Lisa M. Hase-Jackson is Zangara Poet!

One of the most active poetry blogs right now is Lisa M. Hase-Jackson’s  Zingara Poet. Recent topics include: a review of Rick Mulkey’s new book; regular poetry picks (see her submission guidelines); interview with Santa Fe Poet Laureate Joan Logghe; lots of poems of merit from knowns and unknowns; and even an interview with moi (http://zingarapoet.net/2011/11/29/interview-with-kansas-poet-laureate-denise-low/ ). Something new and unexpected appears regularly in my social media-feed, and I’m always glad to see it, at ZingaraPoet .
Hase-Jackson is herself a challenging, socially conscious commentator who chronicles histories wending through landscapes, as in this poem:
 
Lonely Is

Built low to the ground,

the bungalow’s curtained windows hid
the family’s exodus for years
until dry rot set in and neighbors
noticed what they hadn’t before.

      When ‘xactly was it

     Jake stopped comin’ ‘round?

Standing solid in the crab-grass covered

drive, its frozen engine home to pack-rats,
a ’72 Chevy truck, single key still hidden above
the sun visor, weathers patiently.

Inside   strewn   across   knotty pine   floors

             after   common   thieves  and   strangers
             have vandalized and sifted,
             a photo album lies open

             in its pages  sepia   photos   of fish

                   that      got   away,  
              evenings  at the 4-H fair
              ribbon-winning laying hens
              hen-pecked by  tussled-haired  children
 

nearby   baby clothes   crocheted blankets

              mildew scented bunnies   and bears
              standing   on their   ears

 decaying  volumes   of  Encyclopedia Britannica

                     a children’s bible

 eggshells   and   bird droppings

              beneath  rotting  holes  in the ceiling.

Lonely is the house

           at the end of the lane
overgrown with Hoary cress
and thistle leaning
          in the wind.   

                                (Pilgrimage, Volume 37, Issue 1, 2013)

Lisa Hase-Jackson holds a Master’s Degree in English from Kansas State University and is pursuing an MFA at Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C. She is a poet, teacher, freelance writer, writing coach, and editor of ZingaraPoet.net and 200 New Mexico Poems. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in such literary magazines as Sugar Mule, Kansas City Voices, Pilgrimage, and As/Us Journal. Editor, 200 New Mexico Poems  Twitter,  @ZingaraPoet

"BIG THING" Blog Entry for Denise Low Is Literary Essays Book

MariJo Moore invited me to join a blog chain 2013 & THE NEXT BIG THING - a series of interviews with authors about what they’ve been working on. I understand it has been going since October! Here is the link to her blog: http://marijomoore.blogspot.com/   Here is my own latest book, not yet a year old: Natural Theologies: Essays about Literature of the New Middle West (ISBN 978-1-935218-22-7. 185 pages, $20.00)  http://www.thebackwaterspress.org/our-authors/denise-low/    I hope to promote it in 2013.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Middle West and Great Plains writers continue a “frontier” legacy with topics of nature, weather, the relationships among Native and European settler writers, urban-rural dialectic, and community life.
What genre does your book fall under?
Non-Fiction, critical essays.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
This is like some studies of ethnic literatures, but this is the first book that considers literature of this region.
Who is the publisher?
The Backwaters Press in Omaha, published by Greg Kozmicki. He has done so much as an independent literary publisher.  He is an unsung hero, and a fine poet himself. Working with Kozmicki and his copy editor were a gorocess.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I realized other regions of the country celebrate their literature, but in the plains and prairies, writers do not have the same recognition.
What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
I have been grateful for some wonderful reviews from the Kansas City Star, the Manhattan Mercury, and others. A reviewer for  American Indian Library wrote: “This is the first book of critical essays about contemporary Midwestern writers. Denise Low, of Delaware and Cherokee heritage, foregrounds Native writers, including Louise Erdrich, Heid Erdrich, Diane Glancy, Joseph Marshall III, and Adrian C. Louis. The four sections of Natural Theologies are about history, settlements in the Plains, Midwestern people and their character, and nature. The author considers not only the legacy of “frontier,” but also the enduring narratives of settler/Native interactions.”
Where did the idea come from for the book?
As a young writer, I learned that writing is a dialogue with books. I began reviewing books after my M.A. in literature as a way to expand my writing practice. This book includes expanded essays on books that have influenced me.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I really don’t think this book will be made into a movie, but I really think N. Scott Momaday is very cinematic. I’d like to see a movie about his writings. He has influenced many Native and Southwest/plains writers, especially because of his insistence that the oral tradition as a valid literary genre.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I had some ideas and a few drafts, but I spent one summer drafting this, working intensively every day, and then another year editing it.
And to keep 2013 THE NEXT BIG THING going, here is another wonderful writer, Lisa Hase,  and her next big thing: http://zingarapoet.net/author/zingarapoet/ 

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Zingara Poet Interviews Denise Low for Poet Laureate Series

Lisa Hase posted a lengthy interview and the poem "Pocahontas: A Portrait" on her creativity coaching blog. The Interview includes this excerpt.

How does poetry bring or add meaning to your life?

"First, I became involved with poetry so young, that it is hard to tease out how it, among other experiences, add meaning to my life. It’s a spiritual practice—I do believe that learning the discipline of language is one of many paths to enlightenment. It requires engagement with reality, not neuroses. Observation and reflection are the polarity, and syntax the means along the way. So poetry keeps me connected to immediate experience, and it makes historic tradition collapse into the present moment. We use ancient words, and each use reinvigorates them. I cannot imagine my life without poetry. " For more of the interview, see: http://zingarapoet.net/2011/11/29/interview-with-kansas-poet-laureate-denise-low/