Your book, Ruined Music, came out from Grayson Books in March of this year. Can you tell us about the process of shaping, ordering, and publishing this collection of poems?
Creating this book was definitely more difficult than I anticipated. I wanted the poems to talk to each other, but I didn’t want clumps of similar poems beside each other (that sounds like a contradiction of some kind!). I have two previous chapbooks out in the world, but ordering those was a much easier process. I kept revising, adding poems, and taking out others over the course of the four years it took to get published. I sent the manuscript to about forty contests, and it was a finalist three times which kept me pushing. Finally, Brad Davis, last year’s judge for Grayson Books, chose it as a runner-up in their annual contest. (They publish the first place and runner-up manuscripts.) About half of the poems in the book had been previously published in respected journals and lit mags, and about ten of them had won significant prizes, so I really believed it deserved a spot on the shelf. I love how it came out, and I hope you get a copy! As one of the speakers on the first books panel I recently attended at Napa Valley Writers’ Conference reminded me, there are so many manuscripts floating around that are beautiful and ready to go, getting one published really comes down to determination and luck.
You have taken a number of classes at The Writing Salon, including many sessions of Daily Write Round Robin. How have these classes supported your growth and practice as a writer?
I was a student in several in-person classes at the Berkeley Writing Salon space before it closed. I’ve always preferred writing in community, as I believe it raises my game. Just knowing there’s going to be an immediate audience hearing what I’ve written seems to focus my attention in a way that is harder to replicate on my own. I’m always a little nervous and excited, which somehow helps my writing find its way to the page. And I met some wonderful and inspiring students in Berkeley as well. Hearing about their projects and seeing their enthusiasm and drive were really motivating for me. On my own, I can get lazy about producing new work, especially when I was teaching full time. I love getting creative prompts and new ways into approaching ideas I’ve been carrying in my head, and the teachers at the Writing Salon were really good for that. I also benefit from the daily writings of the Round Robin groups. Knowing I have to produce something every morning keeps me looking at the world with fresh eyes—all day I walk around noticing details and moments that I might otherwise miss.
You have a long list of prizes and published work. You have also submitted to the Jane Underwood Poetry Prize several times since 2018 and have been a finalist and a semi-finalist. Congratulations and good luck this year! Can you share any strategies you use for selecting and submitting work for contests and publication?
Thank you! I guess my strategies would include studying the journals I’m submitting to and getting to know some of the work of the judges. I have chosen not to enter certain contests based on the kind of writing the literary journal generally publishes, and I have definitely passed up some contests based on a feeling I get that this judge won’t relate to my work. That said, I’ve been surprised many times over the years about which work gets chosen for publication—you really can’t explain people’s taste. I will send out a group of poems and throw one in at the last minute (just to fill the quota) and that will end up winning the prize! My best advice is to keep refining your work, keep sending it out, keep reading what’s being published, and try not to get too focused on the publishing part of the writing journey. My favorite part of the process is when I’m working on something I believe has promise. It’s great to keep finding the statue in the piece of marble, which is how I tend to look at writing.
You also coach young writers. What advice do you have for new writers?
Most of my coaching has been in the form of working with high school seniors on their college admissions essays. But my advice for any new writer has been to read, read, read. It is the easiest and most enjoyable way to get language and inspiration running around your head. I always say that your work can be improved almost solely on the strength of your verbs. I would say that if you are writing anything about a problem in the world, try to find a way to implicate yourself as well–otherwise you will sound preachy and people might be put off. And be honest and fearless as possible–discovering the truth about each other–our vulnerabilities and how we are similar–is the reason people read. We all crave connection and good writing provides that. We fall in love with each other without ever meeting!
Valentina Gnup‘s poetry collection, Ruined Music, was published by Grayson Books in March 2024. In 2023 she won the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award for Poetry and second place in the Yeats Prize for poetry. In 2019, she won the Lascaux Prize in Poetry, as well as the Rattle Reader’s Choice Award in 2015. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She’s been a high school and college instructor and is a mother and grandmother. She lives in Oakland, California.
Anne M. Breedlove is the sixth of ten children born and raised in Albany, New York. Visiting San Francisco during a 1972 cross-country road trip, she decided to stay, spending the next 30 years juggling two careers, graphic arts and academia, teaching American and European history in East Bay community colleges. After retiring in 2008 she spent eight years traveling the world with her husband by loaded bicycle, 21 countries, approximately 30,000 miles. She now happily juggles her time between art, bicycling, all things French, gardening, grandchildren, hot yoga, lap-swimming, printmaking, sewing, walking, and writing, but not necessarily in that order.