NEW JOHN LEONARD PRESS TITLES AND UPDATE

It's been a wonderful few months At John Leonard Press. Two new titles, created as three-books bound into one (following the US style), have been published, 'A Hunger' by Petra White in August, and 'Keeps' by LK Holt in October.  Both were supported by Australia Council Literature Board funding, as our last 12 titles have been in the past four years.  'A Hunger' has been reviewed well by 'Australian Poetry Review' and the 'Sydney Morning Herald' and more are to come. 'Keeps' has just now been sent to reviewers. Both books are produced to JLP's abiding standards of excellence, design and tactile beauty, designed by Sophie Gaur. For more info, go to www.johnleonardpress.com  In terms of sales and increased profile for the Press, it was important news in 2015 with the listing of two titles for VCE Literature 2015-2020. Sales have been strong for the two books, Robert Gray's Collected, 'Cumulus', and the anthology of younger Australian poets, ed. John Leonard, 'Young Poets: An Australian Anthology', with numerous schools already having ordered them for the first year. Poets and I will be going into schools to talk about both the Anthology and the writing and publishing of poetry generally. Part of the inspiration here is to ignite the spark in younger writers and readers. These orders followan event the Press organised in early August at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne, with Australian Poetry, to promote the book and readings to teachers at large. The free event was also open to the public. Kevin Brophy's New & Selected, 'Walking,', published late last year has also sold well and we have just put it into reprint. It was also shortlisted for the 2014 WA Premier's Prize. Both 'Cumulus' and 'Young Poets' have also been reprinted due to their sales. Reviews on Paul Magee's 'Stone Postcard' have also been numerous and positive, including in 'Australian Book Review' and 'Mascara Literary Review'. Links to all reviews are on the Press' website - which has also been recently relaunched. On a personal front, I have also returned to book reviewing, with articles this year for 'Australian Book Review', 'Australian Poetry Journal' and 'Mascara Literary Review', along with having had the opportunity to have written and published a number of articles on poetry, writers and poets for Managing Editor Kent MacCarter at Cordite Poetry Review's 'Guncotton' blog.

ON GIFT AND GUTS

Here I wrote a Q&A with The Wheeler Centre on writing and my ideas about it - interestingly, the parallels between elite athletes and dedicated writers emerged in my thinking for the piece. Thanks also to Jo Case, ed. of the Centre's 'Dailies' webpage, for the interview.

Working with Words: Jacinta Le Plastrier

Jacinta Le Plastrier is a Melbourne-based writer, poet and editor. She is blog editor atCordite Poetry Review, publisher at John Leonard Press, curator of the Gilgamesh Modern Salon, and recently completed a Hot Desk Fellowship at the Wheeler Centre. Her new book of poems, The Book of Skins, will be published early 2014.

We spoke to her about dealing with writerly doubt, remaining open to helpful advice about your writing (and immune to praise or criticism), and why writers are like athletes.

What was the first piece of writing you had published?

My first pieces of journalism were on music when I was 17 at theMelbourne Herald where I was a cadet – it was Melbourne’s former evening broadsheet, later subsumed into the Herald Sun under Murdoch. My first published poems (paid) were in Meanjin in the early 1990s.

What’s the best part of your job?

Being able to say what I want to say, through writing. I consider it a privilege. I also write across genres – essays, poetry, feature articles, and on activist issues – so I feel, nearly always, personally, diversely and mentally engaged with what interests me, and usually, passionately.

What’s the worst part of your job?

At times I have suffered a terrific, disabling, inner experience of doubt about being a writer, especially of poetry. Now I am steely with myself about this. I’ve developed – as I think most writers and artists need to – what I call a psychic toughness towards this nervous energy. Doubt is useful, it keeps you open to always attempting new ways of using language. I also think you can approach the writing act like a dedicated athlete trains for competing or a dancer trains for performing. You train, psychically, to be ready to write, and then do it, no matter what, little by little – or sometimes via an unexpected leap – to new levels.

What’s been the most significant moment in your writing and publishing career so far?

It would be a series of moments – a particular publication, getting a fellowship, writing a new kind of piece – a growing clarification about what I want to do with writing. As part of this, I have become intent with myself in making writing (alongside caring for the ones and issues close to me, obviously) the priority in all that I choose to do.

What’s the best (or worst) advice you’ve received about writing?

‘Bum on seat’ – William Burrough’s advice on writing. To ‘turn up’ at the desk (or where it is you write) – and write. Balancing that, you also develop a sense of a piece’s energy flow; if it ebbs, it’s good to turn away for some time, even a few hours. I often go to bed then. The painter Renoir was very attuned to this creative energetic flow. He said you also have to ‘loaf around’ a bit. But stamina, being able to sustain and remain with the flow of a piece of work when it is present, is also very important.

What’s the most surprising thing you’ve ever heard or read about yourself or your work?

I have never really been surprised by anything. I think it’s optimal to remain open to helpful advice or editing about a piece of writing, to accept what might assist it – while also being aware that people’s ‘advice’ can sometimes be masking an unconscious rivalry or intention to undermine your writing. So I try to be immune to praise or criticism, while remaining open, as I said, to what others do genuinely offer as positive assistance.

If you weren’t working in writing and publishing, what do you think you’d be doing instead?

Writing is my passion, it’s a life-force for me. So I don’t think about an alternative.

There’s much debate on whether creative writing can be taught – what’s your view?

Writing, in my view, is a co-creation between the writer and the force and energy of language. Writers love words, tenderly, I believe. For me, this relationship approaches an intimacy, with patterns of change, maturation and challenges, which mirror the relationship with your human beloved. The act of writing, like an intimate relationship, is a co-creation. Can this be taught? Absolutely – but the seed of that kind of passion for language has to be present in both the student and the teacher.

What’s your advice for someone wanting to be a writer?

Find your own way, find your words to express what you want to say. That way you have the opportunity to write uniquely. Above all, become crystal clear – I would say, even, ruthless – that you will do nothing else, no matter what the challenges are.

Do you buy your books online, in a physical bookshop, or both?

I am terribly old-school in my support for physical bookshops; I know the wonders of e-technology and online ordering, but I still am able to make do with ordering books into favorite bookshops, precious to me, such as Melbourne’s Collected Works. I also read books at the State Library of Victoria; for example, you can source multiple translations for the same book, if that interests you.

If you could go out to dinner with any fictional character, who would it be and why? And what would you talk about?

I’m not very good with the fictional. I read poetry and non-fiction almost exclusively. To be honest, I am blessed by relationships with some extraordinary ‘real’ people. I would always prefer to have dinner with them – and we would talk, as usual, about writing, art, love, things that matter, I believe. Oh, and AFL, athletics, and sport too. I am passionate about sport – and see many parallels between elite athletes and writers. You can have the gift to write, but you also have to have guts – and do the long hard yards of training.

What’s the book that’s had the most significant impact on your life or work – and why?

There’s not a particular one. I think we are constantly choosing to read books that are apt for a particular time – that we are being significantly impacted all the time, hopefully. I tend to have a handful of books that sit near my bed, or which I cart around, that infuse what I am trying to learn at that time. They are like talismans, too.

This year, that would have included Albert Camus’ book on Algeria (The Algerian Chronicles), Rilke’s Duino Elegies (Leishman translation), Francis Webb’s Collected Poems, Tolkien’s Return of the King, Sylvia Plath’s Ariel collection. The through-line would be an interrogation about how humans have the potential to reach into and integrate higher principles of character, endeavour and love.

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Jacinta Le Plastrier’s new book of poems, The Book of Skins, will be published early 2014. She blogs atwww.jacintaleplastrierofficial.blogspot.com.