"This is just awesome. The whole interview is incredible ... I'm really grateful for any advice ... really well from a fellow writer." Mark Howell, Senior Writer, Solares Hill
Harry Calhoun picture may appear next to the dictionary definition of "Journeyman." Living proof that not all writers to be famous or make some sort of letter to be successful, Calhoun has found frequent editorial support as a poet since 1980 and was a widely published freelance article andliterary writer in the '80s and '90s. He has also edited a poetry magazine and a magazine for the housing sector and placed pieces of fiction and poetry in magazines such as Thunder Sandwich and The Islander. He has an award-winning marketing writer for multinational companies like GE and IBM over the past twenty years.
Trina Allen is a freelance writer and editor who read and appreciated the work of Calhoun.
Trina Allen got your poemThem recognition in publications. What do you think your success?
Harry Calhoun: Absolutely no doubt, three words - three words, short attention span! So I quit my job like now. Marketing writing is a bit 'like poetry. E 'often very short. You are trying to express something in the fewest words and say it is attacked with the kind of spin, which is connected to the person reading it. This is not the poetry, but it's the same mentality, trying to sayThings really fast and strong. People think that poetry is a flowery language or something that goes on, but it's usually quite the opposite, is short and fast ... tried to nail as few words as possible.
Allen: There is a poem that you consider your most successful piece?
Calhoun: Yes, there is a poem - ironically, a small one - called "Leaving". I always look like a success, because I believe that as he captured the sense and the timerant concise and compact.
Allen: ". The day after Christmas," I understand that a critic once caught with his take on your poem can you tell me about it?
Calhoun: Oh, yes. It 'was a very funny scene. I had the poem in a small magazine, Toro, where I was released fairly often, as I begin publication. The poem was "The day after Christmas," called, and I wrote it, the feeling of let down after Christmas is confronted with the loss of aLove Affair - we had something big, like Christmas, and now you're gone and everything is again trivial. The reviewer said he liked the poem that was cold, but said it was a damning indictment of the commercialization of Christmas. He does not seem to come up with the idea that I try to tie them in a romantic relationship at all. It surprises me, but I also showed that poetry and fiction are subject to interpretation. Just because I wrote this does not mean thatit can not play the way they want. His interpretation is as valid as mine.
Allen: Do you have more than 500 publications in magazines like Writer's Digest, private clubs, gargoyles, Mississippi Arts & Letters, and The National Enquirer, and you have prizes for your promotional material, including a prize for the best Addy Direct Mail won . What are your feelings for success?
Calhoun: ". Man, I have all these things," It 's a bit like looking at your resume and say,They realize that somewhere along the line you've done, but it seems really fast. I'm sorry I do not feel a bit 'of prose and poetry with more to be done, especially in, but I also believe that his career was a good, full and are essentially at peace with it.
Allen: Do you want to expand your greatest achievement?
Calhoun: Yes, actually I've bounced around enough that I have had some success in various fields. I can not really point to any great success. Things to comeimmediately to mind most productive period of my poetry in the late 80's when I had some of my poems published popular books from small presses. That was really satisfying for me. I've been with many of my poems published in magazines during this period and even after - and I have a poetry reading and music series with my friend Mark Howell in Key West hosted. It 'been a really great moment in my life ... but so now is a writer of marketing, of course, entirelythe publication of Empire. There are still a lot of luck involved, which is nice for her at that stage of my career where I feel pretty good I'm going to do what I do.
Allen: What advice would you give to novice writers a career in writing?
Calhoun: The first requirement is to have talent. You have no control over this. But beyond that there are some things in your control. Here is my list for the top five writers, in reverse David LettermanStyle:
Calhoun Five simple rules for writing SUCCESS
5. Read greedy, especially in the genres you one thing that most amazes me is interested in poetry as an editor, that people who have not read my poetry is poetry. It 's like trying to develop foot in front of the legs. Reading is to copy the styles, the styles, which help to form your own style.
4. Remember that everything is in writing. Whether you're writing a novel or a poem or e-mail, it's all written and allhelps. In addition, if you're like me and many writers I know, the act of writing it feels good - no matter what type of writing that is. Write your answer interview this feels good, for example!
3. Work, work, work. Do not let anything get in the way of his letter. Make your work even if they are already working another job to support herself.
2. They have goals - but not afraid of change. Not every career is like mine, and some people startwants to write fiction and that is what to do at the end. But when other genres that you are well, see that they are not afraid to change your goals. The corollary is this: I have no prejudices about where your writing. I started trying to write fiction, poetry has taken a detour and then editing the magazine and writer, ended up as a marketing tool. My goal was always to be a successful writer - but the form that success has changed several times during myCareer.
1. And my first rule for writers: they want more than they want anything else in the world. Passion is everything. I would recommend Ray Bradbury's Zen and the art of writing for advice on writing for love rather than money. I honestly think I succeeded because I wanted to earn the title of the writer - that he would do for a living - more than anything else. I wanted it more passionately than anyone I knew.
You may have noticed that I stopped two of the usual tipsfor writers: a daily diary and a time or page limit for your letter. This is because neither has been particularly effective for me. I think if I had to put a magazine fiction that I found most useful, but as a fiction writer and poet writing in the only way my "real" ... was more efficient to do my work than to interfere with a magazine.
As for setting the goal of writing for an hour a day or a page a day, I find that with an assignmentis more than one reason to artificially set a limit. You do not have any freelance jobs? Make it up! In my heyday of poetry, I often place the task of completing the x number of poems, so I would be able to submit to a particular magazine. No daily limit, only the "mission" for the submission of ready in a week or a fortnight.
Allen: Do you want to share additional thoughts on writing?
Calhoun: The writing is writing ... (E ') tacticsWhat ... the need for passion. Some lucky people start writing fiction, and it can do - for them the right way is the best. Personally, my career has been organic, which is a good way to say I was all over. It was beginning to think that certainly not writing marketing texts, and no one would tell me that as much as I would have liked. I got my first position in the market, because I had written a lot of freelance articles and exploited in marketing. I wanted to find a jobin a metropolitan area and the owner of a small advertising agency in Pittsburgh was very pleased with some of my freelance writing and set impressed me as a writer of marketing. I always make sense.
I had to shift gears a lot. I had to say, what are my goals now? I want to earn some money? How can I make money? Will I publish? How can I do? How much of an emotional thing, like writing, is a tactical thing. I found an opportunity, a sort of Parlaypoint or another in the next step in my career.
You can not subscribe to poetry, the idea that a sell-out whether or not to write fiction ... Writing is writing. If you are in the process of fact and you are good enough then to pay a certain amount of satisfaction to get that, even if it is a nine to five job as marketing my writing. And 'less bohemian than me even though I be, that for a long time in a classic third "attic author livedAttic. But what do I do if I'm passionate about so I do not think I want to do it.
Allen: Some of your activities have included writing, readings, reviews, articles in newspapers and magazines and poetry, narrative, marketing. What are you most satisfied? The least?
Calhoun: I can look to me as a worker or even say I had an incredibly varied life, but you watch. I get satisfaction from the variousStages of my writing. I am one of the best writers for technology companies considered the most important where I work now. I have a lot of joy to see my work on the Internet to a worldwide audience. This is exciting and I am really fun to know that I enjoyed watching my books of poetry published and readings of poetry, including the introduction of performance poetry. E 'was great fun.
There have been many highlights. I still remember my first article published and, of course,It was a great thrill. It 'was in the days when it was written on a typewriter and cut and pasted your stuff until they were satisfied, and then wrote it on good paper for its publication. Memories.
Allen: It seems that you see your writing in print was one of the most exciting things for you as a writer.
Calhoun: Definitely the first releases were just great. The first thing I had published a poem, followed by book reviews and my first article. E 'wasnice to see my name is out there.
Allen: What was the lowest level of satisfaction, or was frustrating at the beginning of your career as a writer?
Calhoun: I am glad that I made the decision to get away from writing fiction. I started in the mid 70's a. I read tons of drama, of course, but fiction was difficult for me to continue my day will be hard for this. I think my biggest regret is that I never published a great work of fiction. I had a couple of briefPublished articles, but it is not my strength. This is what I regret most and least like about my career. I do themselves credit for the decision of this and other things.
Allen: There was a writer or poet you admire, and hopes to emulate in your writing career?
Calhoun: Actually there were several. If the question I asked immediately thought of three or four authors: Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet, WAS Merwin, an AmericanPoet that I really admired. I was definitely influenced my poems of the two. I thought of Ernest Hemingway, because I like the conciseness and clarity of his writing - I have certainly tried to emulate him for a while '.
And then I finally realized I was a writer who has influenced my style more than any other: Ellison, better known as a science writer and science fiction for more than a lot of fun writing. Tell stories of Harlan would have done thisinteresting introductions to his stories, and they were always written in a conversational tone - you really have inside. A lot of times today, even as a writer of marketing, people say that my style is colloquial and breezy, and I think I owe a lot of style that Harlan Ellison, because I deliberately tried to copy his style. I liked the way he plays and what he did.
And Charles Bukowski, the German poet and novelist who has taken up residence in Los Angeles as his,certainly influenced me. I started to read it in the '70s and was quickly a fan of his aggressive, no-nonsense style, his humor and accessibility. In 80 years, I received his contact information from a fellow fan, and began a correspondence with him, which lasted from 1983 until shortly before his death in 1994. I published his work in the cat in a bag, a small poetry magazine, I worked for most of the 80's and even a small booklet on his work. It 'was an inspiration because he was aknown writers, the press still in touch with its roots of small size.
Allen: He started a famous magazine in the '80s, the cat in a bag, which is published from 1982 to 1989. How did you get the idea for the magazine and why did you stop the production?
Calhoun: It 's interesting. I still see occasional references in a bag online and other periodicals from around the pig at the time. Some, like Black Bear and Thunder Sandwich review are still at the moment.What gave me the idea for this? At that time I had been published only as a poet a few years. I was working as a reviewer, and when I say I have my job, I was in copies of the books I've paid checks. Did not make me money. I worked another job and trying to find my success as a writer.
There was a lot of small press poetry magazines at this time. I liked how they did commercial publishers. They were usually very quick to respond. They gave advice.They were more conversational in their letters. It 'was a sort of concept, and I liked it a lot, because, as every writer knows cancellations are impersonal and can be managed very heavy. I'm good at editing a magazine, and I also thought that he would suspend a poem much more, is mostly really bad poetry. I definitely know a lot of poets in the scene.
I posted a pig in a bag of my own pocket for a number of years, so in principleI have stopped production because they have too much of a burden on my finances. But his time had passed for me. I started working in marketing jobs and real. I do not have much time for as I had before him. It makes me think that maybe I could bring back one more time on the Internet, because this is more than half, from the immediate printing on paper.
During the years 1982-88, I held a series of readings in a closed box HemingwayPittsburgh every year. They were successful and a lot of fun.
Allen: Do you think people like magazines and books are a good way to find work published today?
Calhoun: If your goal is to earn money, are a bad idea. But my goal was not to make money. It was to get my exposure to poetry to read my stuff and people to respond and tell me how to improve and connect in some way emotionally. In this sense, the small magazines are good, because it is a bit 'easier to publish them in the mainstream magazines. Some of them are of exceptional quality, though. Normally, what you respond to their editors to quickly react with empathy and much more - in fact, I recommend or say what they like or do not like your poems. And that's really valuable, especially for a young writer or someone who is not done for a long time. In addition, they respond quickly and was cheap to produceget thrill of seeing your work quickly enough. It is not as direct as the Internet is today, but could be taken to a poem and in a few months you could see in print. And you have to share your thoughts with others. It 'been fun.
Extract from the interview in Thunder Sandwich # 25, January 1, 2005.
To read the interview in its entirety go http://www.thundersandwich.com/ts25/index.html.
Leaving
With Harry Calhoun
It 's like a doorClosure.
I want you to be gentle, quiet,
Japanese. Open it and apologize
the wood when it opens.
But this moisture swells
beyond what should be
and the creak and slide
to close, it seems
as if I pray
for hire are back in
