Anais Duplan’s interviews in “The Moon’s Silent Modulation.” It’s exactly what I would like to read in an interview. Meaning, I’ve found myself a little impatient with the interview format where two writers engage in small talk at the opening. I understand this is part of the interview process. Everyone needs time to warm up. To find the moment that will organically direct both people into something more substantial. But my sense is this exchange feels and sounds much better when you’re in person. Or maybe they’re both writers, and I’m listening for the earnest voice I hear in their poems, and their “sitting down to an interview voice” doesn’t match up.
Anais Duplan’s essay, “The Moon’s Silent Modulation” is different. He offers an account of these conversations, like they inspired his own reflection on the subject. Like he’s not sure what he thinks about francine j. harris’s assembly of connotative imagery. Or he’s not sure what to do with Wendy Xu’s comments about fitting her poems into historical record. What do these things really mean? And how does your respect for these writers fit into your consideration of their dilemmas? I’ll admit, it helps that I’m familiar with the writers’ works, and I’m desperately interested in what their background thinking is. I appreciate Duplan providing space where I can hear these writers in their own words. But I’m especially grateful for his curation. His thinking is the frame for what I get to hear. And, via this curation, his concerns deepen what I’m hearing, because he has offered some personal context for why I’m hearing it. There is something so fair and perceptive about his use of the interview form.
Helpful Link
- Anais Duplan’s home page
- Blackspace (Black Ocean, 2020)