Like a Brick Wall: An Interview with John W. Snyder

I Let Go of the Stars in My Hand contributor John W. Snyder chats with Thomas Fucaloro

John W. Snyder is first and foremost a figment of your imagination—but when he isn't busy keeping you up at night, or having you question your sanity, he is writing poetry. He comes from the imaginary land of Staten Island where all the buildings are made out of candy and the inhabitants barter for goods with hair gel and empty promises. His work can be found in the great weather for MEDIA anthology I Let Go Of the Stars In My Hand, Flushed magazine from NYSAI Press, and scribbled on the walls of your nightmares.

TF: I'd like to talk to you about the poem and video for "Strange Surrogate." How did this come into being?

JWS: Because of choices I made in my past, I can't help but be defined by my scars—they are almost impossible to miss. Everyone can see them and everyone can make judgments about them. Whether I like it or not, self-mutilation is a large part of my identity. This poem was about taking a macabre, often misunderstood, facet of my being and making it more tangible and relatable. And what's more relatable than a fast food burger? A video seemed like the next logical step for this piece. The concept for the video was a stroke of genius on the part of Kristopher Johnson, the man behind the camera. I love the end result because it's more conversational than cinematic. It has a grounding effect that would otherwise be hard to achieve with the subject matter.

TF: You also have another poem vid called "On Hunting Vampires." It is so beautiful. Can you talk about this as well? 

JWS: The poem is about the slaying of a peacock that occurred in Tottenville, on Staten Island, years ago. I spent a long time trying to write a poem that simply honored the peacock (peahen, technically.) Something pretty and elegiac. But after learning more about the young man who committed the horrendous crime I found myself writing from his perspective. It became important to me to try and better understand this individual. He was mentally ill and because he didn't receive adequate care this horrible thing occurred. The poem became a kind of statement about society's treatment of mental health issues and how they often slip into the background until something tragic happens. The video features Lys Riganti, a great dancer and friend of mine who's performed with me for this piece when I've done it live. It was important that she was the focal point for the video because she represents the beautiful peacock that existed in reality and the demonic entity that the speaker obsessed over. 

TF: You have a poem in the new great weather anthology called "To the Girl Who Called Me a Faggot." What is the history of this poem?  How did it came to be?

JWS: This poem was partly inspired by an article I read in Rolling Stone that I'll never forget. It was about a string of suicides that occurred in conservative Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's home district. All the victims were teens who were bullied either for being gay or being perceived as gay. I could never read through it without sobbing. As a member of the LGBTQ community I couldn't help but be furious and appalled at the hateful environment that evangelicals and conservative activists created for these young people. It made me think back to a time when I felt I was wrongfully attacked just for being who I was. The incident I refer to in my poem, being called a faggot by some person I didn't know in a public place, ended right there. I just ignored the girl and walked away. But in the poem I get to say all the things I probably should have said. In a way poetry becomes a form of righteous revenge.

TF: In this poem you ask, "Why is my human love invalid?" Why is any sort of love now viewed as heresy? Is love a good or bad thing? How can we change things?

JWS: I think love scares people. Love by itself is inherently good but it can be responsible for a lot of hurt and a lot of craziness. Love is powerful and has the ability to transform and alter things. People are afraid of newness, afraid of what they don't immediately understand. The only way things change is to love like a brick wall. We must be immovable, constant, and unwavering in the face of ignorance and fear. 

TF: What's next for John W. Snyder?

JWS: I loved making videos for my poetry. The process was incredibly fun and added a new layer to my work. I really want to continue making videos and possibly exploring other forms of media for poetry. The great thing about poetry is its amazing versatility. 

 

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Read John W. Snyder’s work in our anthologies I Let Go of the Stars in My Hand  and The Understanding between Foxes and Light.

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Introducing Our 2015 Guest Prose Editor: An Interview with Chavisa Woods

Interview by Thomas Fucaloro

Chavisa Woods is great weather's guest prose editor for 2015. Submissions for our next anthology are open October 15th 2014 to January 15th 2015—so send her your best short stories, flash fiction, dramatic monologues, and creative non-fiction.

Chavisa is the author of two books of fiction: The Albino Album: A Novel (Seven Stories Press, 2013) and Love Does Not Make Me Gentle or Kind (Fly by Night Press, 2009). The second edition of this book was released by Autonomedia Press under the Unbearables imprint in 2013. She was the recipient of the 2013 Cobalt Prize for fiction, a finalist (second nomination) for the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for fiction, and the recipient of the 2009 Jerome Foundation award for emerging authors. As a featured author, she has appeared a at such notable venues as The Whitney Museum of American Art, City Lights Bookstore, Town Hall Seattle, The Brecht Forum, The Cervantes Institute, and St. Mark’s Poetry Project. Her writing has appeared in such publications as The Evergreen Review, New York Quarterly, The Brooklyn Rail, Cleaver Magazine, and Jadaliyya. Chavisa has presented lectures and conducted workshops  on short fiction and poetry at a number of academic institutions, including: New York University (NYU), Penn State, Sarah Lawrence College, Bard College, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn Tech and the New School. She is currently completing her third work of full-length fiction. Website

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TF:  Since you will be the prose editor for our next anthology, we were wondering what your take on prose is? What gets you hot? What turns you off?

CW: I have a pretty wide range of styles and voices that, as you say, "get me hot." I think most of my favorite writers share a simultaneous attention to language paired with content that demands attention. When I read a piece, it matters to me that the person has a deep or urgent need to convey something. Whether that something is political, narrative-driven, or aesthetic, light or heavy—it doesn't matter. The fact that the writer itched to deliver this message, and the message is about something larger than themselves, that's what matters. Along with that, when I'm reading it's important to me to see that no other words could have been used to  express quite the same meaning as the words the writer chose. I like to know that there was no other way the writer could have said exactly what they did. I look for meaning, or layers of meaning, to not only be conveyed through words, but be embedded in the language itself.

TF: Who are some of your favorite prose writers and why?

CW: I just typed out this list off of the top of my head, and thought about paring it down, but I think I'll leave it in its entirety, because each of these writers brings something very specific to prose as an art form that will influence writers for generations to come. These are some big names; very heavy hitters, but these are the writers who have stayed with me and whom I return to again and again when I want inspiration, or just a terrific read.

My favorite prose writers are: Richard Brautigan, Harry Crews, Marguerite Yourcenar, Toni Morrison, Flannery O’Connor, Carson McCullers, David Foster Wallace, Jorge Luis Borges, Ralph Ellison, Eileen Myles, Michel Foucault, Angela Carter, Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Harlan Ellison, Vladimir Nabokov, William Faulkner, and Djuna Barnes.

If you pick up a book by any of these authors, you’re going to get language that pops or flows or grows off the page, and you're going to learn something about yourself, the universe, society, or discover a new aesthetic possibility. After I read any of these writers, I feel bettered. These writers make me feel brave, and existentially so. They expand me intellectually and emotionally. Even the bleakest stories and essays make me feel hopeful, because these writers remind me that we, as humans, have the capacity to create and shape entire worlds of ideas; worlds with their own rules, as weird as we want them to be; worlds whose boundaries are imminent, infinite or not existent at all. And that is what art is. And that is how I approach creative prose; not as simply a conveyer of literal information, but as an art piece.

TF:  Can you talk about your novel that was released last year called The Albino Album?

CW: The Albino Album took me five years to write, and was quite a departure from my first book, Love Does Not Make Me Gentle or Kind, which was more poetic and language driven, and also personally closer to me. I enjoyed writing The Albino Album, because I was able to step back and be a bit lighter for long periods of time. It's a big book, 550 pages, so it moves fast. It has to at that length. It's much more character and plot driven than my earlier writing. I love hearing and seeing people I dont know talking about the book, and talking about the main character, Mya, like she's a real person who they went through something with. I've seen many reader comments and heard people say things like "I couldn't put the book down," or, "I just had to know what happened next." I didn't really set out to write a "page turner" and didn't even know I could write a book like that. But when I got into it with the characters, parts of it almost wrote itself, like the characters started doing things, and there were parts I couldn't write fast enough.

I lived in this very exciting and sometimes painful world with these characters for five years. When it was out and published, it felt a little strange for me. Now other people get to go into the world of that book. They spend a couple of weeks in it. Which was the point for the book; to be read. But in a way, I do miss it. Five years is a long time to spend with a piece. When it was over and I sat down to write, it took me a while to figure out what to do with myself because I was alone again. Starting over with a blank page.

TF: What do you think are some good practices when submitting work to be published?

CW: It's always best to have read something produced by the press you're submitting to. Also, in the writer’s statement, remember, it's the submission that’s being considered, not the statement. Don't overthink it. Editors want to know why you are excited and confident about the piece, and in what context you see your work. There is a human being just like you; another writer on the other end, reading. Just relax and explain or contextualize the piece as you would in person to another writer.

TF:  What's next for you?

CW: I'm nearly finished with a collection of short fiction that is very political in theme, and am working slowly on a more personal novella.

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Submissions for great weather for MEDIA's next anthology are open October 15 2014 to January 15 2015