Ten Questions (2): Michaela Gabriel

April 24, 2008 at 6:00 am (Ten Questions 2)

Michaela Gabriel (author of the secret meaning of greek letters, among other chapbooks) is answering the ten questions on publication today. We are enthusiastic readers of her work and her blog and are especially delighted to have her with us today. Many thanks for participating, Michaela!

1. Describe your publishing trajectory. Where did it start? Where is it now? How long have you been at it?

Everything really began when I was about 13 and read a poem written by a teenage girl in one of those almanac/diary things. I sat down, wrote my first ever poem and actually sent it to the publishers. Looking back, I am amazed at my guts - and I really cannot blame them for not publishing the poem. But even so many years later, I am grateful for the encouraging note I received. It may have been politeness, but to a young person who had just discovered this new form of expressing herself, it made all the difference. I never stopped writing after that, though I was not thinking of publication at the time.

When I was 17, a girls’ magazine based in Germany ran a poetry competition; my poem made the top 100 and became my first publication. For a while, an Austrian print magazine called “My Way” published poetry, stories and photos by their readers, and I found myself thinking, hmm, I can do that, too. I was curious, I wanted to know whether they’d accept any of my work – and they did, several times. They even paid about 50 Schilling (5 dollars) per piece!

And then the internet “happened”. I’d begun to write in English during my late teens, and by the mid-nineties much of my poetry was in English. Through a student magazine I heard about gangway.net – an Austr(al)ian e-zine, and I sent them some of my work. In June 1997, they published a set of ten poems. I was thrilled – and hooked.

On internet boards I found encouragement, support, and a mentor, and being part of communities helped me find out about markets and the process of submitting poetry. About eleven years after my first online publications, countless poems have appeared online and in print, in magazines that have long since closed down and others that continue to thrive. I have had two chapbooks published, and co-authored a third (with Alex Stolis). Without the internet, I would certainly not be where I am now. Nowhere near it, in fact. Sometimes I wonder whether I’d actually still be writing at all.

2. What would you do differently if you had to start all over again?

Well, it’s not like I had a plan! It just started to happen, and I sort of went along. The only thing – it took me ages to put my first chapbook together. I was dithering, and it took several kicks in my lazy butt from my dear friend Alex Stolis to finally make me sit down and choose those poems. I think I was a little intimidated by the whole thing, and for a while I blocked myself by worrying too much over poems I’d have to leave out. Just because they did not get into chapbook number one, did not have to mean they would never be part of a book, so that was silly, and maybe I could have gotten my act together sooner. But then, who knows, it might not have been snapped up by the first publisher I sent it to.

3. Why did you start seeking publication? Why do you continue?

Like I said before, in the beginning there was a question. And the question was: “Can I do that too?” I wanted to find out whether a magazine would publish what I had to say. I wanted to get reactions from publishers, other writers, friends. After all, most poets *are* trying to reach people out there. I continue to send out submissions for that very reason. I want to make someone laugh, shrug, shiver, sigh, or think “yes!” The market has changed so much over the last ten years, so many magazines have been founded, some have disappeared again. But the market is definitely much, much bigger and more varied than it used to be. So I send poetry to new zines, online and print, if I think my work fits in with what they publish. I don’t send poetry to magazines I wouldn’t read, I don’t want to get published just so I can say, “Been in that one. Check”.

4. Does your relationship with your work change after it is published and if so, how? How does the concept of publication affect your writing in general?

No, in general I wouldn’t say that’s the case. Sometimes when I go way back to the late nineties, to my first publications, I end up a little surprised that certain poems got accepted, because I have moved on since then, and my style has changed, but that’s it.

As for possible publication affecting my writing – sometimes I am challenged to try something new, say, if a journal runs a themed contest or such. And with my chapbooks, yes, there is an influence there. I started working on “the secret meanings of greek letters” with a chapbook collection in mind, it was always intended as a series, with one poem per Greek letter. Same with the collaboration I wrote with Alex – we had this concept of a series of letters, and we worked on it with a chapbook in mind. And the full-length manuscript I am working on, “elemental”, is another themed book – one poem for each element in the periodic table.

But the concept of publication does not usually affect my writing in the sense that I write “for” a magazine, a certain market.

5. Talk about putting a chapbook together. How have you done it in the past, how would you do it differently now? Why are chapbooks a good thing?

It took me forever to put my first chapbook, “apples for adam”, together. I found it difficult to decide what to include and what to leave out. I wrote lists of poems I liked, then abandoned work on the chapbook again, and started all over. Someone suggested a theme, so I went through my poems to see what themes would jump out at me, and it was actually pretty obvious that it had to be a women-themed collection. Knowing that, it was much easier to make choices, and once I had realized that leaving out a number of good poems was not the end of the world, the manuscript was finished pretty quickly. I did play around with the order of poems, and I sent the manuscript off when it simply felt right. I was worried I might not find a title for it, but then that was not difficult at all – the title refers to a poem included in the book, “Eva to Adam”.

The second collection, “the secret meanings of greek letters”, was a different matter altogether. I knew even before finishing the first poem that it would have to be the complete series of one poem each for the 24 Greek letters. I was in the middle of an a-poem-a-day challenge at the time, and “secret meanings” was basically written within a month.

With my latest collection, “love letters to invisible men”, which is currently looking for a home, it was different. I thought of the title ages ago, but did not have the poems for a collection. Once I had them, I spent a long time deciding on the order of poems, and I changed my mind quite often. I asked a few friends to look the manuscript over and that helped.

There are several reasons why chapbooks are a good thing: They give readers an idea of a poet’s work, and they don’t have to spend a fortune on a book they might not even enjoy. For me as a poet the thought of putting together a collection of 20 poems is a LOT less intimidating than writing a manuscript of 60-100 poems. It’s good for getting your name out there. I also love how chapbooks are used as a sort of currency on the web – swapping books with other poets is fantastic.

6. What’s your advice to someone putting together a full-length poetry manuscript for the first time? Share your thoughts on the importance (or not) of a narrative arc in poetry manuscripts.

I am definitely not the expert here, and could do with some advice myself. I have about half the poems for my full-length project “elemental”. What inspired me was Primo Levi’s short story collection “The Periodic Table”. The idea is to write one poem for each element. I am already wondering how to arrange the poems, because there are “series within the series” (like a bunch of prose poems, several ekphrastic poems, etc), but of course it would be nice to stick to the original order of the periodic table.

In a way, putting a manuscript together is like making a CD mix. I can take such things very seriously – there are songs that just don’t go well together. You probably wouldn’t want to go from a Verdi aria straight to Korn, or from Irish folk to trash metal. So I guess that poets should give some thought to the order of their poems and perhaps group similarly themed poems.

7. Do you personally market your publications? If so, why and how, and do you enjoy it? If not, why not?

Yes, of course! I mean – if I am not interested in marketing my work, then who will be? I have a sort of newsletter, poetic news, that I send out several times a year to tell friends – poets and others – about publications in magazines. I send review copies of my chapbooks to magazines, I blog about publications, I post links on facebook. Word of mouth is so important. I write to poets whose work I like and suggest swapping chapbooks. I have swapped over 20 copies of my “secret meanings” so far.

There are not many poetry-related events in Vienna, but I presented “secret meanings” at the open mic I always go to, and I read some poems from that collection at the Vienna Lit Festival on April 17. Such events usually have book tables, and they are a great opportunity of making your work known.

8. Complete the following sentences: Big-name poetry publishers …

… have a lot of know-how but are possibly unaware of what is happening “on the street” and desperately need to explore new areas.

9. Small- and micro-presses are …

… closer to what’s happening, something the poetry world needs, and worth being supported.

10. Describe the ideal relationship with a publisher and a relationship with a publisher from hell.

I must say that my publishers have been very good to work with. An ideal publisher is someone who supports the writer, who offers advise without violating the poet’s work. A publisher should be open to suggestions from the poet. Creativity and some marketing know-how are definitely a plus. What I love is being kept up-to-date with what is going on – layout, proofing, illustrations, ideas, delays, whatever.

A publisher from hell, hm, I guess that would be someone who is careless, who doesn’t keep their promises, offers no feedback, doesn’t answer questions, makes changes without informing the writer, misses deadlines without a word of explanation or apology. Also, being asked to pay for any services in the end would be a nightmare.

I had one bad experience with a print magazine based in India. I found out after submitting that they would not give published authors a free copy and I heard some unfavourable stories about them. I withdrew my work, received a confirmation of that email, but over a month later I got an email telling me that my poems had been published, and asking me to buy a copy. I was NOT amused. Fortunately such experiences are few and far between.

<><><>

Michaela A. Gabriel lives in Vienna, Austria where she helps adults acquire computer and English skills and gets together with the muse as often as possible. She wrote her first poem at the age of 13, but likes to think that she has improved since. Michaela has been widely published both online and in print and is the author of two and a half chapbooks - apples for adam (FootHills Publishing, January 2005), the secret meanings of greek letters, (dancing girl press, October 2007), and small confessions & pebbles of regret (Rubicon Press, March 2008, co-written with Alex Stolis). She has recently finished another chapbook manuscript and is working on a full-length collection inspired by the elements of the periodic table. When she is not writing, Michaela is reading, listening to music, taking photos, watching movies, blogging, communicating with friends, playing scrabble online or travelling – usually several of these at the same time. Her website is here and she blogs here.

<><><>

Previously on Ten Questions:

1. Kristy Bowen
2. Reginald Shepherd
3. Carolyn Guinzio
4. Nate Pritts
5. Sam Byfield
6. Neil Aitken
7. Edward Byrne
8. Rachel Bunting
9. Brent Fisk
10. Ivy Alvarez