Catherine Rankovic will speak at the May 25th meeting of Saturday Writers. She is the author of Meet Me: Writers in St. Louis, Island
Universe: Essays and Entertainments, and Fierce Consent and Other Poems. She is
also a contributor to Walrus Publishing’s Flood Stage: An Anthology of St.
Louis Poets.
Her essays have appeared in The Missouri Review, Iowa Review, The
Progressive, and Natural Bridge. Her poetry has been published in numerous
journals, including River Styx, and Boulevard. She has taught creative writing
courses at Washington University and Lindenwood University, and helps authors
prepare their books for publishing through her business, Bookeval.com.
When did you first know you
were a writer?
I first knew I was a writer at
age five when I wrote a two-line poem and read it to my mother. She said,
"Such poetry!" and I felt proud of myself.
Why is writing important?
Writing is the breath of humanity. It is how we most
precisely transmit human history, intelligence and spirit. Music does that too,
but music can be reduced to mathematics. Dance could do that too, but dance can
be reduced to mappable repetitive motion. Each piece of writing is unique and
irreducible.
How has studying journalism helped (or hindered) your
creative writing?
If I ran an MFA program, all
students would take a course in basic reporting. Journalism professionalizes a
writer. I was a fully developed writing pro at age 21; no BFA program would
have given me that. No MFA program will give you that. It trains your eye and
ear to sort out what's important, and forces you to write precisely at high
speed. It teaches fundamentals: how to earn the attention and trust of a
variety of audiences, and to respect facts and truth. A journalist learns there
is a big world out there with no mercy and issues far more important than one's
own. A journalist also receives constant critiques from editors and the
readership, and therefore never makes the same mistake twice. (Or one loses
one's job.)
Describe your writing process.
My process for nonfiction is to be obsessed and study a
subject from all possible angles. For months I was obsessed with Elvis's
recording of "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" for no reason I
knew. I had never been a big fan. (The recording, released in 1956, was his
second #1 hit.) I watched videos of Elvis singing this song, read biographies,
bought the sheet music, went to Memphis to see the studio, found that Life
Magazine had done a photo story on this particular recording session showing
what he wore and who was there. Writing the essay finally released me from that
obsession. The essay was published in The Missouri Review. It wasn't about my
obsession; it was about the recording, down to the details of when and why he
took breaths between phrases. I have also been obsessed with African-American
comedy, seashells, the spice trade, bodybuilding, and all sorts of things. My
process for poetry is to play around with ideas and never to judge a first
draft. I have an "idea box" full of scraps of paper with ideas for
poems. I pull one out and draft. I pull another out and write a draft. If it
ignites something in me I turn serious and keep crafting it and hammering at it
and maybe it will become a real poem.
Which books or authors do you recommend to people who want
to be better writers?
Books recommended: Choose one
author, your favorite, and get to know every scrap of anything he or she ever
wrote. Spend years at this. Read letters, journals, interviews, academic
criticism; find and study original manuscripts if you can. This will give you a
valuable 360-degree view of a writer such as you'd like to be. A good writer is
one who is prepared for the writing life. That's why journalism training is so
valuable. How-to books and magazines give helpful tips about how to write a
short story or sell it, but they will not teach you how a writer lives or
thinks, and more importantly, how a writer keeps writing.
What are you working on now?
Right now I'm finishing a novel, but I have a rule that I
may not discuss it in any further detail until I'm satisfied. That's called
"practicing containment." Artists never finish the works they speak
about.
Your presentation, titled Holy States of Authorhood, is set
for the May 25 meeting of Saturday Writers. What can we expect from such an
interesting title?
What can you expect from my talk? Inspiration.
Thank you so much for your time, and we look forward to
hearing you speak on the 25th.
Write soon,
Mary
