EILEEN MYLES INTERVIEW

-


I met with punk poet and writer Eileen Myles after a reading of their new book Afterglow, which is out in the UK in February. As they are an absolute hero of mine, I struggled to string a sentence together, but I did manage to say just how influential Chelsea Girls was for me the first time (of many!) that I read it. A couple of months later, I started thinking about writers that have influenced not just my own writing, but my entire lifestyle. I thought about the likes of Myles, Winterson and Waters and started to wonder, who were the writers that inspired them? What books were the writing that shaped their adolescent years?
I got in touch with Myles, who was just coming to the end of their US book tour, and we scheduled to talk the following week. Publishing over 20 books of poetry, prose and fiction over 40 years, I just knew that they would have an interesting and eclectic collection of books that inspire them.
So as not to put them on the spot on the day, I asked them to compile a list of their top 10 favourite books of all time ready for when we spoke. The list came back almost straight away, when it comes to writing, they don’t mess about. 

So, Eileen, how was the Afterglow tour? Great now that it's done. I was on tour from early September till just last week with big gaps in New York in between. Each place was different. Pittsburgh was astonishing - there is a place called City of Asylum that has houses for writers and their families seeking political asylum in US. San Diego - UCSD where I taught and wrote/lived much of the book. El Paso was astonishing in the back yard of the Blackbird Cantina, The Saturn Bar in New Orleans, Drawn & Quarterly in Montreal, The Strand in New York… it was all very great! Happily I love reading my work...yeah I saw friends all over North America, it was fun and I'm so glad it's over. I'm kicking back in Marfa right now.

You have been hailed as a ‘literary legend basking in the latest literary renaissance’- that’s quite a title! Are you enjoying the new surge of interest and the republishing of your earlier material?
Yeah it's totally validating. I mean if it's a small room and everyone's listening, the room is full. I'm a poet and we read our work and publish communally so I always experience total success in the readership I knew, and knew me. I mean we act like the mainstream is reality. It's not. Reality is all these little scenes people consume and experience work within, so I've never felt unknown but of course it's nice to see my work more widely known and get money. It's the right time and I welcome it. And having a young audience means my work works. 

Yes, I found, when reading your earlier writing for the first time, as relevant, way over a decade after it was written. When you revisit your youth within the earlier work does it feel like looking back on someone else? How does it make you feel?
No. I am them. I was learning to write in my earlier books so I see that happening, but I know them very well. I don't think people change though we do get devastated and have to come back from that. There blazes of joy as well, that I also have to recover from just to keep walking down the street or driving my car.

Do you plan to do any readings in the UK when Afterglow is released in Feb?
Yes! March! I do the UK in March and then on to Australia and NZ in May, but for now still…

So, Eileen, what are your top 10 books of all time?
Here goes…
La Batarde- Violette Le Duc
Master and Margaritte- Mikhail Bulgakov
Nightwood- Djuna Barnes
Maude Martha- Gwendolyn Brooks
Hotel Wentley Poems- John Wieners
Under Glacier- Halldor Laxness
The Activist- Rene Gladman
Winter in the Blood- James Welch
Collected Poems- James Schuyler
Tropic of Capricorn- Henry Miller



WRITTEN BY AMY RIDLER

T: @amy_ridler
I: @amyridler

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE GREAT MALARKEY'S ALEX & KAROLINE

-
Image
"The Great Malarkey are eight musicians from around the globe – England, Canada, Portugal and Latvia – and they want you to join them on the multicultural train of fast beats and trembling slams of punk-folk spirit." - Rhythm Passport.   I sat down with Alex and Karoline from The Great Malarkey to talk musical influences, hilarious music videos and screaming fan girls!   So you 2 have known each other a long time, how long has it been? KAROLINE: I think me and Alex have known each other for about 12 years now. We met in typical lesbian fashion – I was dating Alex’s ex-girlfriend…   The Great Malarkey had been around for about 5 years before I officially joined. I’d gone with the band to a festival in Denmark to guitar tech for them and their then fiddle player had to leave before the final show. Alex asked if I could fill in, we had a quick run through in the store room and it was then I was thankful I’d been to so many Malarkey shows.   A few months later I
Read more

WHERE ARE ALL THE BUTCHES!?

-
Image
Where are all the butches?! I say this with tongue firmly in cheek. I am not one for labels like ‘butch’ and ‘femme’ as they are just too simplistic for my liking, but for the purpose of this piece, when I say butch, I am referring to the typical stereotype of a ‘butch’ woman or ‘masculine presenting’ lesbian…I find these terms problematic, as who's to say what is masculine anyway? Butch women seem to be the only accepted aesthetic of what a lesbian looks like in the eyes of the public majority, leaving feminine presenting lesbians to eye roll their way through the various series of ‘ you don't look like a lesbian!’ or ‘ I would never have guessed!’ from their ‘surprised’ work colleagues, yet butch woman are so scarcely represented in the mainstream media.   I am not trying to claim that there are no butch celebrities or TV characters at all, but the fact that you can probably count them on one hand is nothing to celebrate. The way I look at representation is throu
Read more

NICKI MINAJ IS JUST THE MOST RECENT IN A LONG LINE OF DEMONIZED WOMEN

-
Image
We’ve all seen it. The recent Paper Magazine cover is just the latest in a long line of ‘shocking’ celebrity images that give the keyboard warriors a chance to shake things up on twitter. Think back to the 2014 Winter issue of Paper Magazine. Kim Kardashian and the balancing champagne glass… you know it.   The recent Nicki Minaj cover has caused uproar on social media and fuelled the ever present empowerment/consent conversation. The image itself shows Minaj with 2 ‘clones’. Minaj, topless and seated. The first clone draped over her shoulder with her hand covering her nipple, and the second, in between her open legs with her tongue out.   Personally, I’m not too keen on the image. I understand that ‘sex sells’ but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I disagree with perpetuating that tired old tradition that sleazy men use as an excuse, in order to defend objectifying women. BUT, though this is my wider and more political view point, what I am COMPLETELY against is the unapo
Read more