Poet J.P. White joins me today to chat about his new award-winning chapbook, A Tree Becomes a Room.
Bio:
J.P. White has published essays, articles, fiction, reviews, interviews and poetry in The Nation, The New Republic, The Gettysburg Review, Agni Review, APR, Salamander, Catamaran, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, The Georgia Review, Southern Review, The Massachusetts Review, Water-Stone, The New York Times, Willow Springs, Crazyhorse, Peripheries, and Poetry (Chicago).
White’s sixth book of poems, A Tree Becomes a Room, was the most recent winner of the White Pine Poetry Prize selected by Denusha Lemeris. The Last Tale of Norah Bow, a second novel, is forthcoming from Regal House Publishing in August 2024.
Welcome, J.P. What do you enjoy most about writing poems?
The thrill of the unknown, the discovery, the practice, the impossible reach
Can you give us a little insight into a few of your poems – perhaps a couple of your favorites?
My poems routinely enter the natural world and wander around which is a practice
That mirrors my life. I am looking for portals of resilience and nothing is more resilient than the earth
That absorbs eons of punishment from us and goes on.
What form are you inspired to write in the most? Why?
I write a free-verse line that’s largely observational with many enjambed lines to suggest
Continuity of feeling and thought.
What type of project are you working on next?
I’m always working on poems and a 3rd novel which is a noirish sci-fi about a lucid dreamer
When did you first consider yourself a writer / poet?
I started writing songs when I was thirteen. My first joy and ambition was to be a songwriter.
How do you research markets for your work, perhaps as some advice for not-yet-published poets?
Good question. Finding any publication that takes an interest, when there is so much to choose from, is daunting. I just stay with it and don’t take rejection personally – on my best days.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
If I get stuck, I walk around in circles.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Basketball player
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
There are no great writers that are not great readers first. (Ezra Pound)
(not sure if that’s an exact quote)
Thanks for being here today!