HOLLY LYN WALRATH, AUTHOR OF GLIMMERGLASS GIRL AND OTHERS
The Light Bulb is an interview series by The Lumiere Review. We’ve interviewed several authors of chapbooks to shed some light on the process of finding inspiration, drafting, revising, and publishing a chapbook. We believe in amplifying a diverse range of writers in the ever-expanding literary scene through this series. For writers who have their eyes set on publishing a chapbook, we hope that these conversations can bring you one step closer to a completed manuscript or a home with a press.
This time round, we have Holly Lyn Walrath, author of Glimmerglass Girl (Finishing Line Press), Numinose Lapidi (Kipple Press) and a forthcoming full-length collection of poems The Smallest of Bones (Clash Books).
I. MOTIVATION
First thing’s first, what got you motivated to write your chapbook, Glimmerglass Girl (2018)?
When I looked over my body of work, I noticed that many of the poems I had written or already published had a theme related to the convergence of the feminine and the dark. One of the motivators of creating a chapbook was to publish these poems so that they could be in conversation, but also so that many poems I had sent out a lot but not received acceptances for could be published. Those poems took on a stronger voice when placed beside each other.
Could you elaborate on the themes, arcs, and/or journeys that define Glimmerglass Girl?
The title poem in the collection, “Glimmerglass Girl” talks about a woman who is part human, part butterfly. The inspiration for the poem was the glasswinged butterfly, which in Spanish is called espejitos or “little mirrors.” Much of the collection is about women turning the mirror on the world, from an inward, judgmental view we often have of ourselves to an outer view on where that internalization comes from. “Anvil Crawler” began as an ekphrastic poem from a piece of art by Houston artist John Bernhard and morphed into a poem about a woman in love with lightning. In aerie, I take the idea of “nesting” and make women birds, easily crushed but brilliant. I’m fascinated by gender definitions, so many of the poems deal with what we perceive as feminine but also a twist of that. Because I write speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, or horror genres), subversion of gender often comes in the form of the grotesque or fantastic. As one reviewer keenly noted, “the boundary between male and female seems monetarily inconsequential and moot.”
What keeps you going when you lose the willpower to continue writing and drafting?
I’m a big believer in the fact that sometimes you have to take a break. Often when the world seems bleak or when I’m struggling with a personal problem, it’s hard to write. If I take a small break and come back to the work, I often find I have a fresher outlook. But I think what ultimately keeps me writing is my love for the act of creating. There is a deep river of ideas inside of all creatives, and that is what should fuel us. It’s just hard to let the external world go sometimes.
II. EXECUTION
Tell us about the way you sequenced the poems in your chapbook. What are some tips on finding a satisfactory order?
This is a great question. It was difficult to come upon an order that I liked. I spent a lot of time with my work printed out, rearranging the pages into an order that made more sense. Also, because my poetry in this collection was paired with images, I ended up making choices about order based on that—which images spoke to each other on the page, and which images fit into the poems in what place. Some poems like “Aerie” and “I Want to be a Grackle, I Want to Caw” had obvious connections (in this case, birds) whereas others just looked satisfying next to each other due to length or shape.
I suggest that writers who are looking to make a chapbook look at several factors, and forgive me for outlining them here in detail:
- Make a list of three things about each poem: What is the content/theme? What is the structure? Who is speaking in the poem? Use these to help you organize poems.
- Which poems are the strongest? Which could benefit from placement near other poems? You might try placing these poems at the beginning or end of the collection.
- Which poems seem to be in conversation with each other? Are there images, metaphors, words, structures, or sounds that play off of each other? Group those poems together.
- For a chapbook, you may not need sections or parts. Let the poems speak for themselves, and stray away from being too prescriptive with your reader. Often parts are not necessary because the poems tell the story on their own. There are some exceptions, such as chapbooks that are heavily experimental.
- The first poem is very important. It sets the tone for the collection. Sometimes it’s an invocation or a call to action. Choose a poem that lets the reader know what to expect.
- You may want to consider chronology. When did you write the poems and why? Maybe they are drawn from personal experience and that will provide an order.
I have more on this in my article, “Crafting a Small Poetry Collection.”
What’s your writing process like?
For poetry, I tend to write an entire poem in one sitting by hand. Then a few weeks or months later, I type the poem out and make changes as I type. At this point, I may make major revisions. Next, I let my poems sit until the new year. I don’t submit them, I wait until the following year. Then I revise them again and send them out on submission. This large gap of time frees me to write other poems and lets me revise with a clear eye, because I’m no longer attached to the poem. Sometimes I make an exception to this process if I see a submission call that seems perfect for a poem.
Do different poems play separate roles in your chapbook? Do they drive the storyline, serve as transitions, or converse directly with the audience?
I think that some of the poems such as “I Swallowed the Moon” and “Premise of the Heart” are meant to put the reader off course, as their visual aspects are somewhat unfamiliar to most poetry readers. “The Art of Loneliness” speaks to the reader, but more specifically younger women, because I wrote it originally for my younger sisters. Most of my work aims to make the reader feel somewhat uncomfortable. Not because I derive some pleasure from it, but because I think the collection is about inhabiting a place many women live in that is generally uncomfortable.
III. REVISION
Writing’s one thing, but editing is a whole other domain. Once the first draft is complete, what are some suggestions on transitioning into revision?
As I mentioned above, I often take large gaps in time before I revise a poem. It’s extremely useful to look at a poem a year later, or two years later. I know that it seems like a long time, but you would be surprised how differently you might feel about a poem after that amount of time. The key reason for this is to remove any “preciousness” I might have about a poem. I’m a freelance editor as well as a writer, so I often see writers struggling to make drastic necessary changes to their work. Whatever you can do to look at a poem through the eyes of the reader enables you to see where it could go, not just on a line level, but so far as to change it entirely. Other tips for this might be to try listening to your poem read aloud either by yourself or by a text-to-speech reader. You might upload your poem to your Kindle and read it there. And of course, getting critique can do this as well.
Could you share what your revision routine/process is like?
So when I do sit down to revise the poem, there are a few things I try. I usually read the poem out loud several times so I can hear how it sounds. I print it out so I have a copy of it, and I may cut that piece of paper up to rearrange lines. Sometimes I will try cutting a poem in half so it is much shorter, or making it twice the length. For a chapbook, you can make a “word bank” of words you use in the chapbook that seem interesting or are repeated. This is helpful to brainstorm other words you may want to include. If the wording seems dull, I will run the poem through a thesaurus, replacing each word with a similar word until it’s unrecognizable. Then I revise that version back and see where it lands. You can do the same by writing the “opposite” of each word in the poem—for example Robert Burns’ poem “My love is like a red, red rose” turns into “Your hate isn’t dissimilar from a blue, blue, weed.” I play with tense, shifting from past to present or vice versa. Basically, I will try anything to get a poem to work.
How do you know when you’re ready to move on from editing to publishing?
This is very difficult to figure out when you’re just starting out. The best I can say is to keep at it. The more you write, the better you will come to understand your process. For me, I know a poem is ready when I feel like it’s said all it can say. It’s a feeling or emotion. If I haven’t gone through my above process, then it’s likely not ready. But it’s perfectly normal to change poems years after you’ve written them. However, this shouldn’t stop you from submitting a poem. If you’ve revised and had your work critiqued and rewritten and gone through your process, then the poem is likely ready to submit. I like to remember too, that poetry is not just for publishing or for a reader, but also for me. So some poems don’t need to be submitted, and that’s fine.
IV. PUBLICATION
Where can we start when looking for chapbook presses?
There are several online resources that I love. Duotrope, although it has a small cost associated with it, is a great way to look for publications and to track your work. A free version of this is the Submission Grinder, which skews heavily toward SFF. You can check Submittable’s “Discover” feature for upcoming deadlines. New Pages keeps a good list of submission calls, as does Poets & Writers. For speculative poets, check out the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association.
There are many contests for chapbooks, but they may be cost-prohibitive. Try to look at the fee for submitting your work and see what you get out of it. I like to submit to contests that give you a free copy of the winner’s work, so even if I’m not a winner, I still get something out of it. Be wary of presses that charge very high fees for submitting your work. After all, chapbooks do not often pay extremely well. You may decide only to submit to no-fee publications, and that is fine as well.
You can read more about this in my article, “Submitting Poetry.”
Do you have any words of advice on submitting manuscripts to these presses?
The most successful submissions I’ve had are when I look at a press and admire the books they are putting out. For example, my first full-length collection, The Smallest of Bones, will be published by CLASH books in 2021. I found them because they published another writer I admire, and I loved the look of their website. So while I try to suggest avoiding being precious about revising your poems, it’s okay to be careful where you submit.
The other biggest piece of advice I can give is don’t self-reject. I find that female-identifying, LGBTQIA+, and marginalized writers/BIPOC often struggle with this, because we feel like we don’t fit into the scene. But editors really want to hear from those voices. You can’t publish a book if you don’t submit it, so believe in yourself. The process of publishing, marketing, and selling a book will require you to really love your work and root for it.
Following an acceptance from a press, what are the next steps?
This varies wildly, but the basic process after publication is as follows. The publisher will extend an acceptance and a contract, which you should read carefully to be sure you understand what rights they are buying and what any payment might be for your work. After you sign the contract, the publisher may wait a while to slot your work into a scheduled publication date. Generally, books go through some type of editing before publication, which also may vary by publisher, as some are more hands-on than others. Your book will be typeset or formatted and a cover will be chosen by the publisher (or sometimes authors have more say in that as well.) During the time leading up to publication, your job as the author is to market the heck out of that book. Don’t rely on your publisher to do that work—many small presses often don’t have the funds to market a chapbook. It’s good to have a book launch or reading event to help with your marketing. After publication, you can still spend time marketing the book, but it’s better to write the next book and put your energy into a new project, because sometimes the best way to sell your first book is to write another one.
Holly Lyn Walrath’s poetry and short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Fireside Fiction, Daily Science Fiction, and Analog. She is the author of the chapbooks Glimmerglass Girl (Finishing Line Press, 2018), Numinose Lapidi (in Italian, Kipple Press, 2020), and The Smallest of Bones (Clash Books, 2021). She holds a B.A. in English from The University of Texas and a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Denver. She is a freelance editor and host of The Weird Circular, an e-newsletter for writers containing submission calls and writing prompts.
Finder her on Instagram and Twitter
Website: www.hlwalrath.com
Interviewed by Jessica Kim, edited by Lou Willmott.