Episode 31: Carmen Giménez Smith
Rachel Zucker talks with poet, editor/publisher and professor, Carmen Gimenez Smith, about the intersection of the lyric and the spoken word, the long poem, punctuation, working on several books at once, Cantomundo, Carmen’s writing process, writing long poems, being an editor, working with editors as a creator, the imagined or intended audience, the importance of getting feedback, political charge, the politicization of the bodies of women and people of color, Carmen’s mother and father, poetry as a form of recuperation, destabilizing the lyric “I”, writing about adolescents, Trump, “self-help” books, privilege, and the gift of entitlement.
Books by Carmen Giménez Smith
Milk and Filth (University of Arizona Press, 2013)
Goodbye, Flicker (University of Massachusetts Press, 2012)
The City She Was (Center for Literary Publishing, 2011)
Bring Down the Little Birds: On Mothering, Art, Work, and Everything Else (University of Arizona Press, 2010)
Odalisque in Pieces (University of Arizona Press, 2009)
Other writers, poems and artists mentioned in the episode
The Book of Questions by Pablo Neruda (Copper Canyon, 2001)
Heights of Macchu Picchu by Pablo Neruda
Who Carmen is reading lately that gives her energy
Rosa Alcalá, Daniel Borzutsky, Alejandra Pizarnik, Larry Levis, Dana Levin, Natalie Eilbert, Vanessa Villarreal, Kim Hyesoon
Other relevant links
