Reader Meet Author: Shaindel Beers

"I miss the honest life we used to lead/scraping up odd jobs so we could see/a movie the next town over"

Just when I thought I was beginning to understand the function and process of poetry I happen to come across a book that completely changes my thought process. Poetry, even when collected into book form, is not supposed to tell a story. Poetry is suppose to caress topics, and sweep up snapshots of events in metaphors. Shaindel Beers' debut collection, A Brief History in Time, achieves something more profound. Shaindel manages to tell the story of her life (or something close to it) through verse, and through her honesty and subtle use of methaphor she is able to relate this story to a wide range of readers.

Yesterday, I conducted my ever live interview in an attempt to the followers on Shaindel's vitural book tour something new and different.

Interview with Shaindel Beers - Orange Alert

Orange Alert (OA): The collection reads as a journey through the first quarter of a woman’s life. How close to the bone does it cut?
Shaindel Beers (SB): I think it’s about as close to the bone as one can get in poetry. I changed some things slightly for the sense of drama or for word choice or rhythm, but if it’s in there, it’s pretty much true. Of course, one of my favorite poetry quotes is by John Ciardi, “Poetry lies its way to the truth.” And I’m a big believer in the philosophy that there is no Truth, but that there are many truths.

OA: I’ve heard writers referring to a project as a set of demons that needed to be exorcised before moving on to more advanced and forward thinking projects. Do you view these poems, your debut collection, in that way?
SB: Oh, absolutely. I needed to do this first collection because it was everything that was in me, waiting to get out. And I think we have to examine and process ourselves fully in order to understand others. I think of it as like those people who won’t vacation overseas until they’ve seen all fifty states in the U.S. I didn’t feel comfortable exploring other subjects until I’d really understood myself. Now, I’m ready to venture out. My second collection, which is also under contract with Salt, is called The Children’s War, and in it I look at drawings done by children living through every major conflict from the Spanish Civil War to the present and write an ekphrastic poem on each piece that inspires me. It’s definitely much more outward-looking than A Brief History of Time. But in order to do that well, I had to do this first.

OA: My favorite poem in A Brief History of Time is the last poem, “How Time Betrays Us”. I don’t want to give away the ending of the collection, but I do want to ask you about legacy and legitimacy. To publish a book about your life while in your twenties may seem strange, but this poem seems to put it all into perspective. Can you talk about that poem a little, and specifically its placement in the book?
SB: First of all, I wanted to write a math poem. I don’t know why; I just wanted to do math, so I looked up all of these statistics and did some simple problems like timing myself reading the poem and working the statistics into the timeframe of, “In the time it will take you to read this [poem]” and figure them that way. I had also been reading César Vallejo’s “Black Stone Lying on a White Stone” and other poems inspired by that poem, such as Philip Levine’s “Black Stone on Top of Nothing,” and wanted to contemplate my death, which is what Vallejo did in the original. Robert Bly’s translation begins, “I will die in Paris, on a rainy day, / on some day I can already remember,” and it seemed so powerful and eerie, his doing that. I thought I would try to imagine if this was the last poem I ever wrote. It seemed obvious it would be a good closing poem for a book.

OA: Another aspect of that poem and a few others in the collection is animal rights. Are you a vegetarian?
SB: I wish I were still a vegetarian. I think it’s a really noble cause. And very important. When I first moved to Eastern Oregon, I met all of these “former vegetarians” who told me I wouldn’t last long, and I had no idea what they meant. Now, I have half a deer and half an elk in my freezer, and, I believe, portions of a steelhead (kind of like a salmon) that I caught. I do feel differently about hunting and fishing than just going to the grocery store and picking up a package of meat or going through a drive-thru at a fast food place. To me, it’s different ethically.

I still very much believe in animal rights and still donate money to causes for domestic animals. Over spring break, I visited two terrific animal sanctuaries, Keepers of the Wild (http://keepersofthewild.org/) a wild animal sanctuary in Valentine, Arizona, and Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah, (http://bestfriends.org/), the country’s largest no-kill animal sanctuary, which is home to about two thousand dogs, cats, and other animals.

OA: As a vegetarian I always hate the question why and how did it begin so I will ask you this; In the world today, as people and companies struggle to live and function as economically and sensibly as possible, is vegetarianism a more logical choice as consumers?
SB: I think vegetarianism is a more logical choice for some people. I really think it depends on where people live, to be honest. I think vegetarianism is a really easy lifestyle to maintain in cities and suburbs; there are definitely places where it’s more difficult than in others. I think in rural areas, maybe eating locally grown is the way to go.

OA: Are you concerned with your eco-footprint?
SB: I try to be. I wish I were more so. Right now, I think the best thing I’m doing for the environment is not having children. Does that count? I mean, they would be future polluters and consumers. I drive a car with sensible gas-mileage. When I have to get a new car, I hope to be able to afford a hybrid, but right now, I’m hoping to get another five years or so out of my car. I do all of the little things—environmentally friendly light bulbs, I try to recycle what I can, but I know there’s a lot more I could do. I actually used to teach a course that was designed to be something like Writing for Environmental Science majors, so I know I could be doing a lot more. But I do what I can for where I live.

OA: You grew up in a small Midwestern town, much like myself, how was the transition to the big city while in grad school at the University of Chicago? What were you able to take away from your time here in Chicago?
SB: Luckily, I had the four year long transition of going to college in Montgomery, Alabama, which has a population of 200,000. I can’t imagine if I’d gone from my hometown with a population of just over a thousand directly to Chicago. I think if I had to live in a city, I’d live in Chicago. I liked the diversity and the pace. Chicago never seems like it has three million people; you can be on streets in Chicago at night that are empty. And Chicago is so separated into neighborhoods; it’s almost like a city that isn’t a city.

It was phenomenal to have all of those museums and educational institutions within my reach. I think my most valuable experience, though, would have to be the academic rigor at the University of Chicago. I had conversations with fellow students at bus stops about post-modern German philosophy, and looking back, I think, “Wow…we were talking about that while waiting for the bus?” It’s pretty mind-blowing that places like that and people like that exist.

OA: You have been hosting “Translated By” since last summer on blogtalkradio. I always find it interesting when writers actively seek out ways to promote other writers. Why did you choose to focus on translations?
SB: Unfortunately, I’ve put the radio show on hold for the time being. Having my book out and doing readings and interviews has been really time-consuming, and for “Translated By,” I’d been reading a book a week. I really loved doing it and hope I can go back to hosting some day, but it was really impossible with my teaching load.

I actually didn’t make the choice to focus on translations. The station producers had an idea for a show on translation, and they had me as a guest on another show and liked me enough that they offered me my own show. At first, it was intimidating because I’m pretty much an English-only reader/speaker. I mean, I took two years of Spanish in high school and two years of German in college, but I’m not close to fluent in anything other than English. I got to learn an immense amount of information about global politics, linguistics, history, and many other topics as a result of hosting “Translated By,” and I met truly wonderful, fascinating people.

OA: Next year you are going to be involved in a fascinating organization that every writer could probably appreciate. How did you get involved with Writing Away Retreats and can you tell us a little about the mission and resort?

SB: Writing Away Retreats (http://writingawayretreats.com/) is an organization founded and hosted by Cicily Janus, who is a wonderful writer in her own right. Basically, she brings together poets, fiction writers, editors, and literary agents, who spend the four days and four nights of the retreat sharing their view of the craft with guests of the retreat. It’s an opportunity to write in a relaxed environment but to have the guidance available when you want it. Cicily describes it as “a destination vacation for you and your muse.” I’m looking forward to it; the accommodations are luxurious, and Cicily is a gourmet chef. I can’t wait!

OA: What’s next for Shaindel Beers?
SB: I’m hoping to continue giving readings and promoting A Brief History of Time while working on The Children’s War. I also have an almost completed short story collection I’ve been working on. I need maybe three or four more stories to round that out, and I hope to finally successfully work on a novel. I’ve had ideas and have written portions in fits and starts but nothing substantial thus far. I really want to finally go for it. It was embarrassing when a literary agent from New York contacted me because he liked my short fiction and wanted to know if I had a novel, and I really had nothing to show other than a first four chapters from a novel I started ages ago.

For more on Shaindel Beers please visit her website, and make sure to check out the next stop on her tour at Blue Moon Northeast on May 6th.