Interview: Jane Levin shares insight on poetry, surviving cancer and self-publishing [with Video]
I’ve been lucky to know Jane Levin for over a year now. She and I were awarded a Mentorship by SASE/Intermedia Arts, a local arts organization, and the Jerome Foundation in 2006. With several other local poets we
met regularly to workshop and support each other under the watchful eye of Sun Yung Shin, our mentor.
Since then, Jane has worked hard and met with a lot of success in publishing her poetry in both online and print journals. Last week she performed as a featured reader for the SASE/Intermedia Arts GLBT Reading Series. Award-winning writers Andrea Jenkins and John Medeiros curate this long-running reading series.
Part reading, and part book release party, Jane triumphantly held up the gem-green book that she had labored to publish over the previous months. Legacy is a slim volume packed with lyrical, wry and moving accounts of the author’s experience dealing with the fear and pain of cancer, and celebrating the triumph of health, family, friends and her lover Judy.
In her own words, Jane says:
My poems, especially those in my chapbook Legacy, explore universal issues that arise from living as a Jew, a cancer-survivor and a member of the LGBT community. My hope is that my poems will also heal.
I used my digital camera (a Cannon PowerShot A95 for you poetry-loving gadget-geeks out there) to record some short video clips during Jane’s reading. You can watch three of those clips edited together here.
In this 4:42 minute video, Jane thanks her supporters and reads “Atoll” and “Passover” from her book, Legacy.
To order the book, you can send an email to moonflowerpress [at] gmail.com. Each copy is only $8.00 USD. Legacy is also available at the following Twin Cities independent bookstores: Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, Birchbark Books, Brochin’s, Elijah’s Cup and Micawbers.
Read the full interview with Jane Levin after the jump, and below the video.
When did you realize that poetry was something you wanted to pursue?
A few years ago I was cleaning out a closet and came across my high school yearbook. I opened the cover and immediately recognized the handwriting of my best friend, Jane Boydston. She wrote, “…never stop writing poetry, even if no one else ever sees it.” I stared at that phrase in disbelief. I had no memory of writing poetry in high school!
So in answer to your question, I think that I’ve always been drawn to writing poetry.
In what ways is your experience of being diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer tied to your poetry?
I was diagnosed in 1999 at age 51 and given 2 to 5 years to live. I knew that I needed to find a way to deal with my feelings – anger at the betrayal of my body, terror at the prospect of such an early death, and a myriad of existential issues. I saw an ad for a classes called “Writing through Healing, Healing through Writing” at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center. That’s when I returned to writing poetry.
When I was diagnosed, it was like I’d been munching on the leaves of an artichoke and now I needed to strip away the leaves as quickly as possible and get to the heart. For me, the heart was poetry. It is ironic that it took a cancer diagnosis for me to return to writing poetry. I’ll never know if it saved my life, but I do know that it healed me. In September, it will be nine years since I received the grim prognosis “two to five years.” (For more information about ovarian cancer, go to www.mnovarian.org)
When did you consciously decide that you could call yourself a “poet?”
I didn’t feel worthy of the identity “poet” for several years, even after I’d had poems published and received a Jerome Foundation/Intermedia Arts emerging artist mentorship in poetry. It took someone else with credibility, in my case Mary Logue, to look me in the eyes and say, “You’re a poet.” I cried. That’s when I began to practice saying, “I’m a poet.”
In what ways is this poetic pursuit similar to, or different from you previous professional life?
I was a psychologist for over twenty-five years. What drew me to psychology was a deep interest in using my skills in the service of healing. That’s how a psychologist says it. My poems, especially those in my chapbook Legacy, explore universal issues that arise from living as a Jew, a cancer-survivor and a member of the LGBT community. My hope is that my poems will also heal.
Another similarity is that both types of work are political. Although I’d been an activist for many decades and came of age believing “the personal is political,” I hadn’t considered my poems political. I changed my mind the night I did my first student reading at The Loft. After the reading, I was headed to the bathroom and heard a rush of footsteps behind me. A breathless woman stopped in front of me and said, “I was just diagnosed with breast cancer. Your poem was so empowering and hopeful to me.” Another example: Just last night I was at a lecture. I started talking with the woman sitting next to me. She asked to look at my book.
Turns out she has a gay nephew who lives in Mexico. She bought a copy to send to him because she knew the LGBT poems would help give him the courage to be out
Why did you decide to self-publish?
There were several reasons, not the least of which is time. Anyone who has faced a life-threatening illness becomes acutely aware of time. Submitting my manuscript to publishers and waiting for the possibility that one would offer me a contract could take years.
Another consideration was that Legacy was funded, in part, from a grant from the Howard B. Brin Jewish Arts Endowment and I wanted to try to finish the book in the funding year.
The third reason I decided to self-publish was related to control over the various aspects of publication. Publishers have total control over such things as the cover design, the paper and publicity. I wanted to use recycled paper, collaborate on the cover design (the cover photo is mine) and decide where to publicize, read and sell my books. I also wanted to be able to give away as many books as I wanted to libraries, organizations and individuals who couldn’t afford to buy them.
You chapbook looks very professional. Why did you decide to have such a professional level of book?
Thank you. Originally, I thought I’d do something like go to a copy store and hand-stitch the binding. But as I thought about it, I began to think of honoring the poems – to wrap them in a beautiful cover, print them in a gorgeous font and have the book catalogued in the Library of Congress.
Any advice for someone who is thinking about publishing their own chapbook?
Think about your goals – Why a chapbook? Why now? Who are your readers? How long are you comfortable waiting for publication? How much tolerance do you have for submitting your manuscript and receiving rejection letters? How much control over the book do you want? How much time do you have to oversee the design of the book, the printing process and do the publicity for the book?
I have never regretted self-publishing. I love having the freedom to decide where I read, who sells my book and making the price as affordable as possible ($8). I have four more readings scheduled for May and June, an interview on KFAI Write On Radio! on May 8th and every independent bookstore I’ve approached has agreed to stock my book - Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, Birchbark Books, Elijah’s Cup and Brochin’s.
What was the most difficult thing to deal with in the publishing process?
It was a very steep learning curve. For starters, I had to learn a new language, like the difference between an ARC (advance reading copy), and galley. I had to create flyers, press releases and a brief bio. When things went wrong, I had to find a tactful way to give feedback, not capitulate or accept anything less than what I’d envisioned.
Speak to the future: will there be more books? More and varied subjects? Or will you be exploring one of your current themes more deeply?
Most of my poems weren’t included in the chapbook. Some will appear in the forthcoming anthologies Drash: Northwest Mosaic and Best Lesbian Poetry 2008. Others have been published or have been submitted for publication. I know that I long to work intensively with a mentor. I was a finalist for last year’s Loft Mentor Series. I think I am at a place in my development as a poet where I need more consistency than what is offered in individual classes so I’ll be looking for mentorship opportunities.
I’m going on a writing retreat in June. One of my goals for the retreat is to read the hundred or so poems that have made it past the second draft and explore themes in my writing. I know that one of the themes that keeps emerging is traveling, both as metaphor and in reality. My partner and I spent two winters working on organic farms in New Zealand, worked with a grassroots organization in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans and volunteered at an Arizona State Park. Also, this year I turn 60. The poems from these traveling experiences are waiting to be unpacked.
———
Jane Levin welcomes your questions and comments at: moonflowerpress@gmail.com
