Lit Talk: Author Carol Guess

Carol Guess is an ethereal-looking blonde with bright blue eyes and an extensive ballet background. She is also a feminist, a lesbian, a professor of English, and a novelist and poet who has recently published a book of prose poetry entitled Tinderbox Lawn. Set in the underbelly of Guess’s hometown of Seattle, the poems have been praised by Jen Currin as “a tea so sharp it cuts teacups to shards,” and Guess’s voice as “vulnerable and unbreakable.” Below are some words from the voice herself in a 2004 interview with Julia Bloch from Curve magazine, after the publication of her poetry collection Femme’s Dictionary.

Julia: You're an accomplished novelist, yet this is your first collection of poetry--are you new to poetry?

Carol: I began writing poetry long before I began writing fiction. In fact, I did my M.F.A. at Indiana University in poetry, not fiction. However, because my first novel was accepted before my first collection of poetry, I got tracked as a fiction writer ... but the lines between genres are very blurry for me. I'm interested in writing that crosses boundaries, that mixes fact with fiction, sense with sound.

Julia: Do you feel like you use a different muscle when you write poetry or prose?

Carol: I tend to work in short bursts, and from a really kinesthetic place--writing is somehow very physical for me. I'm really hyperactive--I used to be a ballet dancer--and when I write fiction I sometimes feel stuck and bogged down. Yet there are many stories I can't tell in the short stretch of a poem; that's when I turn to prose.

Julia: Talk about your title a bit.

Carol: As a femme lesbian, I struggle with questions about invisibility, so including the word "femme" in the title felt important. I was also thinking of the French word for "woman," and thinking about the way so many words are shaped by male notions about who can speak when, where and what. I wanted a title that made reference to my identity as a lesbian but also to my life as a woman who has defied patriarchal constraints.

Julia: The first poem in your book sounds like it could almost be a sestina. Do you like playing with forms?

Carol: I think of myself as using "ghost forms"--forms that can't be notated or recorded, but that suggest themselves to me while I'm writing. I love playing with repetition, using it to suggest the idea of form without actually adhering to the rules.

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Those of you in the Chicago area (or who will be in the Chicago area for Pride Weekend) can catch Carol Guess at the following spots:

Thursday, June 25 at 7:00 p.m.
Fixx Coffee Bar
3053 N. Sheffield Ave.
Chicago, IL 60657
773.248.0841

Friday, June 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Women & Children First
5233 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60640
773.769.9299

Saturday, June 27 at 2:00 p.m.
Dancing Girl Press Studio Salon
Fine Arts Building, Studio 921
410 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60605

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo by Elizabeth J. Colen