Dustin: First of all, I have to make a confession. When this interview is over I know it is going
to be an interview that I will cherish forever since I worship the paper upon which you write!
Well, I guess that isn't totally true since the restraining order keeps me from getting any Denise
Duhamel paper!
Denise: I will go to the poetry police to have that restraining order lifted. I will send you bags
from my shredder with which you can stuff pillows that I will embroider with haiku.
Dustin: Denise, you make me smile! You're a delight whether it is on the page or interacting
with you. BTW-- I'm currently in love with "A Different Story," which is in the July/August 2008
issue of The American Poetry Review. I hope Limp Wrist readers will check it out, well, after
they finish with the fagulousness that is LW, of course. Will "A Different Story" appear in your
new book Ka-Ching!?
Denise: Thank you, Dustin! "A Different Story" won't be in Ka-Ching!, but it will be in the book
after Ka-Ching! I'm always kind of ahead of myself since I'm for better or worse a prolific gal.
to be an interview that I will cherish forever since I worship the paper upon which you write!
Well, I guess that isn't totally true since the restraining order keeps me from getting any Denise
Duhamel paper!
Denise: I will go to the poetry police to have that restraining order lifted. I will send you bags
from my shredder with which you can stuff pillows that I will embroider with haiku.
Dustin: Denise, you make me smile! You're a delight whether it is on the page or interacting
with you. BTW-- I'm currently in love with "A Different Story," which is in the July/August 2008
issue of The American Poetry Review. I hope Limp Wrist readers will check it out, well, after
they finish with the fagulousness that is LW, of course. Will "A Different Story" appear in your
new book Ka-Ching!?
Denise: Thank you, Dustin! "A Different Story" won't be in Ka-Ching!, but it will be in the book
after Ka-Ching! I'm always kind of ahead of myself since I'm for better or worse a prolific gal.
Dustin: Well, I will take a guess and say we'll see a number of your money poems in Ka-Ching! Am I right?
Denise: Yes, indeed! You were kind enough to publish "$100,000" in ToasterMag and there are 9 more of those, for a whopping one
million dollars worth of poems. I wrote the series of which the “form” is the actual size of play money I found in a thrift store. The poems
were written in prose blocks to fit on the back of play $100,000 bills.
Dustin: I remember enjoying the one published in ToasterMag, and it was a pleasure to read "$900,000" in Court Green #5.
The other day I was having a conversation about titling poems with a friend. We both admire how you most of the poems you write
have catchy titles. Some of my favorites which also serves as good examples are "Sometimes the First Boys Don't Count," "Ernest
Hemingway, Your Mother Made You Wear Dresses Until You Were Three," and "Another Poem Called Sphincter." Bringing this back to
Ka-Ching!—Could share some of the titles of poems we'll find in Ka-Ching!? Can you share your secret to creating great titles?
Denise: Dustin, you are too kind! I love wacky titles and longish bizarre titles. I usually think of a title AFTER I write a poem, if that
helps. I also think about what might catch someone's interest perusing a list of titles in a magazine—I know, shameless! Sometimes
an unassuming small title like "Apple" seems what a poem calls for. So "Apple" is indeed one of the poem titles in Ka-Ching! but here
are a few others: "Stupid Vanilla," "Dinner Party Horror," "I Dreamed I Wrote This Sestina in my Maidenform Bra," and "Sipping Café con
Leche Where The Bombs Fell."
Dustin: If you had to pick one title from all the ones you've written, which title would you label as your favorite?
Denise: I'm feeing nostalgic so I think I'd have to say, " On Being Born The Exact Same Day Of The Exact Same Year As Boy
George." This is a mighty old poem, first published in 1987 in an issue of Ploughshares edited by my hero Bill Knott. I was shocked
that the poem was taken—as I put it in as "filler," so I'd have three poems to send. The other two were mighty serious, as I tended to be
back when I first started writing.
Dustin: It does seem that most of your "newer" work tends to be on the playful side. The work seems to pack entertainment value.
When did you have this change in your writing? I think all writers have their circle of friends they trust to preview and critique their work.
How did your circle react to the change in your work?
Denise: As Steve Allen once said, "Tragedy plus time equals comedy." And I think it's simply time as a poet that has given me the
ability to have distance and humor about many of the more painful aspects of life. Ka-Ching! does have its share of sorrowful poems,
too. One section is devoted to prose poems about a really tragic accident my parents suffered in 2003. Stephanie Strickland, Tom Fink,
and Nick (my husband) are poets I really trust to help me edit my poems, especially when its time to put a book together. They are all
completely wonderful and want me to grow as a poet, as I want them to grow and change. So they have been very supportive.
Dustin: Nick (Carbo) is in this issue of Limp Wrist. I'm sure you get this question all the time, but I have be greedy and ask anyway:
How is it being married to a fellow poet? Do you two ever feel any competition toward one another?
Denise: The upside of being married to a poet is that Nick lets me write and never questions what I'm doing in that regard. When I
get a magazine publication, he jumps for joy with me instead of asking, "Do you get paid for that?" which a partner who is outside of he
arts might say. Nick and I know when each other is writing a poem—just by the look on our faces and the way we stare at the
computer, so we stay out of each other's way while we're composing. As for competition—we have negotiated it this way. If I win a
grant, half goes to Nick. If he wins a grant, half goes to me. We've found that's a good way to stop any jealousy that might start to creep
in. The downside of a two-poet household, though, as you can imagine, is that it's very tough financially. Nick and I sometime wish the
other were a doctor or a lawyer—we can't help it.
Dustin: Dorianne Laux has an excellent poem titled "Cher" that came from a writing exercise given to her by her poet-husband Joe
Millar. Do you and Nick ever give each writing exercises to generate new work?
Denise: I love Dorianne's poem "Cher." It's in her new chapbook Superman—and I've also heard her read it. A real crowd pleaser.
Nick and I occasionally DO give each other assignments. Two years ago, we were talking about that annoying riddle: "Pete and Repeat
were sitting on a fence. One fell off, and who was left?" We both challenged each other to write a poem about it. Mine's a pantoum
which will be included in Ka-Ching! Nick's is a lovely free verse poem about two friends who live on the southern coast of Spain.
Dustin: Mentioning Nick also makes me think of "For the One Man Who Likes My Thighs." I have to say, as a person who has some
body image issues and as a poet, I freaking love "For the One Man Who Likes My Thighs!"
Denise: Thank you!
Dustin: In January, you are teaching at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival for the first time. I know you travel all over the country and
abroad teaching workshops, so are you excited that you'll be near home? Care to share what you hope to accomplish with your PBPF
workshop?
Denise: I have to say I am truly jazzed about teaching at the festival. I have been going to the Palm Beach Poetry Festival every year
to listen to the readings and/or introduce the readers, so I know what a wonderful conference it is. My class will be called FEAR,
MEMORY, AND DESIRE and it will focus on generating new poems with exercises I've developed that have been pretty successful for
writers to get at their core issues and themes. We will also work on revision or re-imaging poems through traditional and non-
traditional forms. I have high hopes for the class!
Dustin: I'm sure your workshop participants are in for a treat! Will you have any advanced copies of KA-Ching! available for
purchase at the festival? I'm curious, why has it taken Miles five years to get you to teach at the festival?
Denise: I hope advanced copies of Ka-Ching! will be available in January. The book's pub date is in the spring, but I'm not sure what
month yet. I'm thrilled to be teaching at the festival—better late than never, I say.
Dustin: I bet you have some low-residency seekers excited since you have joined the staff at the Converse College Low-Residency
program. Is this your first time teaching in a low-residency program?
Denise: I am actually teaching with Dorianne Laux in Pacific University's low MFA program. I am new there. I planned to simply give a
reading at Pacific this summer, but then there were more students admitted than the director originally thought, so I took on a few. It's
been a great experience since, as you know, I'm on email a lot and like corresponding. I will be teaching only in Converse's low
residency program starting in June of 2009--it's a new program with a lot of energy and support. The director, Rick Maulkey, is
amazing. And my full time job, as you know, is at Florida International University.
Dustin: In workshops, when I talk about poetry, I usually talk about poetry being split into the academic and non-academic. Keeping
these two groups in mind (as vague as the two classifications may be), there seems to be a stigma in certain academic groups that
seems to be melting away regarding low-residency programs. It seems in these certain academic groups there is a preference for the
traditional MFA program. Do you know what I am referring to? Anything you would like to share on this topic?
Denise: There are so many good low residency programs now that I don't think it matters so much if a student chooses a traditional
or low residency program. Ultimately it's going to depend on the student's needs—can she get up and move to Nebraska? Or must
she keep her job and stay put? There are obvious benefits to the traditional programs—community, face-to-face time, and so forth. But
there are also many benefits to working in a low residency program. The intensity of the residencies is amazing...As to the split
between the academic and non-academic, I do feel in many ways that rift is healing. When I went to Sarah Lawrence for MFA in the late
1980s, I would spend my weekends at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and slam and do open mics. At that point, the two worlds were very
separate from one another. I felt like I was in the closet about my love of performance. Sure, there were some terribly amateur poets in
the slam scene, but there was also a wonderful energy. And sometimes I preferred that energy to the most boring workshop poems.
(I'm not saying there were that many boring workshop poems—forgive me class of 1987!--but the ones that were snoozers were really
snoozers.)
Dustin: Now, it is time for my favorite question to ask poets. What four would you recommend to poets?
Denise: Yikes--this is a tough question. But today I would say: Sharon Old’s The Gold Cell, Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems, Anne
Sexton’s Transformations, and The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas. Yesterday, I may have said James Tate’s THE LOST PILOT,
Jayne Anne Phillips SWEATHEARTS, Ron Koertge’s Life on the Edge of the Continent: Selected Poems, and Ai’s Cruelty. Tomorrow I
may say James Wright's Selected Poems, Edward Field’s Variety Photoplays, Stephanie Strickland’s The Red Virgin: A Poem of
Simone Weil, and Sylvia Plath’s Collected Poems. I realize I totally cheated on the question. As you can imagine, I could go on and
on….Jean Valentine, Bill Knott, Kenneth Koch, Nin Andrews, Michael Burkhard. It seems the more I go on, the more people I am
leaving out.
Dustin: I'll lump my two other favorite questions together since we are almost at the close of our interview. What are you currently
reading, and what would we find on your desk if took a look today?
Denise: I am currently reading John Dufresne's amazing novel Requiem, Mass; Jan Beatty's stunning poetry collection Red Sugar;
and a very cool chapbook called Who Are We?: Investigations and Findings by Drs. Ink and Owning (aka Sierra Nelson and Rachel
Kessler.) They are a literary performance team called The Typing Explosion. I'm also reading the latest issue of Bust magazine. I love
Bust!
On my desk, you would find a postage meter; about 80 post-its with notes and to-do lists; a ceramic lucky kitty; two sets of worry dolls;
crystals; a decade-old picture of Nick in a frame—he used to have a ponytail; a hot wheels toy car and a "spark plug person" (designed
to look like me.) The last two items were given to me by my friend and former student Laura McDermott. Laura defended her thesis, a
book in which cars are a central metaphor, in the spring of 2007.
Dustin: In closing, what advice do you have poets who are just beginning and those who have been
around for a while but feel they are going nowhere?
Denise: I think my answer would be the same for both newbies and poets who feel stuck. If you write
everyday and take criticism from people you trust, you are bound to get better, to change, and to grow.
Also, read everything you can get your hands on. You just never know what will ignite a spark.
Dustin: Denise, I want to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to do this interview.
As I said in the beginning, I knew this interview would be a treat, and you have proven me correct.
Denise: The pleasure has been all mine!
Denise: Yes, indeed! You were kind enough to publish "$100,000" in ToasterMag and there are 9 more of those, for a whopping one
million dollars worth of poems. I wrote the series of which the “form” is the actual size of play money I found in a thrift store. The poems
were written in prose blocks to fit on the back of play $100,000 bills.
Dustin: I remember enjoying the one published in ToasterMag, and it was a pleasure to read "$900,000" in Court Green #5.
The other day I was having a conversation about titling poems with a friend. We both admire how you most of the poems you write
have catchy titles. Some of my favorites which also serves as good examples are "Sometimes the First Boys Don't Count," "Ernest
Hemingway, Your Mother Made You Wear Dresses Until You Were Three," and "Another Poem Called Sphincter." Bringing this back to
Ka-Ching!—Could share some of the titles of poems we'll find in Ka-Ching!? Can you share your secret to creating great titles?
Denise: Dustin, you are too kind! I love wacky titles and longish bizarre titles. I usually think of a title AFTER I write a poem, if that
helps. I also think about what might catch someone's interest perusing a list of titles in a magazine—I know, shameless! Sometimes
an unassuming small title like "Apple" seems what a poem calls for. So "Apple" is indeed one of the poem titles in Ka-Ching! but here
are a few others: "Stupid Vanilla," "Dinner Party Horror," "I Dreamed I Wrote This Sestina in my Maidenform Bra," and "Sipping Café con
Leche Where The Bombs Fell."
Dustin: If you had to pick one title from all the ones you've written, which title would you label as your favorite?
Denise: I'm feeing nostalgic so I think I'd have to say, " On Being Born The Exact Same Day Of The Exact Same Year As Boy
George." This is a mighty old poem, first published in 1987 in an issue of Ploughshares edited by my hero Bill Knott. I was shocked
that the poem was taken—as I put it in as "filler," so I'd have three poems to send. The other two were mighty serious, as I tended to be
back when I first started writing.
Dustin: It does seem that most of your "newer" work tends to be on the playful side. The work seems to pack entertainment value.
When did you have this change in your writing? I think all writers have their circle of friends they trust to preview and critique their work.
How did your circle react to the change in your work?
Denise: As Steve Allen once said, "Tragedy plus time equals comedy." And I think it's simply time as a poet that has given me the
ability to have distance and humor about many of the more painful aspects of life. Ka-Ching! does have its share of sorrowful poems,
too. One section is devoted to prose poems about a really tragic accident my parents suffered in 2003. Stephanie Strickland, Tom Fink,
and Nick (my husband) are poets I really trust to help me edit my poems, especially when its time to put a book together. They are all
completely wonderful and want me to grow as a poet, as I want them to grow and change. So they have been very supportive.
Dustin: Nick (Carbo) is in this issue of Limp Wrist. I'm sure you get this question all the time, but I have be greedy and ask anyway:
How is it being married to a fellow poet? Do you two ever feel any competition toward one another?
Denise: The upside of being married to a poet is that Nick lets me write and never questions what I'm doing in that regard. When I
get a magazine publication, he jumps for joy with me instead of asking, "Do you get paid for that?" which a partner who is outside of he
arts might say. Nick and I know when each other is writing a poem—just by the look on our faces and the way we stare at the
computer, so we stay out of each other's way while we're composing. As for competition—we have negotiated it this way. If I win a
grant, half goes to Nick. If he wins a grant, half goes to me. We've found that's a good way to stop any jealousy that might start to creep
in. The downside of a two-poet household, though, as you can imagine, is that it's very tough financially. Nick and I sometime wish the
other were a doctor or a lawyer—we can't help it.
Dustin: Dorianne Laux has an excellent poem titled "Cher" that came from a writing exercise given to her by her poet-husband Joe
Millar. Do you and Nick ever give each writing exercises to generate new work?
Denise: I love Dorianne's poem "Cher." It's in her new chapbook Superman—and I've also heard her read it. A real crowd pleaser.
Nick and I occasionally DO give each other assignments. Two years ago, we were talking about that annoying riddle: "Pete and Repeat
were sitting on a fence. One fell off, and who was left?" We both challenged each other to write a poem about it. Mine's a pantoum
which will be included in Ka-Ching! Nick's is a lovely free verse poem about two friends who live on the southern coast of Spain.
Dustin: Mentioning Nick also makes me think of "For the One Man Who Likes My Thighs." I have to say, as a person who has some
body image issues and as a poet, I freaking love "For the One Man Who Likes My Thighs!"
Denise: Thank you!
Dustin: In January, you are teaching at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival for the first time. I know you travel all over the country and
abroad teaching workshops, so are you excited that you'll be near home? Care to share what you hope to accomplish with your PBPF
workshop?
Denise: I have to say I am truly jazzed about teaching at the festival. I have been going to the Palm Beach Poetry Festival every year
to listen to the readings and/or introduce the readers, so I know what a wonderful conference it is. My class will be called FEAR,
MEMORY, AND DESIRE and it will focus on generating new poems with exercises I've developed that have been pretty successful for
writers to get at their core issues and themes. We will also work on revision or re-imaging poems through traditional and non-
traditional forms. I have high hopes for the class!
Dustin: I'm sure your workshop participants are in for a treat! Will you have any advanced copies of KA-Ching! available for
purchase at the festival? I'm curious, why has it taken Miles five years to get you to teach at the festival?
Denise: I hope advanced copies of Ka-Ching! will be available in January. The book's pub date is in the spring, but I'm not sure what
month yet. I'm thrilled to be teaching at the festival—better late than never, I say.
Dustin: I bet you have some low-residency seekers excited since you have joined the staff at the Converse College Low-Residency
program. Is this your first time teaching in a low-residency program?
Denise: I am actually teaching with Dorianne Laux in Pacific University's low MFA program. I am new there. I planned to simply give a
reading at Pacific this summer, but then there were more students admitted than the director originally thought, so I took on a few. It's
been a great experience since, as you know, I'm on email a lot and like corresponding. I will be teaching only in Converse's low
residency program starting in June of 2009--it's a new program with a lot of energy and support. The director, Rick Maulkey, is
amazing. And my full time job, as you know, is at Florida International University.
Dustin: In workshops, when I talk about poetry, I usually talk about poetry being split into the academic and non-academic. Keeping
these two groups in mind (as vague as the two classifications may be), there seems to be a stigma in certain academic groups that
seems to be melting away regarding low-residency programs. It seems in these certain academic groups there is a preference for the
traditional MFA program. Do you know what I am referring to? Anything you would like to share on this topic?
Denise: There are so many good low residency programs now that I don't think it matters so much if a student chooses a traditional
or low residency program. Ultimately it's going to depend on the student's needs—can she get up and move to Nebraska? Or must
she keep her job and stay put? There are obvious benefits to the traditional programs—community, face-to-face time, and so forth. But
there are also many benefits to working in a low residency program. The intensity of the residencies is amazing...As to the split
between the academic and non-academic, I do feel in many ways that rift is healing. When I went to Sarah Lawrence for MFA in the late
1980s, I would spend my weekends at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and slam and do open mics. At that point, the two worlds were very
separate from one another. I felt like I was in the closet about my love of performance. Sure, there were some terribly amateur poets in
the slam scene, but there was also a wonderful energy. And sometimes I preferred that energy to the most boring workshop poems.
(I'm not saying there were that many boring workshop poems—forgive me class of 1987!--but the ones that were snoozers were really
snoozers.)
Dustin: Now, it is time for my favorite question to ask poets. What four would you recommend to poets?
Denise: Yikes--this is a tough question. But today I would say: Sharon Old’s The Gold Cell, Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems, Anne
Sexton’s Transformations, and The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas. Yesterday, I may have said James Tate’s THE LOST PILOT,
Jayne Anne Phillips SWEATHEARTS, Ron Koertge’s Life on the Edge of the Continent: Selected Poems, and Ai’s Cruelty. Tomorrow I
may say James Wright's Selected Poems, Edward Field’s Variety Photoplays, Stephanie Strickland’s The Red Virgin: A Poem of
Simone Weil, and Sylvia Plath’s Collected Poems. I realize I totally cheated on the question. As you can imagine, I could go on and
on….Jean Valentine, Bill Knott, Kenneth Koch, Nin Andrews, Michael Burkhard. It seems the more I go on, the more people I am
leaving out.
Dustin: I'll lump my two other favorite questions together since we are almost at the close of our interview. What are you currently
reading, and what would we find on your desk if took a look today?
Denise: I am currently reading John Dufresne's amazing novel Requiem, Mass; Jan Beatty's stunning poetry collection Red Sugar;
and a very cool chapbook called Who Are We?: Investigations and Findings by Drs. Ink and Owning (aka Sierra Nelson and Rachel
Kessler.) They are a literary performance team called The Typing Explosion. I'm also reading the latest issue of Bust magazine. I love
Bust!
On my desk, you would find a postage meter; about 80 post-its with notes and to-do lists; a ceramic lucky kitty; two sets of worry dolls;
crystals; a decade-old picture of Nick in a frame—he used to have a ponytail; a hot wheels toy car and a "spark plug person" (designed
to look like me.) The last two items were given to me by my friend and former student Laura McDermott. Laura defended her thesis, a
book in which cars are a central metaphor, in the spring of 2007.
Dustin: In closing, what advice do you have poets who are just beginning and those who have been
around for a while but feel they are going nowhere?
Denise: I think my answer would be the same for both newbies and poets who feel stuck. If you write
everyday and take criticism from people you trust, you are bound to get better, to change, and to grow.
Also, read everything you can get your hands on. You just never know what will ignite a spark.
Dustin: Denise, I want to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to do this interview.
As I said in the beginning, I knew this interview would be a treat, and you have proven me correct.
Denise: The pleasure has been all mine!
an interview with Denise Duhamel
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| Click here for an interview with Miles Coon, Founder of the Palm Beach Poetry Festival. |