How did you first come to poetry? What is it about the form that resonates?
I grew up in a conservative family in rural Alabama. My father always stressed the importance of reading and writing and had a vast library for me to borrow from. The first poetry I came across was the Bible, especially Psalms. Followed by Emily Dickinson. Followed by Ted Hughes. And then etc. etc.
I loved poetry because I saw a way for myself to have a voice. Being raised female in a conservative area of the south, I felt silenced. Being queer in the south was also silencing. I felt clogged up spiritually, mentally and physically. In poetry I found a place to have a voice and a mind. To be loud. To say whatever I wanted to say. To think what I wanted to think. And on top of that, if I could find a way to say what I wanted to say in a beautiful/interesting/unique way, all the better.
How does a poem begin?
I’ve found that the best beginnings are ones that require little thought. Beginnings can begin anywhere, especially in poetry. Spontaneity is creation.
Do you see your writing as a single, extended project, or a series of threads that occasionally weave together to form something else?
When I look back over everything I’ve written over the years, I see my life in chapters. Each manuscript highlights an area or time of my life. To be honest, I don’t think too hard about it. I write a piece and then move on to the next one.
How do you see your text and visual works in conversation, if at all?
I only recently started pairing my writing with my visual collages. Anything can be in conversation with anything and that’s where the fun is. Pairing words with images can create an entirely new conversation that you didn’t know existed.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
I go through periods where I create/edit and periods where I hibernate. I’ve found that the hibernation periods are just as important as the ones in which I am productive. It’s just a different kind of productivity.
If I’m in a creating period, I try to get as much done as I can in the morning before the mundanity of bills, work, anything really, can seep into the creative aspect of my brain. The less active thinking the better. Jumping straight into creating from a sleeping state creates avenues that wouldn’t appear, if say, writing after paying my car insurance.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
This is a hard question. I love many journals, especially online journals because they're so accessible. Some that I love, but not all encompassing; Ghost City Review, Apartment Poetry, SundogLit, Sixth Finch, PANK, Big Other, The Offing, The Boiler, Black Sun Lit, 32 Poems, Autofocus, DIAGRAM etc etc.
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
I run an online literary magazine with two of my
friends, Christopher Griggs and Delia Pless. I’m inspired constantly by those
who submit to us and those we publish. Just seeing the variety and magnitude of
the work out there reminds me that poetry can be anything and should be
anything. It’s exciting and inspiring. Some writers who I've been reading
lately: Emily Kendal Frey, Dorothea Lasky, Kenneth Rexroth and Fernando Pessoa.
Rushing Pittman (he/him) is a transman from Alabama. His writing has appeared in Sundog Lit, jubilat, The Boiler, BOOTH, Hayden’s Ferry Review and other various journals. Work is forthcoming in The Heavy Feather Review and Annulet. He is the author of the chapbooks Mad Dances for Mad Kings (Factory Hollow Press, 2015) and There Is One Crow That Will Not Stop Cawing (Another New Calligraphy, 2016). He earned his MFA in poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is an editor for Biscuit Hill, an online poetry journal. More of his writing can be found at www.rushpittman.com.
A selection of his poems appeared in the tenth issue.