Author Interview: Edward Porter

For the record, Bull City Press is on Team Edward! Er… at least when it comes to this next installment of our interview series. Jordan Wingate, Bull City Citizen and fiction reader for Inch, gives Edward Porter a chance to flex his literary muscles for the viewers (er… readers) at home.

Since his debut in Inch (“Phil and Emily,” Inch #6), Edward Porter has been published in Colorado Review, Booth, and the anthology Best New American Voices 2010. He holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College, was a fiction Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007-2008, and is currently working on a Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Houston, as well as a collection of short stories.

Jordan Wingate: First of all, I have to ask if you are actually related to Philip Sheridan – a Union general during the Civil War – or is American History only a subject of interest?

Edward Porter: My grandmother’s maiden name was Sheridan, and the family lore is that we’re related to General Phil. I have no idea if it’s true or not, and I prefer it that way. He’s a fascinating case, a real Shiva figure, a kind of fire-hose of violence that got unleashed in both of America’s great tragedies. He was one of the officers who finally got the Union’s act together in the Civil War, so arguably he was instrumental in ending slavery. His next gig was fighting the Great Plains Indians: he couldn’t defeat them in battle, but he made them surrender by hunting down their women and children and killing off the buffalo. “The only good Indian is a dead Indian,” is usually attributed to him. The nation saw him as a major hero in both wars, but of course today he comes off like a big-budget Charles Manson. When I was a kid, it was like being related to James Bond – now it’s like being related to Goldfinger. He was a little guy with a remarkable talent for killing people and burning their homes. Maybe he was just trying to work out his karma as best he could. Naturally, I jumped on all this as an opportunity for comedy. I chalk that up to my total inability to wrap my head around what may or may not be the family legacy. His other great quote, by the way, was, “If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent Texas and live in Hell.” Halfway through my second summer in Houston, I see his point. But his widow had the best line. She never remarried, saying, “I’d rather be the widow of Phil Sheridan than the wife of any man living.” There’s no question the guy inspired love, and I think Emily would have found him exciting. Did I mention that he had an Indian girlfriend and founded Yellowstone Park? It just goes on and on. But what he really wanted out of life was to get published, so he’s got that soul-connection with most Inch readers.

JW: Presumably, the “one poem” Dickinson gets from her fling with Sheridan is Poem 1129? “Tell all the Truth but Tell It Slant.” You end “Phil and Emily” with the words “True Story.” Would you say you are taking Dickinson’s advice, or poking fun at it?

EP: “Phil and Emily” started as an epigraph to another, longer story. In that story, I wanted to use events from my life in a literal way, but I also needed to hide my tracks: partly to make the story readable, and partly to keep my humiliation to an endurable level. I hit on a fiendish device, and walked around for a couple of days giggling to myself, “Yeah, tell the truth but tell it slant.” I take Ms. Dickinson’s advice as gospel: it’s her legend I’m poking fun at. I’ve always wanted to see her portrayed as a sex-fiend. Maybe I don’t trust anyone who isn’t manifestly a sex-fiend, and I’m trying to bring her down to my level.

JW: Where do you believe short fiction – and poetry – obtains its power? Is it a form you find easy to work with or is it, as author Reynolds Price said, “as tough as mining coal?”

EP: I’ll go Reynolds Price one better and say that writing fiction is like a fish trying to mine coal with a bicycle, alone in the forest with no one to hear. But then there’s that one day every year or two when all you have to do is open your mouth and sing. That’s a good day, when you get it.

JW: Given your background as an actor, do you ever feel compelled to write screenplays instead of fiction? Or do you incorporate something from the dramatic stage in to your writing?

EP: One of the things that drove me to fiction was how dependent you are in the theater on other people – you can’t practice your art until sixteen other grandiose narcissists from the East Village are on board. Film is worse: you’ve got to get a major corporation and some banks on board as well. Fiction only requires the one grandiose narcissist. In theory, I’d love to write for the theater or film, but I’ve seen a lot of agony and wasted years as people struggled to get their dreams made flesh.

Actually, the main fall-out from my being an actor for so long is that I tend to be impatient with fiction that doesn’t undertake drama, or undertakes it only as a pretense on which to mount essentially lyrical or intellectual concerns. Of course, that’s a description of “Phil and Emily.”

JW: Authors have claimed both to have begun writing a story blindly as well as to have known the very last words of their story before they began. Do you have a certain process in producing your stories? In the context of your experience as a carpenter, do you begin with raw planks of wood, or do you already have the finished table in mind?

EP: Sometimes I start with the finished table in mind and end up with raw planks of wood. Woodworking and fiction are both deeply involved with structure, but text on a laptop is a more reversible proposition than mahogany on a router table. There’s an element of improvisation in woodworking, but it usually involves making mistakes look intentional. Most stories have givens in their conception – you might know that at the end the triceratops is going to tell the waitress he’s always been in love with her – but you have to write it to find out how he gets there and what it means. All the writers I know fight a daily battle of trying to listen to their own work. The subconscious is probably going to throw something worthwhile out there, but you’ve got to be open to it when it happens – you can’t be hell-bent on your plan. That goes double for acting, by the way.

Michael Walsh’s The Dirt Riddles

Michael Walsh, whose poem “Names for Ditch Flowers” appeared in Inch #10, now has a full-length collection.  The Dirt Riddles, his first full-length collection of poetry, won the inaugural Miller Williams Prize in Poetry and is now available from the University of Arkansas Press.  Walsh is a poet and short story writer living with his husband in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Take a look at: http://www.uapress.com/titles/sp10/walsh.html

Bull City Press visits AWP, then rampages through Colorado

We’re packing our suitcases and heading to AWP in Denver! You’ll be able to find us in the bookfair at table F17, along with our friends from BLOOM Magazine. And while you’re hanging around the Denver-metro area, check out these Bull City Press-related events. We’re not sponsoring all of them, but we’re showing them some love!

• New Inch fiction editor Robin Black reads from her new book, If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This. Thursday, April 8, 6:30 PM, Tattered Cover Book Store, 2526 East Colfax Ave., Denver.
• State Street author Katie Bowler will sign copies of her book at the Bull City Press table at the AWP Bookfair. Friday, April 9, 2-3 PM.
• Inch #13 guest-editor Michael Martone reads for Failbetter with Sherman Alexie and Terese Svoboda. Friday, April 9, 4-6 PM, Mercury Café, 2199 California St., Denver.
• New Inch fiction editor Robin Black reads from her new book, If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This. Saturday, April 10, 5:30 PM, Clear Creek Books, 1200 Washington Ave., Golden.
• Poets Matthew Olzmann (featured in Inch #12), Vievee Francis, and francine j. harris read at 11:45 AM, then State Street author Katie Bowler reads at 12:45 PM. Sunday, April 11, Clear Creek Books, 1200 Washington Ave., Golden.
• Katie Bowler reads from State Street at The Laughing Goat (hosted by So You’re a Poet? Productions). Monday, April 12, 8 PM.  1709 Pearl St. Boulder.

We hope we’ll see you at these events!

2010 Bull City Press Poetry Prize – now accepting manuscripts

We’re pleased to announce that submissions for the first Bull City Press Poetry Prize are now open.  The 2010 Bull City Press First Book Prize honors a book of individual poetry in English by a single author; translations and collaborative works are not eligible for this award.  The winning poet will receive 50 copies of the published book.

Entries must be submitted between April 1, 2010 and August 1, 2010.  All entries must be submitted to our online submissions manager.  Entries submitted by e-mail, fax, or US mail are not permitted and will be disqualified.  Entries must be accompanied by a $20 entry fee, payable through PayPal.  Entrants may submit multiple manuscripts, but must pay a $20 entry fee for each manuscript submitted.  Manuscripts should be 48 to 100 pages of poetry, consecutively numbered, single-spaced, and should include a table of contents.

Complete contest details and submission information are available at:
http://bullcitypress.com/contest.php

Inch #13, guest-edited by Michael Martone

Bull City denizens and friends, we’re proud to announce that Inch #13 is a bold new experiment which has more in common with 1970’s Marvel comics than the literary magazines that you’re used to seeing.  Why’s that?  Because this issue, folks, is a

DOUBLE-SIZED FICTION SPECTACULAR!

Guest edited by Michael Martone, the man behind such books as Michael Martone and Fort Wayne is Seventh on Hitler’s List, this issue features so much great fiction that we couldn’t cram it all into our usual tiny package.  So we didn’t try– we made it huge.

Order your copy now, and get these fantastic stories:

Denise Delgado – “Ready”
Diane D. Gillette – “The Rope”
Bruce Harris – “On the Ropes”
J.A. Tyler – “The Hawks”
Daniel Wallace – “How to Build a Coffin”
David Yost – “Soup”

Ordering information is available at http://inch.bullcitypress.com/, where you can pick up a copy for a buck plus shipping.

Inch #12 rings in the New Year

If you need a fix of the finest short poetry, you’re in luck.  Inch #12 is our second all-poetry issue.  Take a look at what we have in store for you.

Emily Kendal Frey – “Signal”
Hannah Gamble – “Women Writing About Sex”
Reb Livingston – “Diminished Prophecy 10.1″
Dave Lucas – “On Catholicism,” “On Film”
Matthew Olzmann – “The Days”
Samn Stockwell – “One Consolation for Monday,” “Our Common History,” ” The Sale”

Get those poems for only a buck plus shipping.  Order now at http://inch.bullcitypress.com/

Inch #11 now available

Our summer 2009 issue of Inch is now available for sale. If this lineup doesn’t tempt you, it’s very possible that nothing in the world can tempt you.

Poetry
Betty Adcock – “Skinny Poem”
Jasmine V. Bailey – “Portrait of a Young Man”
Katerina Stoykova-Klemer – “Conversation Q,” “Conversation W”
Victoria Bosch Murray – “Prayer for Riding the Saco River”
Robert M. Wallace – “Sunlight on the River”
Donna Glee Williams – “Night Porch”

Fiction
Michael McFee – “BEWARE OF GOD”

Order issue #11, as well as other back issues, here: http://inch.bullcitypress.com/

Inch #11 marks the farewell issue for fiction editor Bill Ferris, who co-founded the magazine back in the summer of 2006. Without Bill’s support and encouragement, there would be no Bull City Press, and we will never be able to thank him enough.

Inch achieves rare status on Duotrope’s Digest

Duotrope’s Digest, a web site that lists literary magazines and their submissions guidelines, is one of our favorite web sites at Bull City Press.  We often like to browse the new magazines, reading the online journals and purchasing sample copies of some of the newer magazines in print.  Duotrope has also been invaluable in spreading the word about Inch, our tiny magazine for tiny poems and short, short fiction.

We’re pleased to note that while Inch has been listed as one of the 25 Most Challenging Markets for Poetry for some time now, we entered another top 25 list this week– Top 25 Swiftest Markets for Poetry.  We pride ourselves on publishing the best of the best when it comes to short poems and microfiction, but we also work hard to make sure that we remain responsive and accessible to contributors and potential contributors alike.  Thanks to all Duotrope users who reported responses from Inch!

New book available for pre-order – State Street by Katie Bowler

It’s been a busy day at the Bull City warehouse, where we’ve been working on the web site and unearthing some additional back issues.

Our big news is that Katie Bowler’s State Street, a poem about post-Katrina New Orleans, is now available for pre-order exclusively on the Bull City Press web site. We’ll eventually have the book available on Amazon and in local bookstores, but if you want to guarantee that you get your copy early, you’ll have to visit Bull City!

Additionally, copies of Inch #5 and #7, which we previously thought were sold out, are now available again over at the Inch site. We discovered a stack of copies from the first printing that had been printed but never stapled. Just a few of each exist, so get them while you can.

Chapbook by Thomas Cooper available for pre-sale

If you loved Thomas Cooper’s story “Spoon” (Inch #8) as much as we did, you will be excited to hear about the release of his chapbook coming up next month. Phantasmagoria, which contains “Spoon” and 16 other short shorts, was selected by Michael Martone as the winner of Keyhole Press’ 2008 fiction chapbook contest.

The chapbook will be released on June 9th, but you can pre-order now at Keyhole Press.  Do it!