Don Share
On November 3rd in 2007, Emily Warn
wrote a blog post on the Poetry Foundation’s website titled, “Essentialism? Say What?” in which I
and a few others were mentioned by name. It generated quite a lively and, at times,
testy stream of comments for a couple of days, including one on November 4th by
yours truly that started: “Dear Don Share:” and wound down this way:
“Is that Poetry’s official response for not reviewing, for
example, Bent to the Earth by Blas Manuel de Luna and nominated for the National Book Critic
Circle’s Prize in 2005? Or Alberto Rios’ latest book, published with Copper
Canyon, Theater of Night, and also a
winner of a recent award by PEN American?
How much longer does your magazine
intend to keep this perfect record intact?
F”
The perfect record I was referring to was the number of books by
Latino/a poets (0) that Poetry had reviewed since 2003.
Shortly thereafter, Don Share, to his credit, took the
initiative and e-mailed me directly.
Through the course of our back channel e-correspondence, we grew
to become cordial colleagues, hearing each other out to better undersand the
challenges that our respective work in the field presented to us. Over lunch in
Chicago once, for example, he re-counted how he had tried, without success, to find a
reviewer for The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry. And so I grew to view him, in the end, as
an ally. So much so that last spring at AWP I was delighted to introduce and
moderate a session I had conceived of called “Sons of Boston,” which featured
him and Tino Villanueva.
When it was announced that he’d
be taking over the top post at Poetry a few months
ago, I decided to ask him if he’d be open to taking a few questions. We’ve
decided to hold on to the interview until now—on the cusp of Poetry’s October issue, which will be Don’s first,
editorially speaking.
Gracias, Don!
Letras Latinas Blog:
Back in 2010, Letras Latinas
and the Ragdale Foundation, with funding from the NEA, hosted a week-long
residency for 8 poet-editors. We called the initiative 8 Poetas. During that
week, we convened a series of conversations on the challenges of being both
practicing poets and editors of verse—something with which you are very
familiar over the course your career at various publications, including Harvard Review and Poetry. How would you describe the role poetry editing has had on
your own work as an artist, and how has that dynamic evolved? The second part
of that question: now that you are assuming the helm of Poetry, do you see that changing in any way, and if so, how?
Don Share:
As an editor, my work is
entirely in service to readers and to writers, so it’s a very separate endeavor. But it’s fair to say that when I’m writing, I
have to avoid doing things that strike me as ill-judged in work I’m considering
for the magazine. I don’t think that
writing poems and editing involve the same skills, frankly; you can be good at
one without being any good whatsoever at the other!
LLB:
As you understand it, how
would you describe the difference between the role you are now occupying at Poetry and the role you’ve had at the
magazine for the last few years? Do you see that changing? For example, will
there be someone stepping into the Senior Editor position you are leaving
behind? If so, will you have a say on who is hired?
DS:
Well, there’s a big
difference between what I did before and what I am doing now. I enjoyed and learned a lot from my
collaboration with Christian Wiman, in which we combined our complimentary strengths
and were very successful; but… I’ll be flying solo now. I have an amazing crew with me, though. Our new Assistant Editor is Lindsay Garbutt,
who just finished three great years as Editorial Assistant. Fred Sasaki, formerly our Associate Editor,
is now Poetry’s Art Director, and in
that role he’ll continue to create the look, feel, and texture of the magazine,
but he’ll also bring in all kinds of new visual content. Our brilliant Managing Editor, Valerie Jean
Johnson diligently and creatively navigates a rapidly changing and complex environment
for publishing. Christina Pugh, who was
our long-time Reader, is now Consulting Editor.
And we’re in the process of hiring a new Editorial Assistant. I’m also hoping eventually to bring on board
several Contributing Editors to broaden the scope even further.
LLB:
It has been said that a
national search for Poetry’s new
editor had been underway for some time now, and you made it known that you had
“thrown your name into the hat.” One imagines that applicants for this post had
to articulate what their particular vision and philosophy would be as the new
editor of Poetry. I’m assuming that,
as an applicant, you had to formulate such a statement yourself. Would you
share with the readers of Letras Latinas Blog a few of the highlights of your
“poetry editing philosophy.” In other words, aside from your trajectory as a poetry
editor at the previous publications you’ve worked for, what will Don Share be
bringing to the table as the editor of Poetry
that he couldn’t bring as Senior Editor?
DS:
Well, to be very succinct, I
want to have more diverse – in every way – content, and alongside that, a more
diverse readership. You can read more about this in an editorial I’ve written
for the October 2013 issue, my first.
LLB:
Without getting into
specifics, could share with our readers some areas in which readers of the next
iteration of Poetry magazine can
expect some changes? One assumes that the magazine, over time, will evolve and
that that evolution will reflect your vision of what the magazine can become.
Will the translation issue, for example, remain? If so, will it change in any
way, be enhanced, etc?
DS:
I’m going not going to spoil
any surprises I have in store! In
addition to the diversity I’ve mentioned, I have a pretty good list of changes
to implement, but you’ll have to keep an eye on the magazine (in both the new
digital edition and print) over the next few years to see what they are. So I’m going to ask readers to bear with me
in good faith as I move forward.
LLB:
Don, the fact that you agreed
to take on these questions from Letras Latinas Blog speaks, I’d like to think,
to the dialogue you and I have been engaged in, behind the scenes, since
shortly after you came to Poetry. You
reached out a few years ago when I was more public with my disappointment about
the dearth of reviews at Poetry
(well, the non-existence, really) of collections written by Latino/as. It was
very instructive and helpful to learn of the challenges you faced in trying to
get reviews of books by Latino/a poets into print. Since we initiated that
dialogue, Poetry has reviewed Bird Eating Bird by Kristin Naca. So
you’ve been able to witness first hand, and from the inside, how slow progress
can be. So here is my final question: do you foresee being able to do things in
your new position that will assist Poetry
in improving this number (1)? Is it something you’ve given, or will give any
thought to? If so, can you share with us what's on your mind?
DS:
Francisco, as we’ve discussed, there are people who are afraid or
unwilling to address work done in communities other than their own, and this is
a great problem, not just for Poetry. Our conversations have been salutary; and Barbara
Jane Reyes has brilliantly addressed the question of communities and where
nurturing comes from, and should come from.
There are big questions involved, as she points out: Is there a
mainstream? Who should be in it? Who wants to be in it? Is the so-called mainstream good or bad? Whatever one’s answers, there’s a lot of work
to be done. Discussion is vitally
important, but as a practical matter, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve
asked for poems and reviews from people who don’t come through for various
reasons.
Yet I’m extremely
hopeful. The response to Eduardo C. Corral’s
first book, for example (which included poems that first appeared in Poetry and earned him our highest
magazine award), shows that the mainstream ice can be broken in very
significant ways that actually alter the landscape of poetry. Just the other day we got the news that Alberto
Ríos, who was in the magazine quite recently, is now the
Arizona Poet Laureate. There are many
more examples. As we all know, the ice
is melting everywhere.
For what it’s worth, I’ve
been in the job just one month and already have new work for Poetry from Tomás Morín, Gina Franco, Deborah Paredez, Rafael Campo, and Jacob
Saenz; Erika L. Sanchez, as I write this, is a Lilly Fellowship finalist. But there’s much more to do, and there’s more
that will be done. The word, however, is
out… Thanks for helping me get it out,
Francisco!
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