Mahalo
to the necessary and sharp-as-a-broken-bottle-in-a-bar-fight Jaimie Gusman for
the invitation to do this “Next Big Thing.” I first met Jaimie in an
undergraduate poetry course, taught by the wonderful Susan Schultz, and have consistently
been jolted and fed by her writing. Here’s my food for thought:
Ten Interview Questions
for the Next Big Thing
What is
your working title of your book?
The Aubrey.
Where did
the idea come from for the book?
I grew up with some of the most playful
and exacting storytellers. As a young girl, it was natural to believe in
creatures and gods and shape-shifters, in the land and ocean coming to life. I
was taught to believe in women, most of all. So I’ve always gravitated to
mermaid stories, always itching to write one of my own. One that was playful
and exacting.
The Aubrey is a collection of poems about a young
mermaid who leaves the ocean for a pool gig at a luxurious hotel in Maui. The
collection takes a kinky, critical look at sex, myth, and tourism in Hawai‘i.
What genre
does your book fall under?
poetry – autobiography – travel – experimental
bedtime stories
Which
actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Beyond
the page, I’d prefer to see The Aubrey
as an installation project: amplified poetry meets the Cells of Louise Bourgeois, maybe. Although for the hook-maker’s
voice, Kathleen Turner would blow my mind.
What is the
one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A
mermaid gets a gig at the best hotel in Maui, and people are flooding the pool
deck to watch her flip her hair, flick her tail, and kiss pretty Pua with the
pearly shells…until a hook-maker arrives and the mermaid vanishes – hold the
chlorine, cabana boys, The Aubrey is
dirty and awake.
Will your
book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I like the idea of smuggling Xeroxed
copies of it into local high schools when they teach sex-ed. Or into Women’s
Studies courses that spare one token week to indigenous women’s writing.
Smuggling seems apropos. Yet to be published by a small, committed press would
be amazing.
How long
did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Work in progress / Still swimming.
What other
books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Leche,
R. Zamora Linmark
Dictee,
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
Autobiography
of Red, Anne Carson
“The Dancers,” Sia Figiel
“Sexual Frustration,” Sage Takehiro
The
Book of Jon, Eleni Sikelianos
Who or what
inspired you to write this book?
Living
in a family of mythic women.
Being
a fisherman’s daughter.
Experiencing
“the best” hotels in Maui from behind the scenes.
Remembering
how I aspired to Disney’s Mermaid when
I was little, and needing now to redefine that reach entirely.
What else
about your book might pique the reader's interest?
There’s a thumb-sucker, a
hook-maker, and an enigmatic mother who can hold her breath forever. If you
appreciate documentary poetry, I play
with spa menus, pool signs, mayonnaise jars, and scripts for tour guides. Read The Aubrey poolside. But N O P I S S I N G allowed.
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