Talking to Kelly R. Samuels

When I began Body of the Book, I never dreamed that I would conduct author interviews. However, I could not resist reaching out to Kelly R. Samuels after reading her microchap, Talking to Alice. Thank you Kelly, for agreeing to share your time and insight with me. I admire anyone who has the passion and courage not only to write, but to share their words with the world. There are many types of forms that a poetic body can take, and I'm excited to use this space to focus on the microchap. Please note, my February reading recap will be out tomorrow, in order to highlight Kelly today.

You can purchase Talking to Alice through Whittle Micro Press.

Kelly R. Samuels is the author of two poetry collections and four chapbooks—the most recent Oblivescence (Red Sweater Press, 2024) and Talking to Alice (Whittle Micro-Press, 2023.) She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee with work appearing in The Massachusetts Review, River Styx, Sixth Finch, Denver Quarterly, december, and RHINO. She lives in the Upper Midwest. Find her here: https://www.krsamuels.com.

I may be biased, but what is better than one Kelly(i)? Two of course! Read my conversation with Kelly R. Samuels below.

Is there anything you'd like readers to know about you or your collection before they step into the rich world of description, language, and guidance that you've created? If readers have never read a microchap, how should they approach those collections?

First, Kelli, thank you for having me! 

To imagine a listener is one of the greatest pleasures of writing for me. Whether it’s a real person, like my mother in my collection Oblivescence or a literary character like Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome in one of my earlier chapbooks Zeena/Zenobia Speaks, I love the intimacy conjuring a listener generates for me during the writing process. This was certainly the case with Talking to Alice, which, as you know, has a speaker giving advice to Alice from Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I even kept a picture of Alice from the edition I had of Carroll’s book near me as I wrote.   

For me, microchaps are intense bursts of energy that can leave a lasting impression. Readers should know that despite the small number of poems, microchaps are doing a lot in that space and often warrant repeated readings. They are worth paying attention to!

When you began writing Talking to Alice, did you know it would end up being a microchap? If so, does planning a microchap look different than planning a chapbook or full-length?

I knew when I began the poems that there would be a limited number based on the number of chapters in Carroll’s work, but I did not have a microchap in mind from the onset. I saw the poems as a series initially and only later assembled them into a microchap. 

In my experience, the overall layout of a microchap is much easier than a chapbook and especially a collection. There’s less to hold onto; everything is easier to see regarding order and connections between the poems. The process for me is the same, though. I print out the poems and lay them out on the floor or tape them to my office wall, moving them around as I reread them. 

Please share what your writing process looked like while putting this manuscript together.

I had reread Carroll’s classic work and saw these interesting phrases having to do with situations Alice found herself in or chose to put herself in, such as “Popping down Holes without Consideration.” I thought it would be interesting to give her advice as she navigated through Carroll’s world. My initial goal was to have at least one poem for each chapter of his, with those phrases being used as the titles of my poems. In the end, some chapters prompted more than one poem and others didn’t have any; the beauty of the phrase or what I took from it mattered most. 

I wrote the poems in a short span of time, as I often do with a series. I got first drafts down and then went back and cut some poems and revised others after letting them sit for a bit.  

What was it like working with Whittle Micro Press? I am excited about another microchap publisher on the scene. It seems like there are only a few out there right now.

It has been wonderful to work with Whittle Micro-Press and Katherine Fallon! When Katherine reached out to me and said she was going to start a micro press and was interested in my work, I was all in. She was enthusiastic, communicative and transparent about everything. We discussed layout, formatting, front and back cover, promotion, etc. We still keep in touch.    

Throughout this book, the speaker is in conversation with Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. At the same time, the speaker is also talking to anyone who is younger and sharing life's wisdom. What made you choose Alice as the focal point of conversation? I found it to be a creative choice and more meaningful than a "Dear Reader," type of formatting.

It was rereading Carroll’s work that prompted the idea of speaking to Alice and certainly the predicaments she got herself into. It was her youth, too. I started thinking about what I would have done in her situation, older as I am, and what advice I could offer. Though, as the speaker says in the last poem, “The older I get, the less I know and the more / I admit it.” 

As I wrote above, having a clear idea of who my speaker is talking to is invigorating for me. It’s akin to a conversation with the intimacy that can come from that.   

There are so many quotable lines for me in this collection. It will be hard to just pick one for my monthly wrap up. Do you have a favorite poem in this collection? If so, why does it stand out to you?

“Talking to Alice about Thinking with One Arm out a Window and One Foot up the Chimney” is probably my favorite of the twelve. I love the image that comes with the title and how the end of the poem comes back around to that. I also like how the speaker admits to some futility while giving some of herself away; there are details there, where the reader learns a bit about this older person who is trying to advise.  

How did you land on the cover? With the telephone, I imagined an older woman and younger woman (maybe one in the same person) taking time out of their day to connect with each other. What images did the cover elicit for you?

My daughter Kate Netwal, who is an illustrator and photographer, designed the cover. She’s done several other covers for Whittle. I have an antique phone like the one on the cover in my kitchen and I mentioned to her possibly using it. She came up with the great idea of having the cord form the title. 

For me, it is about connection, and the vintage phone fits with Carroll’s work. I think of talking long hours on the phone with my best friend from high school, or of, now, jotting down a note to myself on my cell. What is it we wish to share with others and ourselves?

What is next for you? What are you currently working on?

I have a couple full-length manuscripts out for consideration now. I’ve also been working on a series of poems with Lethe, daughter of Eris, that is beginning to look at least chapbook-length. I’m playing with blending what little we know of Lethe with myself. Rivers figure, naturally.    

Indie books, authors, and presses are where it's at for me right now. Do you have recommendations on any venues or books that readers should check out?

I loved the newest from Whittle: The Margaret, by Miranda Dennis. Jenny George’s After Image, published by Copper Canyon Press, is a recent read that was great. Fonograf Editions publishes beautifully made collections. In the last couple years, I’ve had subscriptions to Conduit and American Poetry Review. I regularly read poetry online from numerous journals, including The Adroit Journal, Sixth Finch and TriQuarterly. There are a lot of great independent journals out there, both online and print, with a lot of great people tirelessly advocating for literature and art: Aaron Lelito of Wild Roof Journal, Colleen Sabaka of Opt West, the team at SWWIM, Danielle McMahon of the engine(idling, etc., etc. I’m thankful to be part of this community.