LH: What do you think the purpose of a review is?
EM: No single purpose. A book Im advocating for – a book I’ve been invited to write about that I have my own reasons to write about even if diff from the editor who invited me. A book to hinge some other argument on publicly..
LH: If you also write about books on a blog, why?
EM: Because there are more outlets for reviewing/writing on blogs. I write about what I care about where I can.
LH: What does blogging let you do differently?
EM: To do it period. And I suppose less editing. Less conventional approach. Generally in the blog world I’m an outsider – the world isn’t foregrounding poetry so you can say often more opinionated things because they don’t know what you’re talking about.
LH: If you write reviews, how would you describe your approach, or method?
EM: Contextual. I try to give the world of the review, or the book, or the world the argument will land in forseeably.
LH: Do you offer or engage in exegesis, theoretical, academic, reader response, close, contextual or evaluative readings?
EM: Sure.
LH: If you don’t write but read reviews, what aspects of reviewing do you notice?
EM: In poetry the new frontier is mainstream vs. language. The armies have lined up, are both at war and are in the midst of doing a corporate handshake. It began at Barnard. See Iowa. See Hybrid.
LH: What do you think makes for a successful review?
EM: courage and passion. intelligence. familiarity.
LH: Is there an aspect, a stylistic choice, or perspective that necessarily produces a more significant document?
EM: Awareness. Familiarity. It’s amazing how often uniformed people write say about poetry or lesbianism or any of the things I care about. Rank amateurs are underqualified over entitled, unjustly armed.
LH: When you review, do you focus on a particular text (poem, story), the book at hand, the author’s body of work?
EM: all of the above.
LH: Do you think this choice of focus influences criticism, or your own criticism, and if so, how?
EM: well yeah. Space is the final consideration. one nips according to how much area they get to cover.
LH: If you also write non-critical work, how different is the way you approach reviewing or critical writing to the way you approach your own “creative” writing?
EM: I don’t research so much for my own writing. I tend to know where I am and the act is buttressed by research that has apparently been performed without my knowing.
LH: Have you been in a position where you have had to write about a book that you don’t care for, or a book that is coming out of a tradition that you are perhaps opposed to, or resistant to on some level?
EM: I’ve stupidly aired my criticism when I would have been better off not writing the piece. Sometimes I’ve Tried to be fair but there’s nothing more insulting. We’re all readers. everything is transparent.
LH: How do you handle such events? Or how have you noticed others handle these events?
EM: People seem to think others want to know what they think. They really don’t.
LH: What is the last piece of writing that convinced you to a/ reconsider an author or book you thought you had figured out, or had a final opinion on or b/ made you want to buy the book under review immediately?
EM: There was a book in the times about reindeer that I became very excited about. I bought a copy for myself and a friend and I bet neither of us have read it. I read a review of a book called the some thing avacado, the dud avacado? by Elinor Dundy. I read it and liked it a lot. Minor books get in best for me through reviews. I usually know about the other books.
LH: Is there a quality you are looking for in a review that you haven’t found?
EM: Where the writer is sitting. Literally and in their world of thought. People often exempt themselves from scrutiny which I think is frightening.
LH: Critical work is increasingly unpaid work; will you continue to do this work despite the trend? Do you see this trend reversing, or changing course?
EM: I like a mix and that is my experience. yeah sure I’d do it for free and do and if it was only that it should have another name, I think.
EM: Yeah I think it’s going that way.
LH: What do you hope to achieve by writing about writing? Do you believe that reviews can actually bring new readers to texts?
EM: Finding audience for important books. It’s political work and is the most important work in the world next to your own writing. It is your own writing. duh.
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Eileen Myles is a poet who lives in New York. Her novel The Inferno will be out by the end of the year. She is teaching this spring in Missoula, MT.
