Reader Meet Author: Megan Milks

A 'literary activist', what would that look like or sound like? A writer is given a gift, and charged with the responsibility of recording the thoughts and stories of each generation. Each writer takes a different route to utilizing this talent, but a 'literary activist' can take a very direct and vocal approach to documenting all that is right and all that can go wrong in the world today. They typically don't dance around, but they cut straight to the heart of the issues of our age and take every opportunity to be heard.

Chicago's Megan Milks is a co-editor of the cultural criticism zine Mildred Pierce. Her work has been widely published, and she is currently in the Ph.D. Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is not afraid to utilize her skills to express herself and take a pointed stab at everything she sees. However, through Mildred Pierce and the various reviews and interviews she conducts she is able to highlight the best in literature as well. In reality an activist is, especially one like Megan, is thoughtful and extremely passionate, and those are two traits that the world can use a lot more of.

Megan has a new chapbook coming out next month on Another New Calligraphy, and it's called "Kill Marguerite". Recently, she was kind enough to answer a few of my questions.

Orange Alert (OA): Let’s start by talking about Mildred Pierce. What is the goal of MP and do you feel it has accomplished (or come close) in its first three issues?
Megan Milks (MM): The goal of MP was initially to provide an outlet for myself and my co-editor, John Bylander -- we had just graduated college and felt brain-deadened by the usual post-college malaise. We had something to say, dammit, and we wanted to create a venue for ourselves that would push us to meet other socially conscious art freaks who'd like our zine so much they'd want to write/do art for us. In this sense, MP has been a success -- our issues have moved from being mainly me and John spouting off (responsibly, and not selfishly!), to me and John stepping back a bit and letting other voices fill the pages. We now have a ton of different artists and illustrators involved, as well as other writers. Each issue takes a year or two to gestate, and each one is thicker, more eccentric, and prettier than the last.

OA: Why a print zine and not just a blog?
MM: John and I are both print fetishists and believe that print endures. It's also more of a commitment -- if you're going to spend the money and time to put something into print, you're going to put more thought into what you're putting into the world. While we are huge internet freaks and do not snub the blog, and while we are aware that we'd probably have a bigger audience if we were a blog or online zine, we just like the way words and art look and feel on paper.

OA: Aside from MP and you personal writer you are also very active in the writing “community”. You contribute on several publications and recently did an interview with Davis Schneiderman for Salt Magazine. Why is important to stay involved in other aspect of literature and not simply write?
MM: I guess I see myself less as a 'solitary genius'-style writer, and more as a literary activist. As we know, the popularity/supposed worth of books is fairly arbitrary, as there are Just So Many, and the canon, which however maligned still exists, is a product of those who have had authority/power over the years -- who gets to decide what is worth reading? Well, I do just as much as the dead white guys. So I do my best to expose people to interesting books by authors they might not otherwise hear about, whether it's through Mildred Pierce or through book reviews and author interviews for other media (heyo, find me on goodreads). I teach, too, which means I really do have some authority over what certain people, namely my students, read -- and I try to wield that authority responsibly as opposed to packing the syllabus with my loves Kathy Acker, Dodie Bellamy, and Judith Halberstam. (Um, okay. Guilty, but only a little bit.)

So yeah, for me it's not just about writing, by myself, with my laptop and tea -- and in fact, I am doing a bunch of collaborative work now, largely influenced by a class with Davis on collaborations -- it's also about reading, and about having a stake in what is being read.

OA: Is Chicago a good place to be a writer and stay involved?
MM: My sources say yes, though I'm still getting my bearings. Coming from Philadelphia, Chicago's lit scene seems much larger, more daunting, and also more segregated into various groups of people who tend to stick together -- I could be wrong. In any case, there are tons of writers here and not a few rad bookstores. I do wish there were some kind of queer lit scene to plug into -- or maybe I just haven't found it?

OA: What’s next for Megan Milks?
MM: I'm working on an experimental young adult novel that imagines Roald Dahl's Matilda as a 17-year-old telekinetically-repressed anorexic who desires to take over the world, and does.

Check out Megan's interview with Debra Di Blasi and Wreckage of Reason:

Bonus Questions:
OA: If you could sit down to coffee with anyone (alive or dead) who would be?
MM: Duh... Kathy Acker. I would show her my Pussy, King of the Pirates tattoo, and shiver beneath her disdain.

OA: What type of music do you enjoy and who are a few of your favorites?
MM: PJ Harvey is my number one. Le sigh.

Besides PJ, I really enjoy huge, somewhat cheesy music: Heart, for instance, and Queen. I also dig Man Man a lot, Nick Cave, Erase Errata, Amanda Palmer, Diamanda Galas -- generally music that has some sort of satiric, absurdist, or campy bite, or that involves giddy and insane voicework, is alright by me. Oh yeah, Tool. Love Maynard. And I'm STOKED to see Genesis P-Orridge in the flesh when ze plays with Throbbing Gristle in April.

For more information on Mildred Pierce and Megan Milks please visit her website.