Hannah Stephenson has been blogging a new poem every weekday since July 2008, recently posting her 600th poem at The Storialist. She’s also active on Facebook and Twitter, records and uploads songs to SoundCloud, reads and comments widely on other blogs, and has just completed a full-length manuscript of poetry called Guided Tours, in addition to her work as a college writing instructor and freelance editorial consultant. Bascially, I wanted to know how the hell she does it. I also wanted to learn more about the connection between poetry and fashion photography, her original inspiration at The Storialist.
In the course of the conversation, I got her to read a few poems, too. Here are the links if you’d like to follow along:
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Thanks to Samantha Hahn (see larger version of “Burden”) and Marcos Armstrong for the images. Theme music: “Le grand sequoia,” by Innvivo (Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike licence)
How the hell DOES she do it? A recent discovery for me. The quantity and consistent quality of the verse output is extraordinary.
Yeah, we never did quite answer that, did we? But Dick, you have three young kids ramming around the house. A reasonable person might wonder how the hell you manage to write all you do, too!
Thanks Dave! Hannah, you’re now on my daily list..
QR, I figured you’d enjoy this interview!
Really engaging interview! Extended and deep, but pleasant. So great to have this portrait of the poet behind such wonderful poems. I enjoyed the difference between Hannah’s speaking voice and her “reading my poem” voice. Good audio quality of sound of the poems (on my desktop, anyway). I love what new technologies can bring to readers: poetry blogs like Hannah’s, and interviews like Dave’s. Thanks to both of you.
Thanks to Dave for this, and to all the commenters (Hi Dick and Therese, good to see you here!). And hi Quiet Regular…please feel free to say hello if you do visit my site.
Glad you found it interesting. Yay for conversations!
This is a great one! Hannah’s warm and enthusiastic engagement with life and art, and her varied, intelligent, sparkling cascade of poetry are truly an inspiration.
Hannah is just one of those gems who seems to carry a suitcase of words with her and pulls them out just when you thought it was getting dark.
Great interview ;)
thea.
xx
(spoonfulzine)
What a terrific conversation! Hannah, I feel like I got to know you better – and admire you even more. Especially appreciated your comments about daily discipline, regardless of what art we’re pursuing, and the value of doing the work, letting it go, and putting it out there in front of people. My own very supportive husband (we’re lucky, you and I!) actually encouraged me to start blogging more than seven years ago and this is one of the main lessons I’ve learned from it – do the work, don’t judge it too much, trust your audience, and move on to the next day. The discipline, the process, and the accumulated work all add up to something we’d never have otherwise. Thanks for being so straightforward in this interview, and thanks to Dave!
Wow. Hannah’s discipline in writing and posting is certainly impressive. Thanks for the introduction to another inspiring poet/blogger. I really enjoyed the conversation and look forward to checking out more of her work at The Storialist.