Ask The Author: Kimberly Ann Southwick

From the March Issue, “Near Sonnet for S” by Kimberly Ann Southwick.

1. What would a far sonnet look like?

You would have to squint to see it. When you reached out, it wouldn’t be there. Maybe they write them in outer space. I can’t be certain.

2. How has running a literary magazine impacted your writing?

When I ran the poetry section at a bookstore in NYC, a customer would visit me there. He warned that editors tend to put too much effort into their journals and forsake their poetry. I found that I have gradually come to disagree. I don’t know if I would be so involved with my writing, or if I would feel confident sending it out, if I didn’t run Gigantic Sequins. In looking at others’ writing so consistently, I am constantly dissecting texts, what works about this piece, what doesn’t—and I do that with my own writing, too, now, instead of being selfish, like maybe I used to me, as in: this piece works for me so it should work for everyone.

3. Who would you say “I love you” to while standing on a ladder?

I’ve done it before. I might do it again.

4. Why did you only make this a near sonnet?

Sentence fragments: because complete sonnets (and far sonnets) are too hard, because language is imperfect and the sonnet is a perfect form, because it’s difficult to say more sometimes and less is often better.

5. Do you ever laugh at Christmas lights?

Not since I was a student.

6. How have you blurred a sentence?

Part of it is being a woman. Part of it is knowing your voice and your grammar. You can only do it right out loud. Double-checking and second-guessing all the time and knowing that you don’t mean it—the hesitation, it comes too quickly, naturally– your “I mean–” your “something like that–” you “just–”. In an essay called “Collector’s Item”, Joseph Brodsky writes, “’Something like that,’ she added, just in case, to widen the margin of error.” Something like that. That’s part of it.