I had the good fortune to meet Carrie Olivia Adams at the Black Ocean booth at AWP. In addition to being the executive editor of Black Ocean, she’s the promotions and marketing communications director for the University of Chicago Press, and the author of nine books that include The Book of Marys and Glaciers, Be the thing of memory, Operating Theater, Forty-One Jane Doe’s, and Intervening Absence in addition to the chapbooks “Proficiency Badges,” “Grapple,” “Overture in the Key of F,” and “A Useless Window.” And… she makes biscuits! You can read her newsletter “Poetry & Biscuits” on Substack.
We’re thrilled to welcome Carrie to the Poetry Shop 5 and to recommend her newly released book The Book of Marys and Glaciers (Tupelo Press), which takes readers on a journey across landscapes of solitude–from caves and museums to glaciers and deserts. It’s a meditation on loneliness, vastness, privilege, feminism, ecopoetics and the restless mind in conversation with itself.
We’re excited to offer The Book of Marys and Glaciers on The Poetry Shop and to feature some of Carrie’s poetry book recommendations below.
Welcome to The Poetry Shop 5, Carrie Olivia Adams! We always start by asking, what was the book that first inspired your interest in poetry?
Loose Woman (Vintage) by Sandra Cisneros. I started writing and memorizing poems at a very early age, pretty much as soon as I started to become literate, I became interested in poetry. Poetry was always a part of my experience of the world and of text and how I thought about sound and language. But, I didn't believe that I could ever become a poet. I was reciting Whitman and Poe and a lot of dead white guys. Sure, there was Emily Dickinson, but no teacher I had knew how to teach her work, and it seemed so impossible to me at that time. When I discovered Sandra Cisneros's Loose Woman one day while browsing in a bookstore in Kentucky (remember the serendipity of analog discovery before the era of algorithm?), it changed everything for me. Here was poetry that was fun and musical but also not formal or stuffy, and it felt alive and about a familiar world. It was the first book that gave me the feeling that my own voice might be valuable and that my own life and thoughts might offer the substance of poetry.
Is there a book on the craft of writing that you recommend to poets?
Madness, Rack, and Honey by Mary Ruefle. Ruefle's book is not really a craft book in the traditional sense, and I don't really believe in craft books. I believe that there is no better way to learn how to write poetry than to read poetry, of all kinds, of all periods, of all languages. It's an immersive, ongoing apprenticeship to language. But, I had the privilege of hearing Ruefle deliver most of the lectures collected in her book while I was in the MFA program at Vermont College, and they exemplify what it means to live a poetic life, to try to remove the barriers between the every day and the art parts of our life and to blend them into one, so that you observe and consider every moment with that same attentive attunement. I still strive to live this way.
Which book of poetry are you currently reading?
The Book of Echoes (Jackleg Press) by David Welch. I love the format of this book and how it's been adapted to the very long lines of some of the poems.
Who is a new voice in poetry that we need to check out–someone with a debut book or recent release?
Surety (Inlandia Institute) by Anna Zumbahlen. I will admit to being a bit biased as Anna works on my team at the University of Chicago Press, but Anna's debut collection is thoughtful and quiet in all the best ways, grounded in place and landscape, yet meditative and reflective.
Finally, what’s a poetry book that others may not know about but deserves a shout out?
Bill Knott's The Naomi Poems. Back in print after almost 60 years, this is the book that inspired the creation of Black Ocean in many ways. I remember Janaka Stucky sharing a DIY bound copy of Knott's poems when we were in graduate school together, and the desire to bring it back in print was part of our interest in starting a publishing company 20-some years ago. These poems are the Platonic ideal of poetry.
Books and Poets referenced in this article.
The Book of Marys and Glaciers (Tupelo Press) by Carrie Olivia Adams
Loose Woman (Vintage) by Sandra Cisneros.
Madness, Rack, and Honey (Wave Books) by Mary Ruefle
The Book of Echoes (Jackleg Press) by David Welch
Surety (Inlandia Institute) by Anna Zumbahlen
The Naomi Poems (Black Ocean) by Bill Knott
Photo Credit: COA author photo credit Emilie Robinson - Carrie Olivia Adams.jpg
