“I still have the ice cream flickering away in my mouth, all that’s left of Barry and me I hold my tourmaline close for protection.” -EMILY PRESENT
1. What can you tell us about your work appearing in Deluge No. 6? Both these poems are pretty recent. They came in a spurt after an existential crisis, as many of my poems usually do. Barry Manilow Sends Me Virtual Charms was inspired by one line that I’ve been living with for a few years now, “Calling Barry Manilow on a payphone.” I was watching the 90s movie, Can’t Hardly Wait and there’s this scene where the protagonist in the movie gets visited by a stripper dressed in an angel costume and she thinks the protagonist is in love with Bary Manilow. I decided I needed to reincarnate my own spiritual Barry Manilow to come speak to a version of myself when I was going through a rough time. Anti- Age Me is another poem in which I envision an alternate universe, also futuristic, but definitely less spiritual. I thought a lot about the question “What do you do?” and a tanned man drinking Prosseco on a patio. Envisioning himself as a modern man of industry but maybe crumbling on the inside. I’ve been spending a lot of time researching the tech world, so I had a lot of buzzwords in me, particularly innovation and disruption. 2. Why do you think people are still writing in 2016? Why bother? Writing is eternal and engrained in all of us — no one is ever going to stop writing. And people who write can never really stop writing. Even if they're just writing in their heads. Also writing has expanded, from Instagram captions to Twitter, writers and poets in particular are incredible at Twitter. There’s a magic in capturing a humor or beauty in something in only 140 characters. It’s screenshot writing. 3. What are some of your favorite lit mags out there right now? Wanna give a shout-out to any presses or publications you admire? Well, I obviously am a big fan of Deluge and super honored to be in this issue. I follow a lot of lit mags so it’s hard to narrow down; right now, I particularly love BOMB, Cosmonauts Avenue, Imperial Matters, Gigantic Sequins and Powder Keg. They are all wildly modern, vibrant, and dare I say, cutting edge. 4. Who are the writers or artists that have influenced you the most? Who do you think we’re not reading enough of? Melissa Broder is a big influence of mine not just as poet but as a person, a few years ago I was lucky enough to take a class taught by her. She is magic. I’m also inspired by the art work of Jenny Holzer. When I was younger, I was influenced a lot by Anais Nin, the Dadaist poets, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and the different generations of the New York School from Frank O’Hara to Anne Waldman. As for contemporary poets, I’ve long admired the writing of Ben Fama, Monica McClure, Becca Klaver, Morgan Parker, and Jenny Zhang to name a few. I think everyone can read more of my GlitterMOB co-editor, Peter Friedman. His work is really stellar. Also, if you’re not already familiar with Penny Goring, whose visual poems are incredible and can often be found on NewHive, you need to be. 5. Do you have anything larger currently in the works? I have been working on a body of work for a while that is a series of poems that blend futurism, spirituality, dystopia, and I hope, humor. One day, I’ll expose them from my hard drive to the world.
[Click] to read new work by Emily in Deluge No. 6!
Emily Present is a Brooklyn based poet. She also founded the virtual literary and arts magazine, glitterMOB.
