Friday, October 29, 2010
Sugar House Review
Posted By Gavin Sheehan on October 29, 2010, 1:41 AM
Throughout
our community we've always had a sustained talent pool of creative
writers, whether it be on the verge of drought or flooding with
works, there's been some kind of localized literature flowing through
the boulevard. Most of the time you'll find their newly-inked
pages in chapbooks or flyers around coffee shops, or the more
dedicated will put out a small run of books to hit local shops. But
for those who don't have the resources available to do it all on
their own, there is a local publication doing what it can to showcase
the best Utah has to offer.
--- Sugar House Review has been
pushing out their bi-seasonal poetry magazines into select book
stores since fall last year. The totally submissions-based
booklets are the product of four Utah State alum and fellow friends
looking for a resource to print their own idyllic poetry, stanzas and
musings, and in turn have become one of the premiere collections of
yearly Utah writing that leave their readership and shops
anticipating the next volume. Today we chat with one of the original
people behind the concept, editor and graphic designer Natalie Young,
about the books and their impact on the community, plus thoughts on
Utah writing and a few other topics.
Natalie
Young
http://www.sugarhousereview.com/
Gavin:
Hey Natalie, first thing, tell us a little bit about
yourself.
Natalie:
I grew up in Bountiful and now live in Salt Lake City with Nathaniel
Taggart. I’m a graphic designer and a writer—mostly I write
poetry. I have a pug (who has her own blog),
a mutt and a macaw, who rule my life and hate that I spend so much
time on the computer.
Gavin:
How did you first take an interest in writing, and what were some
early inspirations for you?
Natalie:
I remember writing and illustrating strange little books when I was
little, but my first bonding moment with writing came in 8th
grade while writing a history paper. Something just clicked. My next
moment came as a freshman in college writing a paper for English 2010
that helped me solve a personal crisis; and I knew that was it, I
was never going to stop writing. I could discover more about myself
through writing than anything else I’d found. That was a ridiculous
paper and shouldn’t have been my aha! paper. The professor I wrote
that for also taught my first poetry writing class, and we’re still
friends.
Gavin:
You studied at Utah State, got your BFA in art and an MFA in
creative writing. What made you decide on USU, and what was their
program like for you?
Natalie:
I got my bachelors in graphic design with a minor in English from
Utah State and my masters from Lesley University in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. I went to Utah State because I had a full-ride
scholarship there, and when I enrolled they had the only Advertising
Design and Technical Writing programs in the state. I quickly figured
out tech. writing wasn’t for me, but the graphic design program was
excellent. A lot of personal attention, a mentor I’m still in touch
with and great people all around.
Gavin:
When did you first meet Nathaniel Taggart and eventually
marry?
Natalie:
Nathaniel and I met in a poetry class at Utah State. We started
dating a year after we met and got married about five years later. He
is definitely my biggest cheerleader and best editor.
Gavin:
What eventually brought you both down to SLC, and how do you compare
the culture and environment here as opposed to Logan?
Natalie:
Soon after I graduated we both moved to Salt Lake. Logan is a great
place, but there aren’t too many jobs and they don’t pay well,
since it’s a college town. Logan is a bit isolated and a lot
smaller than Salt Lake, but because it’s a college town there’s
always a lot of arts and cultural events. Salt Lake has a lot of
events going on as well, definitely more because it is bigger, but I
think they’re harder to keep track of, since the events are all
over the place. In Logan, most things center around the university in
some way.
Gavin:
When did you end up meeting John, Jerry and Michael and how did you
all become friends?
Natalie:
John, Jerry, Nathaniel and I all got our bachelor degrees from Utah
State. Nathaniel and I had creative writing classes with Jerry. After
college we started a writing group in Salt Lake that John and Michael
joined through similar friends. We’ve been meeting as a writing
group for close to seven years now.
Gavin:
How did the idea for Sugar House Review come
about?
Natalie:
John, Nathaniel and I were talking about our writing and poetry one
day trying to figure out “What next?” We had all thought of doing
a poetry magazine in the past, and that day we got each other excited
about doing one together. Soon after, John asked Roberta Stearman for
some of Utah’s late Poet Laureate Ken Brewer’s unpublished poems.
She was generous enough to let us have three of his poems to publish
and there was no turning back; we were so excited.
Gavin:
What was it like for all of you planning it out and taking
submissions from people to add in?
Natalie:
It was really exciting and somewhat overwhelming, and I would say
that’s still true. It’s fun and great to be part of the writing
community and to be able to communicate with poets at every stage of
writing careers. We have been incredibly lucky both with the quality
of submissions we’ve received , as well as how generous poets with
established careers have been in allowing us to publish their work. I
think all of us agree that two of the most thrilling things about
publishing Sugar
House Review, is accepting and
publishing people’s work and communicating with some of our
favorite writers.
Gavin:
For those who are curious, what is the submission process like for
all of you, from taking them in to deciding what will make the final
copy?
Natalie:
Almost all of our submissions come through our email account, so we
read and tag the poems from there. Each submission gets at least
three of us to read it, but usually all four of us read every
submission. We individually mark each poem digitally. We’re usually
unanimous on the poems we accept. We try to be open-minded. We want
to not just pick what we like personally, but also what other readers
will like. We hope to be broad in the aesthetic of work published,
but because all art is subjective, there’s no way to completely get
around our individual biases. So if we reject you, or someone else
rejects you, don’t feel bad. One of the biggest things I’ve
realized from being an editor is that the selection process really is
subjective: different tastes, different moods, etc. Some days an
editor has to read a lot of poems just to catch up and if the editor
has a headache, or is thinking about an argument with the mailman or
the newest episode of "Project
Runway"…Well, good poems may be
missed.
Gavin:
What was the public reaction to the first one, and what did you
think of the overall experience of putting it out?
Natalie:
The somewhat limited response we received was very positive. It’s
difficult to reach a large audience with something like this right
away. Those who regularly read poetry is a relatively small audience;
even people who write poetry, sometimes don’t read it, and fewer
buy it. Plus, we don’t have much money for marketing, nor do any of
us have the salesman personality. Our first issue included a poem by
Paul Muldoon which will be included in 2011
Pushcart Prize XXXV: Best of the Small Presses.
That alone makes our first issue lucky and kissed by the poetry
gods—the chances are so small that we would be so lucky as to
publish Muldoon’s poem in our first issue, but then to have it win
a Pushcart? That’s astounding. You should have seen us when we got
the letter in the mail—it was like we
won the Pushcart.
Gavin:
How did you go about choosing what local stores would carry the
books, and what has their reaction been to having them in
catalog?
Natalie:
All of the local bookstores that carry Sugar
House Review have been terribly
supportive and excited about having an independent poetry magazine
coming out of Salt Lake City. We love bookstores; we particularly
love local bookstores and would love to be in more, but like I said
before, we’re not the best marketers. That’s probably our biggest
downfall to this point—we need to sell the magazine more.
Gavin:
You've just barely released the third book, what can people expect to read in this version?
Natalie:
With this issue we continued to try and choose a wide variety of
poems—it’s full of high-quality, powerful writing. Contributors
include: Dan Beachy-Quick, Steven Cramer, Maria Melendez, Jim
Peterson, Donald Revell, Michael Sowder and Pimone Triplett. We like
to have some poets with Utah ties in each issue; for this issue
besides Sowder, Revell and Melendez, we have Rob Carney, Jan C.
Minich, Steve Fellner, Mario Chard, Peter Golub, Andrew Haley and
Curtis Jensen. Michael McLane came on staff as Review Editor, and
he’s helped put together three fantastic book reviews. We’re
really excited about having Mike’s review talents and having more
reviews as a constant presence in the magazine; we want to give some
exposure to authors whose new work deserves to be noticed, but who
may not otherwise be reviewed.
Gavin:
Are there any plans to possibly expand the book or produce more
issues a year, or are you good with the way things are now?
Natalie:
The plan is to stick to semiannual. We don’t have enough time,
energy nor funding to put it out more than that, but I do expect
we’ll start publishing larger issues as we continue.
Gavin:
Going local for a bit, what is your take on our local writing
community, both good and bad?
Natalie:
There seems to be two sides to our writing community. One side is
very supportive and excited about each other’s work. We were amazed
at the support we received from certain people and venues
immediately. On the other side, is perhaps some cattiness. But my
guess is you find that in most any community. People are competitive.
I would like to see some new people participating in some of the
local events and festivals. The City Art reading series, founded
by Sandy Anderson and run by Joel Long, does a great job of finding
writers who have and haven’t been a part of City Art
before.
Gavin:
Is there anything you believe could be done to make it more
prominent?
Natalie:
I think Katherine Coles is doing a great job as Utah’s Poet
Laureate. She has some great projects she’s working on that only
help Utah’s writing scene. If you haven’t, check out her Bite Size poetry project.
Gavin:
Who are some of your favorite local writers that you believe people
should be checking out?
Natalie:
This is the second time Rob Carney has been in our magazine, and
there’s two reasons for that. First, he’s generous and brave and
trusted us with his work, and second, we love him and his work. If you
ever get a chance to see one of his readings, you definitely should.
He memorizes almost all his poems; he’s a performer. Also: Kimberly
Johnson, Paisley Rekdal, Katherine Coles, Lance Larsen, Jacqueline
Osherow, Chris Cokinos, Michael Sowder, Natasha Saje and I’m sure
I’m missing some. Utah really does have a lot of great writers. I
think many don’t even realize it. All of my co-editors are great
poets, as well as the poets in my writing group. I often see
something one of them brings to our meeting and am sure it’s better
than most of what I see published.
Gavin:
What advice would you have for up-and-coming writers on how to get
their work noticed?
Natalie:
I don’t feel like I have any real experience to answer this
question, but here’s what I think, and maybe my advice will work
for me. From an editor’s stand point:
1. If you’ve been
rejected, wait six months to a year to resubmit, unless invited—you
don’t want to be remembered as “the one we just rejected.”
Patience really is a good thing.
2. It sounds kind of petty, but
if you’re dealing with a small magazine, it helps to purchase an
issue or subscribe—the editors notice—right or wrong.
3. This
is going to sound trite or obvious, but try to write fresh,
interesting things. A lot of what I read in submissions seems the
same: the same topics, the same format, the same language, similar
execution. I’m not saying your work needs to be wildly
experimental, but as an editor I’m looking for something that
moves: it moves me, it moves through the page, it moves boring aside,
it reveals.
4. And for heaven’s sake people, take advantage of
the tools you have. As a writer you have punctuation, all kinds. You
have chapters or stanza breaks or sections. You have character
development, dialogue, etc. I recently wrote a post on SHR’s blog
about stanza breaks. I see so many submissions with no stanza breaks
and I am baffled as to why it’s so prevalent and also why so many
contemporary poets think it’s in their best interest not to use
them. The basics can give you a lot of help, if you let them.
...I
think it’s a must to get a involved in a community. Whether it’s
the Salt Lake Community as a whole, a writing group or just a group
of friends who care about you and your writing. It’s important to
have a support system and it’s important to get feedback on your
writing. Also, it doesn’t hurt to network. The more people you
know, the more chances you have to be involved and hear about
opportunities. Part of the reason we started the magazine was to be a
part of a larger community of writers.
Gavin:
What are your thoughts on localized zines and the work they do to
push underground writing to the public?
Natalie:
I haven’t spent much time with zines, but I like local and the
idea of getting more art, including poetry, out into the world and
the community. I think local zines hit a different audience than
other publications, which is a good thing.
Gavin:
What can we expect from you, the rest of the group and SHR the
rest of the year and going into next?
Natalie:
We’ll continue publishing the best poetry we can. We love poetry
and we want to have a magazine that writers and literature lovers are
excited about. Our goals for the remainder of the year and into next
include: getting into more bookstores (not just locally), having a
booth at AWP’s conference in February (Associated Writing
Programs), having at least one reading for the launch of this issue
and we’ll be attending as many local readings as we can, both to
support and to promote.
Gavin:
Aside the obvious, is there anything you'd like to plug or
promote?
Natalie:
Local is important. Support your communities, whether it’s writing
or farming or knitting. And don’t forget to give poetry a chance.
People say it’s a dying art. In general, only those who write
poetry read poetry, which is a shame. Poetry is definitely different
to read than a piece of prose, such as a novel or a magazine article.
Often the language is condensed and every word is important.
Sometimes the poem’s intention is not instantaneous, which can be
hard when so much of modern culture and media is. But that’s part
of why things like poetry are important—something to pause on,
something to come back to over and over and have a new experience
with each reading. Submit. Subscribe. Pass Sugar
House Review along.
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