Modern-day Persephones

Interview with Amy Riddell, by Marianne Kunkel

   

Amy Riddell is the author of a chapbook, Narcissistic Injury, published by Pudding House. Her poems have appeared recently in print in Birmingham Poetry Review and Peeks and Valleys, and online in Blue Fifth Review and Prick of the Spindle. She is a professor of English at Northwest Florida State College.

 

MK: In your beautiful poems “Persephone Lost” and “Bluebeard’s Daughter” (Prairie Schooner, Winter 2010), you bring new meaning to common myths. What drew you to revisiting these stories? How do you stop from worrying that everything that can be interpreted from mythology hasn’t already been done?

AR: Like many people, I love myths and folktales. The story of Persephone, especially, resonates for me. I have a close family member who was abducted and survived, but the trauma of that experience has understandably impacted her entire life. In my poem, I wanted to focus attention on the suffering experienced by modern-day Persephones like my family member and girls like Jessica Lunsford, a 9-year-old from Homosassa, Florida, who was abducted, raped, and murdered in 2005. The details reported in the news were heartbreaking, among them the fact that she was alive when her kidnapper buried her.

Bluebeard is a figure that resonates with me because my father has married many women (about seven) and to my knowledge has victimized more than one of them. In fact, he is serving a 30-year sentence in a Florida prison for the kidnapping and attempted murder of one of his wives. In the poem, I wanted to explore survival because to survive takes an act of will. So I gave Bluebeard a daughter and let her find her way into the goodness that life offers. I also wanted to talk about the transformative power of artistic expression. Even though I allude to a folktale, the poem is very personal to me. I find that folding new stories into old ones helps me create distance and connection at the same time. Violence alienates and isolates. Stories create bonds and community. They are powerful medicine.

In many lines in “Persephone Lost,” such as “the sun in this story was only the sun,” you seem so accepting of difficult subject matter, almost as if you were saying, “This is just the way things are.” And yet your compassion for the poem’s main character is obvious. How do you achieve such a powerful balance of matter-of-fact language and underlying compassion?

In the version of the Persephone myth with which I am most familiar, Demeter can find no one who will tell her what has happened to her daughter until finally the sun takes pity on her. In contrast, for Jessica Lunsford and for many other victims and their families, there is no supernatural or divine intervention. The line is an expression of my despair that at times there seems to be no defense against these horrific crimes against children. As far as how I achieve a balance, I am not sure. I suppose it is in the choices I make about what I will tell and what I will show. Also in how I tell – simple, declarative statements -- and how I show -- the specific details I choose to present.

You end both poems with striking images that represent a character’s arrival, both small and enormous, into a different place. What’s behind your choice to conclude both poems with strong imagery? Would you ever suggest a different kind of ending for a poem?

In one, I wanted to show the horror and brutality of the character’s death. In the other, I wanted to show the character’s transformation and transcendence. So my choices had to do with what I wanted the reader to see.

You are the author of the chapbook Narcissistic Injury, published by Pudding House. What is your No. 1 piece of advice for writers attempting to publish a chapbook?

Research. There are a lot of chapbook publishers out there who do not place calls for submissions in the regular places such as Poets & Writers and NewPages.com online.  For example, Pudding House doesn’t solicit submissions but does accept them year round. Pudding House also has a chapbook competition. Dancing Girl Press is another chapbook publisher that doesn’t solicit through advertisements but does have an open reading period, usually once a year. Research can be as simple as doing a Google search or looking for journals that review chapbooks. For example, Prick of the Spindle is an online quarterly journal that features reviews of chapbooks in each issue. Names of publishers can be found there. Other chapbook publishers that I know of are Slash Pine Press, Yellow Jacket Press, and Finishing Line Press. Most of them have an online presence and will accept submissions electronically. The online resource Everywritersresource.com has a pretty comprehensive list and is another good resource.

Not only do you write poetry, but you are a professor of English at Northwest Florida State College. As a resident of the Sunshine State, which offers numerous outdoor activities, in what ways do you stay fit and healthy as a writer?

I teach at least five freshman composition classes a term and spend many hours grading essays, so getting exercise is crucial to my mental and physical health. I live near the Gulf of Mexico and its beautiful white sand beaches. Walking along the shore is one of my favorite things to do. I also practice yoga. I am a beginner, but learning. Growing in my practice, and yes, stretching myself bring me great joy.