10 Questions for Rebecca Foust
- By Edward Clifford
"When Iggy moved now, she shimmered in red, blue, and yellow pixels melding into an overall impression of green. And she was always moving, pacing the cage from end to end. She resisted being picked up, struggling and thrashing her tail. The boy could not help being afriad, but his love only grew along with the iguana as if, like the procession of tanks, it could expand indefinitely to hold them both."
—from “Iguana Iguana,” Summer 2018 (Vol. 59, Issue 2)
Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
Well, there was “Lucky the Leprechaun” in second grade, very bad, and then a review for The Altoona Mirror in sixth grade, not much better. I’ve written poems since I was taught to hold a pencil and published my first at the age of 50, think it was “From Form, Function” in the Hudson Review or else “Mom’s Canoe” in Atlanta Review.
What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
All of them. I have been a great reader all my life and tend to pay attention to craft and style anytime I read. The metaphysical poets—Donne, Herbert, Hopkins—were very important to me, also Yeats and Shakespeare. Yeah, all OWM or DWM, but that is what I was given to read as a kid.
What other professions have you worked in?
Law, then advocacy and political organization for students with learning disabilities.
What did you want to be when you were young?
A writer or a geologist.
What inspired you to write this piece?
Bits of my kids are all through the story, jumbled up and re-assigned. I have a transgender daughter, and a son with Aspergers who had a pet iguana and a menagerie of pet lizards and snakes. Another daughter is a lot like Lani. I’m first generation college, and the person most responsible for my being able to attend Smith on scholarship was my cousin, the model for Uncle Corwin.
Is there a city or place, real or imagined, that influences your writing?
For “Iguana Iguana” I was thinking of New Canaan, CT, though I’ve actually never been there! But the two places that come most often in my writing are rustbelt Pennsylvania where I grew up and what has to be its polar opposite, Marin County in California where I live now.
Who typically gets the first read of your work?
My dear friend and wonderful writer, Jasmin Darznik. Her new novel, Song of a Captive Bird, inspired by the life of Forugh Farokhzad, is just superb.
If you could work in another art form what would it be?
My main genre is poetry, but I enjoy writing essays and short stories as well. Beyond that, I took up knitting after the election (to churn out pussy hats), and have been surprised by the creative possibilities it offers. I also see cooking and gardening as art forms and love doing both.
What are you working on currently?
A new manuscript of poems, and a few short stories in very early draft form. I write a weekly column, “Poetry Sunday” for Women’s Voices for Change, and that takes quite a bit of time.
What are you reading right now?
Been reading Creative Nonfiction for the Northern CA Book Award, so those finalists: The Faraway Brothers by Lauren Markham, Logical Family by Armistead Maupin, The Best We Could Do by Thy Bui, Survivor Café by Elisabeth Rosner, Why Poetry by Matthew Zapruder, and Coming to My Senses by Alice Waters. In poetry, I am reading Javier Zamora’s Unaccompanied, Dean Rader’s Self Portrait as Wikipedia Entry, and Brittany Perham’s Double Portrait—all fantastic books!
REBECCA FOUST's five books of poetry include Paradise Drive, reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement, San Francisco Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Georgia Review, and elsewhere. Recognitions include the James Hearst Poetry Prize judged by Jane Hirshfield, the American Literary Review Fiction Prize judged by Garth Greenwell, the Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Award judged by Priscila Uppal, fellowships from MacDowell, Sewanee, and The Frost Place, and appointment as poet laureate of Marin County. Foust is the poetry editor and writes a weekly column for Women's Voices for Change.
