl Editions, founded in 1989, has published books by acclaimed poets such as Denise Duhamel, Carolyn Evans Campbell and Debra Marquart.
Q&A With Marilyn Johnson
Q: Tell me about the artistic philosophy of Pearl Editions.
A: Pearl Editions leans toward poetry that speaks to real people about real life in direct, living language. Unfortunately, most people are convinced (and not without reason) that poetry is so difficult and obscure, they have to be literary scholars to understand and appreciate it. Part of Pearl's raison d'etre is to show that poetry doesn't have to be that way—that it can be accessible, readable, and even entertaining.
Q: What are you hoping to discover when you judge a contest?
A: A great book of poetry! As Emily Dickinson put it, poems that take the top of your head off.
Q: Is your contest judged anonymously? If not, how important is an entrant's publication history? What is your contest's openness to first-time authors?
A: Yes, our contest is judged anonymously, without consideration of publication history. We are completely open to first-time authors—at least half of our previous winners had not yet published a book of poetry.
Q: Some books that have recently won prizes from top contests are tightly organized around a theme (e.g. Maurice Manning's Lawrence Booth's Book of Visions, from the Yale Series of Younger Poets). As a contest judge, how much weight do you give to a manuscript's thematic consistency or structure? Do you have any advice for authors on how to turn their file drawer full of poems into a book?
A: When thematic consistency or a narrative line clearly enhances the effectiveness of a manuscript, we definitely give it more weight. Unfortunately, such structures aren't always interesting enough, or complex enough, to sustain a full manuscript, and often become tedious and repetitive. I would advise poets to concentrate more on the ordering and grouping of their poems, according to their connectedness and movement. A book of poetry should grab the reader's interest in the very first poem and sustain that interest throughout, with poems that maintain a freshness and surprise and come to a satisfying conclusion.
Poets are also advised to resist "padding" their manuscripts. Like most contests, we have a minimum and maximum page length—48 to 64 pages, which is fairly standard. Most of manuscripts we receive, however, run the full 64 pages, as if there were some advantage to making a book as long as possible—often by tossing in 10 or 12 weak, extraneous poems, especially toward the end. Because a strong ending is just as important as a strong beginning, we advise poets to end with one good, concluding poem, even though they may have quite a few others with a strong sense of finality. Like the makers of action movies who just can't resist one more plot twist or explosion at the end, we see too many manuscripts by writers who don't know when to quit.
Q: What, for you, makes poetry "relevant" (e.g. political impact, heartfelt emotion), or do you feel that art does not need to be defended in those terms?
A: On a more general, philosophical level, I feel that as an art, poetry gives meaningful form to felt human experience, and that this alone makes it relevant. On a personal level, the poetry I find most relevant deals with real-life issues and situations in a direct, concrete manner.
Q: Are there poetic styles or themes that you feel are overused/overrated? Conversely, what underused styles or themes are due for another look?
A: We see far too many "autobiographical" manuscripts that seem to chronicle the same troubled life: the unhappy childhood and bleak adolescence shaped by a harsh, oppressive parent; the grim adulthood marked by failed personal relationships that often end in estrangement, divorce, illness, or death. After a while, these manuscripts become almost indistinguishable from each other.
We would like to see more humorous, passionate, and outspoken poetry—manuscripts that dare to go beyond the preconceived notion that poetry must always be intensely serious and introspective.
Q: There are hundreds of poetry contests out there, ranging from ultra-prestigious to scams. How would you advise writers to choose the right ones?
A: The most important thing is to find contests most appropriate for your work. If possible, check out past winners to see if your work is in line with the type of poetry the sponsoring press or organization prefers. If they tend to select writers of highly abstract, symbolic, or experimental verse, and you write traditional lyric or narrative poetry, their contest is probably not for you. Many book contests are also sponsored by literary magazines, which can help give you an idea of the kinds of poetry they lean toward.
Q&A With Lisa Glatt
Q: How did you get your start as a published poet?
A: I'd been writing and studying poetry for five years before I sent poems out. While I was a student at California State University, Long Beach, I was encouraged by my professor and mentor Gerald Locklin to submit my work to magazines. Pearl was the first magazine to accept my poems, and Joan Jobe Smith, the founding editor, was extremely encouraging, taking an interest in not only the poems that I sent her, but curious about what else I was working on. She did what the most enthusiastic and generous editors can do: took an interest in me personally and professionally, helping to steer me toward graduate school and a writing life. I remember the first letter she sent me accepting poems ending with "Your fan, Joan Jobe Smith". That was incredibly exciting to me. Later on, it was Marilyn Johnson at Pearl that I worked with on my first and second collection of poems. So that's really how I got my start with publication—and I owe a tremendous amount to Gerry and Joan and Marilyn.
Q: Your poetry can be raw and sexually explicit, but is never needlessly vulgar or embarrassing, unlike a lot of erotic writing today (in my opinion)—perhaps because the erotic in your work points to something more, the presence of death and the treachery of the body. Do you have advice for writers on how to avoid those stylistic pitfalls?
A: When you write about sex it better not be about sex—or just about sex. There needs to be something else, another emotional pull perhaps, to lift the poem or story up. That's what I hope I do.
Q: Your thoughts, if any, on so-called confessional poetry? Some critics might put you in that category because your poetry lays bare your own griefs, lusts, and family history. Do you think it's a pejorative term? What would you say to critics who think that kind of work is self-indulgent?
A: Anne Sexton was an early influence of mine, as well as Sharon Olds, John Fante, and Charles Bukowski. Kim Addonizio and Denise Duhamel are my friends. I'm not afraid or embarrassed to write about my life. In general I'm not interested in nature poetry, so it's fine if those poets or others aren't interested in my "confessional" work either. What I would say to those critics you mentioned is put down my book and find something more your speed. I'm not terribly worried about them, really.
Q: Have you had trouble placing your work in literary journals because it's so frank about physical passion and emotionally explosive? Do you think editors are too timid about certain themes?
A: I send to the magazines I read and admire—and haven't had that problem.
Spring 2002
