Speaker 0 00:00:00 We need a coordinator for Hennepin county's COVID response task force. She works with all organizations, community health organization on health education on marketing about community testing events. Thank you very much. Ayesha. Thank you for having me. Thank you. <inaudible> <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:02:21 Programming on KFA. AI is supported in part by men. Sure. Where Minnesotans can compare health plans to find the best plan for their needs. Most people qualify for financial help. There is no charge for enrollment assistance, which is available in person or by phone at one eight five five three M N S U R E. Or visit M N S U R e.org.
Speaker 0 00:02:49 <inaudible>
Speaker 2 00:05:13 You are listening to right on radio on K FAI, 90.3 FM and streaming live on the
[email protected]. I'm Josh Webber. Tonight on right on radio Liz olds, we'll be talking with Michael Ellias author of you can go home now, a smart, relevant, psychological thriller about a woman cop who was on the Honda for a killer while battling violence, secrets of her own Ellie's was a member of the living theater and others. He moved to screenwriting and co-wrote the Frisco kid. Young doctors and love created the TV show head of the class and were to the Steven Martin writing jokes and Corina film. The jerk. He has won several awards for screenplays plays as first book lush life. I lose Alz in the last
Speaker 3 00:05:58 Part of the hour. David Pedic will be speaking with Becca clever author of the poetry collection. Ready for the world. Collabor is a writer t-shirt editor, scholar, and literary collaboration. Conjurer she is the author of several Chatbooks and three other collections of poetry. Whoever is also a founding editor of the feminist poetry press, which back books, all of this and more. So stay tuned to write on baby.
Speaker 4 00:06:32 Hello, Michael, can you hear us? Oh, yes I can. Can you hear me?
Speaker 3 00:06:35 Yes. Yes, we can. Great. Hi Michael, this is Liz
Speaker 4 00:06:40 Liz. Hi, I don't see me.
Speaker 3 00:06:45 You won't see me either. Cause I'm sitting on another.
Speaker 4 00:06:49 Mm. So, Oh, there. Okay. I see. Oh, there we go. Okay.
Speaker 3 00:07:01 Okay. Well, uh, let's start with the reading. Uh, you can go right ahead.
Speaker 4 00:07:07 Do you see me? No, we do not see you. Okay. Oh wait. Well you can just go ahead. You can still talk with us if you'd like, Oh, there you are. There you are. Perfect. Okay, good. Okay. Um, so I'll start reading and, uh, this is, uh, my novel is about a woman's shelter, as you know, um, a cop who, uh, uh, long Island, if female police, detective homicide, detective who goes undercover into a, uh, a women's shelter in Queens. And this is her arrival. I have two black eyes, possibly broken nose and scrapes and abrasions over my face. I also have a loose Mueller and a cut lip that doesn't seem to want to stop bleeding. A meat tenderizer hammer wrapped in a dish towel, edit three purple bruises to my thighs for good measure. You said I get in my car, drive on steadily to a parking spot on Northern Boulevard and walk two blocks to the shelter.
Speaker 4 00:08:16 I lean against the shelter's steel grill behind it as a solid wooden door, where the people above the door out of reach, there is a CCTV camera aimed at me. I ring the bell and count seconds to dull the pain at 31. The door opening. When it looks at me and shakes her head. I'm sorry. We're full. We have no room. I'll sleep on the floor. I say I stepped closer to show. She can get a better look at my face. I see hers. It's about 60 unlined with kind blue eyes behind granny glasses. She thinks for a moment then says with the gentle resignation, we'll give you a sleeping bag on a couch for now. I'm sorry. I can't promise more. It's okay. I'm in. Um, and then can I read, should I read a little more here? Okay. Um, this is, uh, one of the women in the shelter talking to her and telling her, uh, about her marriage.
Speaker 4 00:09:22 Um, at first, why did you stay? She asked her and she says at first, because I guess I loved him and we had a life plan. Uh, he would advance his police career. We would save my nursing salary for a house, have kids, you know, regular life. And after he hit me, he would apologize, promise to change. Swear. He loved me, all the other bullshit, which I bought into. We moved here. He got his job at home Depot. He had applications out to other police forces and a buddy said he could get them into the NYP D so things were looking up, but it wasn't right. I, I told him I wanted a divorce and that's when he showed me the bottle. The bottle acid would go into my face. When he found me, he showed me pictures of women who had acid thrown at them.
Speaker 4 00:10:20 He pointed out one drop. He poured out one drop on his own arm. You want to know what happens when a drop of acid hits skin? No you don't. But I believed him. The boiling water was just a preview of things to come. Somehow someone don't ask me who told me about a woman's shelter, where I would be safe. The next day, Ronald went to home Depot and I went to the shelter. I didn't come out until I saw on TV that he was dead. I have no idea what killed Ronald, but you know what? I'm grateful. Can you tell me about the shelter? No, there's one more part. Once when he was slapping me back and forth, one hand holding my neck, the other whipping across my cheeks. I caught a glimpse of a picture of him on the mantle, 10 years old in a Cub scout uniform, he looked proud and his grin was so sweet. The permanent tooth had not yet arrived, making him a cuter, freckles, bright eyes, combed hair, still wet. Adorable. I wanted to ask him, how did you grow up to be who you are, who taught you to hit? That's it.
Speaker 3 00:11:28 Thank you. Very powerful. This it's the Michael Elias reading from his book. You can go home now. Um, I'm curious, what was your passion that caused you to write this book? It must've been a difficult at times. And I'm wondering what caused you to write it?
Speaker 4 00:11:46 Um, it was, yes, it was difficult. I think, um, I started thinking about two things. Um, our fascination with revenge as a culture and that we, we enjoyed and love it so much in our movies. And yet at the same time, we're told it's a anti society. Uh, and yet we like it. So I wanted to write about revenge, about getting even as it were. And I wanted to think it was also at the time, maybe me too, thinking about the violence that has done to women. Um, and, uh, I wanted to write about that. So
Speaker 0 00:12:32 <inaudible>,
Speaker 3 00:13:16 If he's it wasn't too, uh, Michael, you are frozen and I can't hear you. Uh, we're working on the technical difficulties right now. Um, uh, I'm going to keep talking here to
Speaker 0 00:13:32 <inaudible>.
Speaker 3 00:14:18 Uh, Michael, can you hear me now? Yeah. Oh, great. You know, we lost you there for a minute. Um,
Speaker 4 00:14:24 Where did you leave? Where did you lose me?
Speaker 3 00:14:28 You had just started to talk about, uh, the revenge. You talked a little bit about revenge and the society.
Speaker 4 00:14:35 Shall I start there? Why you, huh?
Speaker 3 00:14:38 Yeah, we lost you there.
Speaker 4 00:14:40 Oh, okay. So you asked me, um, so I'll just start. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So you asked me, uh, what brought me to write this novel. And, uh, there were three things. One was the notion of revenge and how, as in our society, uh, in our culture, uh, we like it. We like revenge and movies. We'd like the bad guys to get their just desserts. Uh, we never see a, you know, we want to see Clint Eastwood, uh, killed the bad guy or Charles whatever, uh, uh, nice and so forth yet at the same time we're told it's not that's anti society. It's not, it's not right. Um, and then I thought I was thinking a lot about the me too movement about women, uh, and the violence against women, uh, which is, uh, as you know, is, uh, is horrible. And, and, um, with the COVID, uh, and, uh, women being forced to stay in, in, in Kent, go out it's, it's gotten worse. And then I thought about a women's shelter. And, uh, and have I had my, my, my protagonist, uh, who was a long Island police detective. And as I said, um, I wanted to also write about anti-abortion terrorism and bombing of planned Parenthood, uh, clinics and so forth. So, uh, I put it all together and I have a, uh, heroine whose father was a planned Parenthood doctor who was assassinated by a anti-abortion terrorist.
Speaker 3 00:16:24 Uh, yes. That, uh, was based on a real or, well, I don't know if you based it on a real life thing, but something like that actually happened several years ago. It didn't it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:16:33 Yes. And it's not just one, there there've been, I think, three or four doctors, uh, who were, who would kill yeah. Stepping in, uh, in upstate New York where I'm from was assassinated. Um, somewhat, uh, I use that as a kind of a model as you were, as it were.
Speaker 3 00:16:55 Um, did you have a loved one or someone, you know, that, uh, uh, had some abuse happen to them or were you kind of coming from yeah,
Speaker 4 00:17:06 Uh, I, I knew, I knew a couple of friends who were abused, uh, from, uh, and bad relationships and, uh, beaten in escape that I didn't know anybody who was in a shelter and for my research, uh, men aren't allowed in shelters from these reasons, but I talked to a women, I interviewed them and I interviewed, uh, lawyers and I did a lot of research. So I, I felt that I got it pretty well.
Speaker 3 00:17:38 You include, uh, two, uh, lesbians who one of them is abusing the other. And, uh, I appreciated that because, uh, it's not just men on women, uh, and there's even sometimes men that get abused by women. Did you, uh, think of all that I know, uh, that particular, uh, um, situation, it would really hit home to me that there are other kinds of abuse to be aware of.
Speaker 4 00:18:09 Yes. Uh, thank you. Um, uh, it turns out that, um, abuse is not limited. It's not, it's not limited to a heterosexual relationships. It's, it's in the gay community too. And there are all kinds of varieties of abuse, psychological abuse, there's physical abuse. Uh, and some people get really very good at it. Uh, so yeah, I wanted to investigate that and, uh, and also reverse it so that the, um, uh, the, the, the gay couple and the one who's doing the abuse is not, uh, the extensively stronger or, uh, a member of the, of, of, of the relationship. So I wanted to reverse that also. And so that would be more psychological too.
Speaker 3 00:19:01 Yes. I, you spoke about research. Uh, tell me about the kind of research that you did for, for the sport
Speaker 4 00:19:09 Mean. I just read accounts. Uh, I talked to, as I said, I couldn't go into a shelter really, so, but I had, I read a lot, so there's a lot of, uh, uh, stuff to be read first, uh, uh, certainly, uh, firsthand, uh, narrations of, of what it's like. And, uh, you know, that was, and then the, uh, the character, the research for the character, what it's, uh, how do you become a police woman? Uh, what was her life, uh, up to that point and, um, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:19:44 How did you choose to write this from a woman's point of view?
Speaker 4 00:19:49 I don't think I could have written it from anybody else's. Um, and I, I wanted to put it into a woman who witnessed the death of her father when she was a teenager. Uh, and I think she says at one point, if I was older and when it happened, I wouldn't have been as, uh, I wouldn't have had the same rage that I, that I had now that she was stamped, uh, when this happened and, and it never, it never left her. In fact, every once, once I think in the book where she worries that she's losing her anger and she fights to get it back. Um, and, and so it's a story about a women's shelter, and it's a story about, uh, a woman, uh, seeking justice. And so I wanted to tell it as close to the bone as I could, which meant I had to tell it in her voice, um, whether I was successful in, uh, that voice being accurate, only the reader will decide, um, whether I got, whether I got it right.
Speaker 3 00:20:58 Uh, one of the reviews that I read did indicate that you got it right. They said, you, you, right. I can't remember if said you write in the women's voice, like a woman or something like that, but I got some good, good feedback. I'm curious. Did you get some pushback or either negative or positive feedback about writing in the voice of a woman?
Speaker 4 00:21:19 Well, yes, when I first started writing it, I, uh, I showed it to, uh, my wife. I showed it to, uh, women writers. I wanted to make sure. And, uh, yeah, I got, I got, I got my ass kicked a few times and that was, that was great. They, I mean, they really, uh, gave me, I think, an honest appraisal, and I think they, they pronounced it fit at the end.
Speaker 3 00:21:48 What did you get out of writing it? I'm sorry, what did you get out of writing it for yourself for your own emotions or thought patterns or,
Speaker 4 00:21:58 Well, I think it hit, it's the feeling that one gets a one when wine one becomes a writer. You want to tell a story and, uh, the satisfaction of telling that story and coming to the end is, uh, it makes me want to start the next one. I, uh, uh, I am a writer and that's, that's what I do.
Speaker 3 00:22:24 Do you have another book in the pipeline there?
Speaker 4 00:22:27 Yes. I have two, uh, I have a sequel to this one that I'm writing now. And I had finished one. I was writing two things at once. I was writing. You can go home now, which was, as you said earlier, was, was difficult. And it was very emotional and, uh, it had some, it was hard. And at the same time I was writing another one, which was a, uh, a novel about Hollywood, about a Hollywood writer, which was in a much lighter tone. And, uh, I could seek relief from the dark and I can go into the, the light. And, uh, that one is that one's making arounds now. Well, we'll start January. And it's a, it's called Bender's Hollywood and it's, uh, it's, it's, it's sort of a, uh, it's, it's about Hollywood in the seventies from the point of view of a screenwriter and television writer and all that kind of crazy stuff that goes on. And it's fairly political too, because it takes place during the Vietnam war. And he's a political guy, uh, in addition to being a funny guy, but there's that other part too was a wild time.
Speaker 3 00:23:40 Yeah. What'd you say that one's, semi-autobiographical very,
Speaker 4 00:23:46 I, I, uh, I changed the names. I fictionalized my life so I could tell the truth.
Speaker 3 00:23:53 Ah, yes. Um, you, you probably get asked this a lot. You, you worked with Steve Martin and I as a banjo player. I'm most curious about that, but I'm also curious what it was like to, to work with him.
Speaker 4 00:24:08 Well, I couldn't have as, as a friend and as a collaborator, he first class, I mean, he's just a really smart guy. He's reasonable. He's uh, he, uh, we worked together as writers. Uh, we met many years ago when we were both writers. It was before you became a comedian. So we knew each other then. And then as he developed more and more into comedy, uh, a comedian, uh, I started writing material for, for him and with him. And, uh, he's, he's a terrific person. He's, uh, just, just the best. So, uh, I was very lucky and we had a good collaboration and we're still friends.
Speaker 3 00:24:52 That's cool. And he is a great banjo player. I have to say as a fan
Speaker 4 00:24:58 He's, uh, is considered one of the best, right?
Speaker 3 00:25:01 Yes, it really is. Yeah. Um, let's get back to, uh, you can go home now. Just one last question. We're, we're running out of time here. What did you get out of writing the book for yourself or, Oh, I asked that one. It's what did you hope other people would get out of it?
Speaker 4 00:25:19 Well, I think, uh, I wanted to examine the notion as I said, of, uh, of revenge getting even and why we've, why that is. So that's such a, a kind of basic instinct in us, in us and what do we do about it? And I also want to write about violence against women and, uh, and yet at the same time, uh, I have a pretty good mystery story. So it's not, I mean, it's not a dark thing. It's also, it's very, uh, partying. It's very entertaining and moves along. Uh, people, you know, all the reviews say it's a really good read and the character, she's a great character. Sometimes she's really funny. And, and, uh, so I think it's a, it's a great ride. Uh, and you want to read, people tell me they, they pick it up and they, they read it in one night. They want to just keep going because they want to find out, uh, the end.
Speaker 3 00:26:15 Uh, I found that to be true, really. Uh, I actually read it once and then two weeks later it was time for the interview. And I just read the whole thing second time. I really enjoyed it. So, uh, thank you.
Speaker 4 00:26:27 And it's not a, I mean, it's not a depressing, I don't think it's a depressing book. It's, it's got a lot of humor and a lot of really interesting characters. And I think anybody who reads it will have a good evening.
Speaker 3 00:26:39 Yes. And no spoilers, but it's quite good. It has some
Speaker 0 00:26:45 Interesting ways of being, uh, we talked about what's next and actually we've, uh, pretty much run out of time here. Uh, we've been speaking with Mike Lovell Elias. You can go home now, a very interesting mystery about violence against women and, uh, women's shelters and so on. Uh, thank you, Michael. I really appreciate you, uh, tuning in tonight. Sorry about the technical difficulties. Okay. Thanks. Thank you very much for inviting me. You bet. Have a good holiday. Bye-bye <inaudible> well, it is the week of Christmas and close to the week of new year's. And actually I looked on the rain to actually review of books and I looked in my email and there are no events this week, and there are no events next week, but I'll check Tuesday to make sure that one hasn't popped up. So there's no calendar today. And so we're going to go right into our next interview. <inaudible> David Becca. You're both on the air right now,
Speaker 5 00:28:56 Becca. Hi. Hi. Hi. We are going to speak now with Becca Klaver over zoom. That's what we do these days. Welcome to KFH from where are you? Zooming Becca. I mean, Iowa city, Iowa. Very good. So down South there where it's nice and warm. Very good. That's right. Maybe you consider the teams warm up in the twin cities then. Sure. Tomorrow we will, but not today. Right? So great to have you on the program. Congratulations on the book. It's ready for the world of book of poems. Um, uh, Becca let's get started with a reading to give people a flavor for your work. I know you've got some, a poem signed up for us. W w what do you want to start with?
Speaker 6 00:29:42 I thought I would start with, um, my spell for the solstice since the solstice was just yesterday. And, um, this one works for the winter and summer solstice. Um, because of course in a different hemisphere, it is the summer solstice. Um, so spell for the solstice standing still, but the sun, because why go on side eyeing the moon who still sees me? I can't believe it's this day again. And I'm just me coming round. If this light is the most, I may ever feel, maybe I shouldn't hold onto darkness, the need to edge out the sky. What is it to smuggle air like soil by now? You might think you have all the light in the world and you do the next feat is just stay graceful while you give it up on the darkest day. You'll know, you'll lose so much more than you ever imagined. Daylight soaking surfaces, nightlight, smoothing sheets for sun temple, use body for moonshine. Use eyes now, rest in your water bed, deep in the Bower.
Speaker 5 00:31:14 Thank you. That was Becca Klaver reading from ready for the world, a poem called spell for the solstice. Now what's solstice was in your mind when you were writing this,
Speaker 6 00:31:23 I think it's a little bit more of a summer solstice poem. Um, but I tried to make it sort of work in reverse, um, to hold the darkness and the light at the same time. So, um, thanks.
Speaker 5 00:31:38 Uh, so since you read this poem, I'm going to get right into a series of questions that I had about the word spell about the word magic. And I think covenant shows up in here, which is show up in here and all for intended effect. I am sure. Um, in fact, there are so many spell for poems, Becca, that you could have called this book spell for what are, these are spell for something. Right. So tell us, um, about that, um, your relationship to those words, to what they mean to us, you know, they conjure up mystery and all other kinds of things.
Speaker 6 00:32:14 Yeah. When I was thinking about what to title the book, I did consider some kind of like spell book title grimoire, you know, something that would indicate, um, that this was a book of spells as well as poems, but I decided obviously the listeners can not see the cover of the book, but I decided to have the cover of the book, sort of do that to like instead. So, um, the cover looks like an old, um, spell book, but then it has the title ready for the world to say in this sort of like disco digital font is how I think of this font. Um, and so that's kind of pulling us into the world of the internet that is also, um, really prominent in the book. And so, yeah, I think, I think of the internet as magic of poetry as magic and I, and of the way women and girls kind of come together in groups as, um, magical practices. So I was trying to kind of pull all these different ideas of what magic means to me. And also, um, this was the book that I kind of finally wanted to write after describing myself as a feminist scholar and editor and, um, doing all of that sort of work. I wanted to write a book that really felt like it was for women and girls in particular, but I've been happy to find that it's not just women and girls who can use the spells. So that's, that's good too.
Speaker 5 00:33:44 You just described the three themes that I pulled out of this book, uh, magic spells, et cetera, uh, technology and, and women or feminism and whatever the case might be. And we'll spend some time talking about each, but let's spend a little more time on the word spell. So when you say mean, you know, you mean these poems to be spells, um, describe more for us what you mean by that. And again, how you respond to that word and what it means for you. Um, you know what I'm saying? Are they more than poems? Are you try to pull something out of us? I don't mean literally magically of course.
Speaker 6 00:34:19 Yeah. Well, I mean, maybe I am in the minority, but I think palms can be useful. So I think maybe one of the things columns could be used for is to sort of enact something and make it happen. So, um, I think poetic language more than, you know, like if you're thinking about a novel, like we were just looking at, if you're thinking of narrative forms, poetic language is more likely to try to sort of make something happen through language, um, in, in the space of reading or reciting, um, the poem. And so I was thinking about how that is one of the really special aspects of poetic language to me and how I wanted to kind of flex that. I also wrote these poems all together, the spell palms altogether, one April for, um, Napco Ramo. I write a poem every day in April.
Speaker 6 00:35:20 And so I decided I was going to do spells, um, and I took requests. So it was also a fun way to kind of, um, interact with people and say like, all right, what do you need to spell for, you know, spell for a headache, for example, um, that's a short one. Should I read that one? This is a useful, okay. So anyone out there who has a headache, um, there are, there are a few remedies in here for you. Some, you may have tried some, maybe not, um, spell for a headache, warm salt water cut with baking powder poured through your face holes or little blue pill or forward fold or water than wine, or sometimes you spend all day learning all over again. The ritual is just to sit, wait, let the weather roll through. Um, yeah, so I think that one was a response to a request for what kind of spells might be useful. Um, and I was also just trying to write myself out of a dark place at that time. And I thought I needed not just to write at home a day, but to write a poem that would like maybe make something happen, like shift up the energy in my life. Um, and so spells seemed to be the way to go.
Speaker 5 00:36:56 So again, you've suggested another line of questioning I was going to get to later, but in your relationship to poetry's you hinted at it here, um, in, in this case you mentioned a poem that you wrote because maybe you needed to write it to make yourself feel better or to help yourself get out of the bad place side, however you described it. Um, so what is your relationship to poetry in that regard? Um, you feel compelled to sit down and write every day, like, uh, obsessively, uh, do you,
Speaker 6 00:37:26 Yeah, I, I actually started having a daily writing practice only about two years ago because I was asking my students to do it. And I realized like there was something not, um, like maybe mildly unethical about spelling, my creative writing students that they had to do this and that I haven't really gone through the experience myself. And so I decided I was going to write, but it's, it's mostly sort of journaling or it's like descriptive writing, um, what I do, uh, every morning. Um, so I do have a daily writing practice, but I think, I think mostly I'm a sort of restless writer. Like I'd never want any poem to have the same shape as the last one, or I never want to rest too long on the same theme. So like a month long of trying to write spells it's about, you know, as long as I can go. Um, and then it's onto the next thing. Um, and yeah, I think I'm just like always trying to push myself onto the next thing. And that means the shapes and styles of my poems do shift, I think, or I'm trying to allow for a lot of different voices and, and forms within the same book.
Speaker 5 00:38:45 You'd certainly have done that again. I want to talk about that too. So some of your written single poems, uh, shapeshift within this, within poems, I'm thinking of Astro love in particular. I want to talk about that, but, uh, I was not aware of Napal remote, uh, remote. I've heard of it and I tried and failed many times at that one, but now I'm going to try Neil on this one. And April is really good. It's the perfect month to write a poem every day, by the way. Right. It's a terrible word.
Speaker 6 00:39:12 Well, right. It's the cruelest month, but it's also a month when like all these shoots are coming out of the ground and not like the world is changing. So it's actually a very product month. I find April. It's great for federated upon the day. And remember, you can write a haiku a day, so no pressure,
Speaker 5 00:39:28 But yes, thank you for that. I'll send you what I want to come back to magic and women, uh, girls, women, feminism, and that holding very powerful, uh, I guess, theme to use the term again, but, uh, the, these ideas pop up in sometimes subtle ways, but very direct ways. Um, and I wondered if you were writing these poems for women. Um, although I enjoyed them. So, uh, were you thinking about women and girls when you're writing these poems?
Speaker 6 00:39:59 I think I was, I was thinking about women and girls consciously for many of them, but what really ended up happening was that I had years of poems that I had on my hard drive and was just sort of sorting through them and realizing, Oh, okay. Like I have enough palms that are thinking about women and girls, the internet witchcraft, somehow we're all going to go together in a book. And I, you know, that, that is a weird combination maybe, but I think maybe with the pups it side by side, it becomes clear why some of them go together. Um, so, so yeah, I think I was trying to kind of just gather all the poems I'd already written for, for women and girls and try to figure out how they speak to one another. I, I work in the dark and I figure out later when I'm doing so that's how I figure it out later. I just put them all together and, and try to see how everything's speaking, speaking to the next poem. So yeah,
Speaker 5 00:41:07 I was like, I'm not a musician of very much of one, but it sounds like putting together an album and putting together things that work together. Well, did you find yourself having to rework any of these poems when you brought them forward to be in this book?
Speaker 6 00:41:19 Definitely. Yeah. I think once they're together, then the order changes a lot. Um, and the individual palms change a lot because once they're all next to each other in the, and the manuscript, then you sort of get a sense of the whole and at least I try to make it more cohesive at that point. So that whatever sort of like weird, intuitive reasoning, why these things, uh, deserve to be side by side, uh, might jump over to the reader at some point, any experience I hope. Um, yeah, I do want that to be at least gettable, even if it's not always, um, gotten,
Speaker 5 00:42:08 So we've been talking about magic and spells and women and girls. Is there a particular poem Becca that you have, you can read for us that would give our wonderful, wonderful listeners a sense of what we're talking about?
Speaker 6 00:42:20 Yes. Well, I mean, you mentioned Astro lab 11. It was on my list. It's a little bit longer, but if we have time, I can read that one or I can read part of it.
Speaker 5 00:42:29 Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. It's it's uh, I do want to talk about it, so we might as well read it. Right. Okay.
Speaker 6 00:42:35 Perfect. Astro love harmony of the worlds as for whether I'm an astronomer or astrologer. I come from a time when there was no difference, and I've been around long enough to see all the ways to kill witches, including rock drowning, steak burning, clean beheading, botched, beheading, and most ruthless of all the smothering of memory. So the things our bones know, get shut up for good planets falling toward the sun girl. You better run, run, run. That's why groups of girls are dangerous, are always covenant because we say neither astronomy nor astrology, curtsy dedicated to astrolabe and all its forms. Pinkies out. I have Newt and scroll of blog stir because in a circle of belief, we come to find what we already know. Planet's falling toward the sun girl. You better run, run, run. As for whether I read the stars to divine the future or improve modern civilization, just slide next to me for a while and stare at the sky.
Speaker 6 00:44:07 I deleted my stargazer app after the position of the sun, under my feet through the Hill and the earth core gave me such a scare. I preferred my human tools. After all planets falling toward the sun girl, you better run, run, run a certain degree of superstition. I've always allowed, wishing, clenching, blinking, flipping the light switch. What? I don't know, minus what I believe spring and sunrise returning again and again though, we're the ones spinning what superstition, but faith, but a tango with late winter ending in a bloody kiss, planets falling toward the sun girl. You better run, run, run. If we could believe in a world like this might as well wish for another. The old rituals ripped from their targets. So we feel the gap with names of disorders as for whether I'm an astronomer or astrologer. Don't try and tell me about stars as they really are.
Speaker 6 00:45:21 I've felt my dwarfed will poise where the void doesn't end, planet's falling toward the sun girl. You better run, run, run. As for whether I have always known how to make one thing, stand for another. I've laid on my back and use my hands and eyes to trace pictures and the sky to guess at the future, like any other instrument inside some other dimensions, black hole that such a dark life could be ruled by such bright stars, planets falling toward the sun girl. You better run, run, run planets, falling toward the sun girl. You better run, run, run planets, falling toward the sun girl. You better run, run, run.
Speaker 5 00:46:17 Thank you. Thank you, Becca. That was Becca Klaver reading from her recent poll poetry collection. We're ready for the world. The name of that poem was Astro love and Perez harmony of the worlds. That's love spelled L U V much to discuss there. So I thought of a song because of the repeating chorus. Um, did you feel like you were writing a song of sorts? Can you hear me okay.
Speaker 6 00:46:42 Uh, uh, I have no musical skill, but I'm certainly one of many to wish that could be rockstars and steps. Um, anyway, that's, that's a partial answer, but, um, yeah, I think I just, I felt that, um, the planet's falling toward the sun and girl, you better read Norma. And I just, I sort of felt it kind of like digging its hooks in me, like a chorus of a song would and like it, it needed to return. Um, and it needed to sort of punctuate what was happening in the rest of the poems. So, um, yeah, I don't even really know if the rest of the poem is, is rhyming or musical. Um, I wasn't even paying attention, but it worked, it was
Speaker 5 00:47:31 Beautiful phrases in here with late things are ending in a bloody kiss on the way the poor man's that such a dark life could be ruled by such bright stars. Um, w I hate to ask a pull at what she's telling us or what she wants us to think, because that's our job to do that. Um, but, uh, it's uh, is it one person, is that your relationship with the universe? Um, yeah, that that's, it leads me to a broader question. To what degree you are in these poems, Becca. Um, uh, because I, I w I think we can read a number of poets who write about the world out there, and we feel like we maybe don't know the poet very well. I feel like we get to know you in these poems, whether you intend that or not, there seems to be a, um, a raw sort of, um, realness to them. And that's a compliment. I mean, that's good. Yeah. We're conversing with you. Um, um, but the I in this poem is that, you know,
Speaker 6 00:48:29 Yeah. I would say it's me and yeah, that's good to know, because I think maybe some of the work I've been writing lately is more straight the autobiographical, which is maybe like a place, a lot of other poets start to go in a different direction. And I sort of had like needed to, uh, to go, um, towards some more conceptual stuff maybe, and then come back, um, to speaking more directly from an autobiographical. I am, you know, this, this I's definitely me. Um, it is also me speaking through, um, viewing the Carl Sagan cosmos episode called harmony of the world. So, um, there was a magazine literary magazine, um, powder keg that asks some poets to watch these episodes from cosmos on, um, YouTube. And then they assigned a station episode, and then we responded to it. So I really love that kind of drastic writing because I feel like whatever you're doing when you're describing the thing out there, whatever you're watching or seeing you are always sort of speaking from your own experience or sort of telling your own story, um, as reflected off of it. So I love the way that kind of writing will kind of like refract whatever straightforward autobiographical experience. Um, so it's coming out. So I think that's, what's happening here with this I, where it's, it is me, but it's also me watching that I'm watching that show about, uh, deep space and kind of projecting myself out there.
Speaker 5 00:50:11 It's a, it's super provoking. It's really lovely. Uh, you mentioned form earlier, Becca, uh, let's talk about form, uh, there's all kinds of types of forms of poems look, but I say this all the time when I talk to a poet, but I respond, I'm sure most readers do when they open the page and look at a poem to respond to the shape of the words, the shape of the poem or the form of these Fido. And if it's broken up a lot, I get the sense that something, you know, really free versus going on here and a really kind of modern different, or if things are tight, uh, heavily stands that are layered and I expect more formality and it doesn't always play out that way, but yeah, your, your poems certainly run the gamut as a continuum in that regard. Um, is those forms come to you with the poem or do you sort of start with an idea of a shape? Um, do you see what I'm getting at?
Speaker 6 00:50:59 Yeah, I do. Yeah. I think, I, I think I almost always sort of like chisel out the shape of the poem from a blob of words. So like, I'm, I'm rarely writing in line breaks that actually become the line breaks in the finished poem. And I'm often just sort of like writing, you know, margin to margin and a notebook and figuring out later, like, what is, what is the shape of this statue slash poem that needs to be chiseled out of here? Um, so yeah, I think it's just from going over the poem enough times and kind of like letting it, letting it, tell me what shape it needs. That's, that's how they get there for it.
Speaker 5 00:51:44 Sure. Because some of these are their paragraph forms. They look like a, you know, a piece of prose and then others quite uncommon do not look at all like a piece of prose. And then there's this wonderful rhyming poem spell for feeling different. I really love this rhyme scheme. I like, I like Ryan. I'm a, I'm going to admit that right here. Um, it got an ABB ACC, a rhyme scheme here. I don't know what that is. Did you invent that? Is that a County?
Speaker 6 00:52:11 I wish I could say invented consciously, but I perhaps invented,
Speaker 5 00:52:16 Well, I'm not aware of this forum, but it's really nice. Um, do you mind reading it to us? We can hear a little Brian. Okay,
Speaker 6 00:52:23 Sure. I would love to, and yeah, I guess we were talking about songs before and this one I maybe did. Maybe I hear it as like a little bit of a valid in my head. This one might be a more conscious song than some of the others with the rhyme to, um, spell for feeling different. He'd say he wanted to feel different, but all she knew were children's games, medicine in the forest, cash crops and government pills, herbs out in the desert numb or cure those ills. She'd tried to help him feel different. He'd say he always felt the same. The priestess Rose up from the water, then sank down with the rains, legal and lethal the salty pressure cutting through her veins. He'd say, I just want to feel different. She'd say she always felt the same. Okay.
Speaker 5 00:53:26 Klaver reading from her book ready for the world. Uh, we haven't talked about technology yet. You've referenced it. Um, what's it like to be a poet in this these times with technology all around us, uh, your students who I'm guessing I've grown up, unlike this grizzled old veteran that who's speaking to you right now did not grow up in this world of technology. That's all they've experienced. How do they encounter poetry or write poetry or think about poetry? How does poetry live in this world today? Yeah, I think
Speaker 6 00:53:57 The students, you know, because they're digital natives, they, they don't see it or feel it as much as we do those of us who kind of had it, like enter our lives at this certain point. That feels like a before and after point, you know? And so, um, I'm part of a generation called <inaudible>, which is people born in the late seventies and early eighties. And it's also called the Oregon trail generation. And the theory of this generation is that we're sort of like in between gen Xers and millennials and that because the internet came into our homes and we were teenagers, there was like this really like identity formative experience. And, you know, people can probably say this about the internet at all sorts of times that it might've mentioned their lives. But for me, this was true that when I was a teenager and people started having, um, America online in their homes, I was obsessed with the internet.
Speaker 6 00:54:52 And I thought it was like pure magic. I couldn't believe you could go to a chat room and talk to people across long distances and this way. And so I really had this reaction to like early home internet that was like pure wonder. And, um, now of course there are all sorts of things you can say about social media and all sorts of documentaries. You can watch about Facebook, all the ways our identities and all of our data is being mined and all this stuff. But I think there's a part of me that has never really let go of this sort of like wonder at being able to communicate across long distances. And then of course, you know, this book came out like, right, like at the end of February, right before the world shut down and it's called ready for the world. And it's so much about the internet. So then the poems over the course of the year kind of have taken on this whole other, um, set of meanings that I did not intend because they're so much about virtual life and like trying to describe what it's like to live a whole lot of your life on the internet, which a lot of us already did, but now we do it even more.
Speaker 5 00:56:03 Yeah, fascinating. Uh, I know we're gonna run out of time soon, but I want to mention, uh, switch back books. Um, T tell us about that. Uh, as we read in your intro at the beginning, um, it's, uh, it's pressed that you have co-founded or founded or a feminist poetry press. Tell us about that. And can we get some, your authors on our show?
Speaker 6 00:56:25 Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So I, I'm not an editor for switchback anymore, but it's in very good hands. Um, and, uh, at least Nora and Kate Partridge are the editors and it's actually, it's sort of like the little press that could, because it's on its third set of editors and now has institutional support, but we started it when we were MFA students. Um, Brandy Holman, Hannah Andrews, and I were at Columbia college, Chicago as MFA students. And, um, the action book, editors, Joelle McSweeney, and Johana scorns, and came to talk to our class and gave a presentation about small press publishing. And we were just wowed and decided we needed to start a press too. So we were, you know, we were in an MFA program and somehow this press has lived on and, um, you know, we've published the first books of Morgan Parker, Jennifer Tomayo Monica Delatorre. So, you know, I'm just so proud of everything that has come out of it. Yeah.
Speaker 5 00:57:18 Well, I'm going to look them up. That's fantastic. Yeah. Um, so what's new for you. What, what, what are you, I mean, you're teaching you're writing. Do you have another book coming up or what what's what's online for Becca?
Speaker 6 00:57:28 Yeah, that's a great question. Um, I have been trying to write a sort of autobiographical novel about, um, the future. So it's sort of like a mock philosophical novel about time and thinking about the future. And, um, and, but the tone is like, you know, it's not that serious. It's, it's a mock mock up. So there's that,
Speaker 5 00:58:03 There's a lot of humor in your poems and I should stress that from the listeners. They're just fun to read. Um, but it's interesting to think of an autobiography about the future. I mean, that's hard to her to write an autobiography about something you have not experienced it yet, but I'm sure a poet could pull that off. So we getting a hand signal, Josh, how are we doing for time? I can't see that, but okay. All we've been speaking with Becca Klaver, it's been a treat to have you on the show, her to be here, ready for the world. Like a Klaver K L a V E R. Look her up. Um, thank you. We'd love to have you back when that IO autobiography autobiographical novel comes out.
Speaker 6 00:58:44 Thanks, David. This has been really fun. Thank you.
Speaker 5 00:58:47 Thank you much. Bye. Now back to Josh. Thank you.
Speaker 7 00:58:51 If you or a loved one has been ticketed arrested or held in jail in Ramsey County, you may have a court date and not know it to learn more and check your court date. Visit Ramsey county.us/court. I used to
Speaker 8 00:59:03 Struggling to get enough healthy food for your family. During the COVID 19 pandemic Ramsey County is here to help. Several programs are available to connect you with healthy, nutritious food and basic supplies like toilet paper, toothpaste, diapers, and other financial assistance programs. Visit Ramsey County dot U S slash food resources to find free local food shelves. Open to everyone. You may be eligible for free home meal delivery or additional assistance programs need some support. Find help at Ramsey County that U S slash food resources or call (651) 266-8500.
Speaker 3 00:59:48 You have been listening to right on radio on KPI 90.3 FM and streaming live on the
[email protected].
