Poet Felice Belle joins me today to chat about her chapbook, Viscera.
Bio:
Felice Belle is the author of Viscera (Etruscan Press, 2023). As a poet and playwright, she has performed at the Apollo Theater, Joe’s Pub, TEDWomen, and TEDCity2.0. Her writing has been published in several journals and anthologies including Oral Tradition, The Common, and UnCommon Bonds: Women Reflect on Race and Friendship. Playwriting credits include It Is Reasonable to Expect, We Hold These Truths, and Game On!. She is a lecturer in the low-residency MFA program at St. Francis College and Artists Network Director for the global nonprofit Narrative 4. She spends her free time solving fictional crimes.
Welcome, Felice. Please tell us about your current release.
Viscera is poetry for people who think they hate poetry—quirky, accessible, and pop-culture obsessed…for fans of 90 Day Fiancé and Ntozake Shange…an urban (self) love story for anyone who has ever felt like an “other”.
In a world that expects women to take care of everyone else except themselves, and find validation and value in such self-negation, Viscera is an unflinching practice and declaration of defining oneself for oneself, with radical acceptance of the great, and challenging, consequences of doing so.
What inspired you to write this book?
I’m a fan of sci-fi shows with multiple timelines and during the pandemic lockdown I had this working metaphor of myself as an astronaut alone on the moon a la Luther Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy. Around the same time, I taught an online poetry workshop where we wrote to our past, present, and future selves.The writing exercise felt like a type of time travel and that informed the shape of the book. It’s a time machine. It begins and ends in the pandemic/present and moves between memory/fantasy, love/loss, and the moments that made me. Also, New York City. It’s very much a New York City book.
Excerpt from Viscera:
“everything is normal
in space
your heart shrinks
like an astronaut
writing folks back home
a skeleton in a wig
with nowhere to go”
What exciting project are you working on next?
My brother is a visual artist and we’re working on an animated version of a short play I wrote. Coming from the theater, I’m used to creating within the constraints of a physical space and what actors can do with their bodies on a stage. It’s been inspiring to work in a medium where the possibilities are actually limitless.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
In nursery school, I wanted to be the librarian, because she was in charge of all the books. And books were where stories lived. And stories were full of adventure and magic. It never occurred to me that someone had to write them or that “someone” could be me. But I like to think my younger self knew she was a writer. In college, I was an engineering major. I started writing poetry, as an emotional outlet, and reading my poems at campus open mics. I was always surprised and moved when someone told me they could relate to a poem I wrote. Those moments of connection were an affirmation that this was something I wanted to do more of.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I work with an awesome non-profit called Narrative 4 that uses personal storytelling as tool for building compassion and community. I’ve always been a writer with a day job, so I typically write at night, the later the better.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I journal obsessively and have notebooks of my writing dating back to the 7th grade.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A hairdresser, a lawyer, a librarian, and Sheila E.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Music plays a central role in the collection, so I made a mixtape. I hope you enjoy!