After a long night of work and study, few people today have the energy to do things like write poetry every morning. Yet it is exactly this kind of dedication that has led Anne-Marie Cusac to publish her debut poetry book, \The Mean Days."" Cusac has won numerous awards for her investigative reports for The Progressive and is currently the magazine's managing editor. In her new book, the secret lyrical talents of Cusac finally sing out.
""The Mean Days"" is a compilation of emotionally vivid and alluring poems, some 14 years in the making. Her stories tell of friends falling painfully into love, the reactions of three girls to their sister's death and even of a woman whose dress catches fire.
Cusac's entangled prose whisks the reader to a familiar feeling and place of the past, making it a treasure chest of eerie nostalgia. Her work encompasses a vast array of poetic styles and themes that are simultaneously charming, intense and willful.
The Daily Cardinal recently spoke withCusac about her writing.
How long have you been writing poetry?
I started writing poetry when I was a kid. I thought I was going to be a fiction writer. Then when I was 18, I went to college at Northwestern University and landed in a poetry course because I couldn't get into a fiction course. After that, I was encouraged to continue poetry ... I found myself trying to tell stories that I had heard and discovered throughout my life.
Are these stories from your own experience?
Everything in [the book] is highly fictionalized. Some [stories] are closer to life experience, such as the poem Tinner, which is one of the more lyrical ones. My uncle was a tinner in Peoria ... he committed suicide. I wrote this poem almost immediately after that. Generally, I like to steal things from life and see how they might fit ... [the material] may have come from my life or it may not have, and the poem isn't going to tell you that. It's there more for the sake of the story.
How do you go about writing a poem?
It depends. The main thing I do is work very hard ... sometimes I start out focusing on the form, but mostly I try to form an image or a narrative first, and I rewrite and rewrite a lot. It's often not until the fifth draft or so that the poem gets close to what I want.
How do you choose which poems to keep?
I often rely heavily on what other people I trust have to say ... you can easily become a little too charmed by your own work, and you really do need to hear other peoples views.
What's your motivation?
I write because I want to and it gives me a certain pleasure.
Having grown up in a blue-collar family, I remember wanting to write poetry that had those types of stories in them'stories that weren't told very often ... I wanted to write accessible poetry that was more readable. I also wanted to find out why I was so interested in these stories, even the ones I made up. It's an adventure, it's fun, and also I'm trying to communicate some valuable social things.
Is Madison supportive of your writing?
Yes, it's great ... Not only are there serious people writing here, but people are really interested in your writing rather than your writing status ... this town is both excited about writing and home to a lot of writers who don't make a lot of money. People were very supportive when I was at the UW before I had a book, and for the people at [The Progressive], I am so grateful. I think Madison is a really good community to be in [as a writer].
