Ron Koertge Reacts To the Oscar Nomination for “Negative Space”
Negative Space, a short film by Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter, just received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short. The film is based on a poem by Ron Koertge. Author Christine Heppermann caught up with Ron to get his reaction to the news.
Christine: It seems so right that one of your poems ended up here, given how much you love movies and how often you write about them in your poetry and fiction. How does it feel to go from devoted movie fan to participant in an Oscar-nominated short film?
Ron: It feels terrific. Just yesterday I was in a theatre at 11:00 in the morning to see a movie. So there I was with [my wife] Bianca and two other people. And I feel lucky, of course.
And for the record, “Negative Space” is actually a prose poem or a piece of micro-fiction. It’s from a collection of Flash Fiction called Sex World published by Red Hen Press.
Christine: Is the poem autobiographical? Did you bond with your dad over luggage?
Ron: Gee, no. My parents were too poor to travel much, and when they went anywhere it was always by car. Neither of my parents was ever on an airplane. I’m sure we owned suitcases, but I don’t remember any. My dad and I bonded over work. That’s what men did: they went to work.
Christine: The story in "Negative Space" is both sad and sweet. Having read a lot of your work, I've come to think of that as your signature combo. Is that a balance you consciously try to achieve or does it come naturally?
Ron: It’s pretty natural versus planned. I like to get short pieces up and running and then see where they go. Sometimes I’ll resist the familiar turn that, for instance, takes a funny poem out of the sunshine and into the shade. But as often as not when I revise, I’ll retrace my steps.
Christine: What's your favorite part of the film? I love the belt/snake!
Ron: I pretty much love the snake/belt, too. The animators did a terrific job of pacing and building to the climax: “All that wasted space.” I wrote a lot of the pieces in Sex World in three months, getting up early to go to work and writing one per day. Some are solid, journeyman pieces but others — and “Negative Space" is one of those — were gifts from the writing gods. I’d finish and say to myself, “Wow, where did that come from?”
prguitarman
ellievsbear
snowghoul
stormborns
titsay
jbbartram-illu
yousharknotpass