Sandra Marchetti Q & A with Eastern Iowa Review
Chila: Sandy, you're well established in the literary community as a poet. What were the 3 most thrilling moments in your life as a poet thus far?
Sandy: Oh well, thank you. I’m not sure that I’m well-established—I can’t even get verified on Twitter! But, I have had some good success writing and publishing my work. The most thrilling moment was finding out after nearly one hundred rejections that my first full-length collection of poetry, Confluence, was going to be published. I worked very hard for that and it was as satisfying as I thought it would be. Rarely do we get to see our dreams come true. Having my first chapbook, The Canopy, published after being selected as the winner of a prize from MWC Press meant a great deal to me as well—that honor kept me writing and publishing with confidence until Confluence was ultimately picked up a few years later. Being twice published in Ecotone, a magazine I absolutely cherish, is a great third thrill.
Chila: All notable choices, indeed. As a fellow Midwesterner, how does the culture in this part of the country inform your writing?
Sandy: I write about niche Midwestern cultures directly. Currently I’m writing about the culture of Chicago Cubs fans, the organization, and listening to baseball games on the radio. There’s a strong radio culture in the Midwest—we listen while we work (inside and outside), there are tons of radio aficionados here, and of course, many folks have envisioned their own “Field of Dreams” in their backyards. The landscape also informs everything that I write, from my metrics and choices of forms to the subject matter.
Chila: Talk about your published essays; the one we included in our inaugural issue was called "Away From My Desk." Will you be writing more nonfiction in the future? How does your poetry proficiency assist in your creative nonfiction, or does it?
Sandy: I find myself mostly writing poetry craft essays. It helps me to verbalize how I write myself out of my own corner, if that makes sense. I write about my process, connect that process to my influences, and hopefully that helps other writers too. They are poetic literacy narratives, essentially. The most recent essays I’ve written are about the Chicago Cubs poetry book I’m compiling, and they’ve helped me to solidify that project. Prose seems to be a necessary part of my poetic process now. I also write book reviews (though less so lately) and they seem to take a similar form. I am obsessed with other folks’ influences—the writers they sound like, that they may have read. So, my reviews are kind of like Netflix suggestions: “If you like X, you might enjoy Y."
Chila: I have writing heroes. I can name at least 4 or 5. Do you have any, and if so, who are they (living or dead)?
Sandy: I’ll tell you a secret. I am really discriminating about who I like. I read widely but am not effusive in my praise of everything. Their are certain authors who I feel kindred with, who are anchors. That’s a really exclusive club for me, including Octavio Paz, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, Li-Young Lee, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and maybe a few others (including a couple of my contemporaries).
Chila: Great, honest answer, and I must tell you that I'm aligned with that perspective entirely. Tell us what you're working on now, writing-wise. And do you have a new vision for 2018 re: your writing, or will you continue a current project or projects?
Sandy: Two projects are in the works--the aforementioned Chicago Cubs poetry book, and also maybe not surprisingly, a collection of poems on influence that I’m currently calling “Diorama.” Many of the poems in “Diorama” continue what Confluence began, but take lines, titles, or phrases from other poets’ work and put them to use in my work. I am fascinated with tracing poetic lineage, as I mentioned above. I have almost 80 pages of poems written, about 40 for each of these projects, so I hope to begin organizing the collections in 2018. It’s going to be a tough task, but I can’t wait to snatch some time away to do it.
Chila: Thank you, Sandy, and I can't wait to see your next publications, including the poetry collections that I know will find a home. You've been a continual source of inspiration for me.
Chila: Sandy, you're well established in the literary community as a poet. What were the 3 most thrilling moments in your life as a poet thus far?
Sandy: Oh well, thank you. I’m not sure that I’m well-established—I can’t even get verified on Twitter! But, I have had some good success writing and publishing my work. The most thrilling moment was finding out after nearly one hundred rejections that my first full-length collection of poetry, Confluence, was going to be published. I worked very hard for that and it was as satisfying as I thought it would be. Rarely do we get to see our dreams come true. Having my first chapbook, The Canopy, published after being selected as the winner of a prize from MWC Press meant a great deal to me as well—that honor kept me writing and publishing with confidence until Confluence was ultimately picked up a few years later. Being twice published in Ecotone, a magazine I absolutely cherish, is a great third thrill.
Chila: All notable choices, indeed. As a fellow Midwesterner, how does the culture in this part of the country inform your writing?
Sandy: I write about niche Midwestern cultures directly. Currently I’m writing about the culture of Chicago Cubs fans, the organization, and listening to baseball games on the radio. There’s a strong radio culture in the Midwest—we listen while we work (inside and outside), there are tons of radio aficionados here, and of course, many folks have envisioned their own “Field of Dreams” in their backyards. The landscape also informs everything that I write, from my metrics and choices of forms to the subject matter.
Chila: Talk about your published essays; the one we included in our inaugural issue was called "Away From My Desk." Will you be writing more nonfiction in the future? How does your poetry proficiency assist in your creative nonfiction, or does it?
Sandy: I find myself mostly writing poetry craft essays. It helps me to verbalize how I write myself out of my own corner, if that makes sense. I write about my process, connect that process to my influences, and hopefully that helps other writers too. They are poetic literacy narratives, essentially. The most recent essays I’ve written are about the Chicago Cubs poetry book I’m compiling, and they’ve helped me to solidify that project. Prose seems to be a necessary part of my poetic process now. I also write book reviews (though less so lately) and they seem to take a similar form. I am obsessed with other folks’ influences—the writers they sound like, that they may have read. So, my reviews are kind of like Netflix suggestions: “If you like X, you might enjoy Y."
Chila: I have writing heroes. I can name at least 4 or 5. Do you have any, and if so, who are they (living or dead)?
Sandy: I’ll tell you a secret. I am really discriminating about who I like. I read widely but am not effusive in my praise of everything. Their are certain authors who I feel kindred with, who are anchors. That’s a really exclusive club for me, including Octavio Paz, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, Li-Young Lee, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and maybe a few others (including a couple of my contemporaries).
Chila: Great, honest answer, and I must tell you that I'm aligned with that perspective entirely. Tell us what you're working on now, writing-wise. And do you have a new vision for 2018 re: your writing, or will you continue a current project or projects?
Sandy: Two projects are in the works--the aforementioned Chicago Cubs poetry book, and also maybe not surprisingly, a collection of poems on influence that I’m currently calling “Diorama.” Many of the poems in “Diorama” continue what Confluence began, but take lines, titles, or phrases from other poets’ work and put them to use in my work. I am fascinated with tracing poetic lineage, as I mentioned above. I have almost 80 pages of poems written, about 40 for each of these projects, so I hope to begin organizing the collections in 2018. It’s going to be a tough task, but I can’t wait to snatch some time away to do it.
Chila: Thank you, Sandy, and I can't wait to see your next publications, including the poetry collections that I know will find a home. You've been a continual source of inspiration for me.
Sandra Marchetti is the author of Confluence, a full-length collection of poetry from Sundress Publications (2015). She is also the author of four chapbooks of poetry and lyric essays, including Heart Radicals (Black Magic Media, 2018), Sight Lines (Speaking of Marvels Press, 2016), A Detail in the Landscape (Eating Dog Press, 2014), and The Canopy (MWC Press, 2012). Sandra’s poetry appears widely in Poet Lore, Blackbird, Subtropics, Ecotone, Southwest Review, River Styx, and elsewhere. Her essays can be found at The Rumpus, Words Without Borders, Mid-American Review, Barrelhouse, and other venues. Sandy earned an MFA in Creative Writing—Poetry from George Mason University and now serves as the Coordinator of Tutoring Services at the College of DuPage in the Chicagoland area.