Emerging Writers Network

An Interview with Melanie Bishop

I'm going to try to start doing some more interviews here again in 2012 and got one in a little early--this time around with author/editor, Melanie Bishop:

Dan: 

Hello, Melanie, while I know there is some good news on your writing front we'll get to,  how about if we start with Alligator Juniper--you started this journal, correct, and it's affiliated with Prescott College and the writing department there? How did that come about, and what sort of material do you find yourselves looking for when it comes to each new issue?

Melanie:

We’ve designed our BA in Creative Writing (and our recently-launched BFA) to provide students with as much practical experience as possible. A student who takes advantage of all practicum courses graduates having worked on the staffs of a national literary magazine and a regional newspaper, having taught creative writing to an under-served community group, and having written her first book. Prior to starting Alligator Juniper, we were arranging internships at other literary magazines for students interested in publishing. It didn’t take long to realize we should create our own national literary mag and give students that experience in-house. It’s helped many of them get into some of the best MFA programs in the country, with paid positions on those program’s literary magazines. Three times in the magazine’s seventeen year history, it has been awarded the AWP Directors’ Prize in the content division. What we look for in the work submitted to us is, simply, literary merit. A story or essay or poem that ends up making it into the magazine is one that we remember long after reading it, one we find ourselves thinking about later. So we look for work that is memorable, that moves us, and that shows us something new. 

Dan:

You just recently had a couple of works accepted for publication--care to share the details?

Melanie:

One story, “Trina Comes Home,” will be in the Fall 2012 issue of Potomac Review and another, “Evidence,” will be published online at www.theamericanmag.com this December.  I also have a book-length memoir, Some Glad Morning, which will be published digitally on Outpost 19. Two colleagues of mine from graduate school started this and have already published a few titles. Check it out at www.outpost19.com . My memoir should be available there in the first few months of 2012. It’s a book that deals with terminal illness, caregiving, loss of parent, and different responses to the resulting grief. We will all lose our parents. We are never ready. My aim in writing this book was to lay it out there, in all its horror and grace. I think it could be helpful to others going through similar loss.

Dan:

You've put together a cycle-of-stories that has been named a finalist in some nice annual competitions (Iowa, Sarabande, etc.). Have you come to a point that contests are the only way you're submitting that particular manuscript, or do you still send it out through non-contest channels?

Melanie: 

Yes, “Trina Comes Home” is from that cycle—Home for Wayward Girls. Now only two stories from that book remain unpublished, and I’m circulating those. I haven’t sent this book out through non-contest channels, because it seems like publishers aren’t taking chances on short story collections unless they come after the writer has published a novel. I’m thankful for the contests at places like Dzanc, Sarabande, Iowa, Milkweed Press, Carolina Wren, Livingston Press and so many others—the small literary presses that really are dedicated to helping writers see their work in print.

Dan:

Have you received any specific feedback on those stories, or the collection in full, that has allowed you some insight on what might be necessary to take it from that finalist level last year to being selected and published next year?

Melanie:

You know, I haven’t received any such feedback, but I think I know what the cycle needs to take it to the level of winner. I think while it works as it is now, there’s another layer I could uncover if I were to add three more stories, fleshing out the later lives of certain key characters--the father, Gina, and Amelia. I’m in the middle of a bunch of other writing projects, so I’ve neglected the cycle. Also, it seemed to be doing quite well in its current state. I kept hoping it would get published, but truthfully, to not do what I think I could do to make it more complete--that would be lazy. Thanks for reminding me… 

Dan:

You also have a YA novel making the rounds--how different a challenge was that for you to write than short stories, or working toward finishing up a story collection?

Melanie: 

The Young Adult novel—My So-Called Ruined Life—is a finalist at Milkweed Press. Writing this was very different from working on short stories, and it was easier for me. Stories, I don’t know, they are such potent little bullets and you always feel they have to be so tight and taut and perfect. Something about the shorter length forces you to be more precise and to distill everything down to its essence. The YA novel gave me a longer window in which to let something unfold, but not so long or overwhelming as a regular novel would. The genre felt natural to me. Another difference--I was aiming for a lighter tone in the YA, despite the book’s really serious subject matter. To make it right for a teen audience, there was a levity I was after that I don’t hold myself to when writing stories for an adult audience. One similarity in these two processes was writing from an adolescent viewpoint. Many of my short stories are written from a female adolescent point-of-view, so getting into the voice of Tate McCoy, my YA novel’s protagonist, wasn’t a reach at all.

Dan:

Lastly, I see you host a writing retreat of sorts in Greece? Lexi Retreats--what can you tell EWN'ers about this?

Melanie:

Yes, Lexi Retreats. This is very exciting. My husband and I traveled to Greece’s Cycladic islands last summer. I was guest faculty in Creative Writing at an American school on Paros Island, and we extended our stay for a few weeks to explore the area. The whole trip was such a sensory delight and injected my writing with so much new energy, we decided we wanted to introduce other writers to this area. So Lexi Retreats was born. We’re taking applications now through early January, and we will join the twelve selected participants on Paros, mid-May, for a wonderfully diverse retreat that blends solitude, companionship, writing, rest, rejuvenation, culinary delight, visits to wineries, inter-island exploration, and finally, celebration of our accomplishments. I encourage people to check us out at www.LexiRetreats.com and to spread the word. It’s going to be a great time.

Dan:

Anything else you’d like to share with EWN members?

Melanie:

I guess I’d just like to put a good word out there for some of my peers and colleagues whose work I really admire. From my MFA days, Robert Schirmer, Ellen Winter and Laurie MacDiarmid are exquisitely fine writers. Ellen has a story (“Grizzly”) in the most recent issue of Brain, Child; Robert has a story (“Blackout”) in the most recent issue of Glimmer Train, and Laurie has a poetry collection coming out in March, titled Consolation Prize. A former star student of mine, Eliot Treichel, has a collection coming out next year—Close is Fine. Two other former students and stars—Laura Didyk, whose essay “All the Steves” can be found in the 2011 issue of Alligator Juniper and Rachel Yoder, who has an essay in the October issue of The Sun (“Awkward Walks with Unavailable Men”). And then everyone I teach with at Prescott College—Sheila Sanderson has a poetry collection coming out in 2012 (Keeping Even). K.L. Cook has a  second collection of stories out--Love Songs for the Quarantined, and I can also highly recommend anything by our junior faculty—Skye Anicca and E.A. Durden (both publishing fiction) and Sam Reed (a poet who has also published fiction and nonfiction—yep, one of those). We feel so fortunate to have these talented young writers nurturing the talents of Prescott College students.

Dan:

Thank you very much for taking some time to answer questions for EWN members today, it's appreciated.

Melanie:

The thanks goes to you and Dzanc Books for hosting the Emerging Writers Network. The range of what you’re doing at Dzanc is just so impressive and admirable. Bravo.

Remembering--one year

It's been a year since I started to write that post that appeared last December 8 as it took me three days to figure out exactly how I wanted to put into words what was swimming through my mind. It was a year ago today that my mother passed away.

A year always sounds like a very long time--long enough, one would assume, that I'd stop thinking I'll call mom and see what she thinks, before catching myself. On the other hand, short enough that there's a guilt when I realize I've gone a few days without thinking about her and mourning at least a little. Not being able to share certain things: Stephen King raving about one of the books Dzanc has published, the recent NEA grant Dzanc received, positives her grandchildren accomplished in the last twelve months, has certainly caused sadness, but the overlying thing, the one that makes each day a little bit easier, is having been close enough to share things like that for the 44 years before this last year, and so knowing how she would have reacted to each event. Knowing when she'd have pulled me aside to offer quiet praise, or to chide me for letting somebody out of the house looking like that (most likely myself).

As is typical around here, there is a great deal going on today. Kids to be driven to school, to doctor's appointments, to practices, a list of things to do for Dzanc longer than my arm, etc. But at some point during the day or evening, I will honor her by spending some time reading. I might even truly honor her and read the last page first.