NEXT BIG THING INTERVIEW: C.S. Carrier
1. What is the working title of the book?
The title is Mantle. It isn’t so much a working title as it is the title, the official title, published title, which works, appropriately enough.
2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
The idea for the book came from the ether. The book arose not from a predetermined, overarching idea or theme but from my having assembled a bunch of poems then discovering how they spoke to each other. Then I found a title that would carry that speaking, those relationships.
3. What genre does your book fall under?
Poetry. Autobiography. Poststructuralist Theory. Fantasy.
4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
The Presidents: Josh Brolin and Denzel Washington. Ronald Reagan: Ronald Reagan. Idi Amin: Forest Whitaker. Ghost Dog: Forest Whitaker. The paramours: Scarlett Johansson, Zoe Saldana, and Catherine Deneuve. The highschool Latin teacher: Will Ferrell. A version of my father: Daniel Day-Lewis. A version of my mother: Sissy Spacek. The brothers: John Cusack, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Charlie Sheen. Me: Anthony Rapp. Me (in the dream sequences): Tilda Swinton. Screenwriter: Tony Kushner. Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu or Charlie Kaufman or Julie Taymor.
5. What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
A man who goes into the woods and gets lost, after which he reflects upon language, the nature of the soul, family, gender politics, politics, love, death, and Generation X.
6. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
It about eight months to move from a draft that included every single possible poem that could possibly be collected in a collection to a draft that could be named and read with a modicum of coherence and interest. It’s not surprising that it took eight months. Eight is a potent, if not magical, number for me.
7. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
On one hand, I was inspired by Dawn Holder. On another hand, I was inspired by my friends, most notably Yago Cura, Noah Eli Gordon, Dottie Lasky, and Michael Robins. On yet another hand, there was no outwardly locatable inspiration. I simply yoked together poems I’d written, poems that embody something of my interests or what I think about or my relationship to language.
8. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
The cover, a detail from an installation by Dawn Holder. A poem in the form of a stageplay. Also, ejaculate made of sulfuricacid.
9. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
It is published by H_NGM_N BKS.
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C. S. Carrier’s previous collection, After Dayton, was published by Four Way Books in 2008. His chapbooks include Postcard Feat (Hinchas de Poesia 2010) & Lyric (horse less press 2008). His poems have appeared in several journals, including 6x6, Horse Less Review & Word For/Word. He has an MFA from the Program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He lives in Clarksville, AR & Lafayette, LA, where he’s pursuing a PhD in English at the University of Louisiana Lafayette.
Click here to read the Writers' Spaces Interview with C.S. Carrier, click here to visit his blog, and here to order MANTLE.