Matthew Lippman on The Social Distance Reading Series
Matthew Lippman’s collection MESMERIZINGLY SADLY BEAUTIFUL won the 2018 Levis Prize and will be published by Four Way Books in 2020. His recent collection, A LITTLE GUT MAGIC is published by Nine Mile Books. He is the Editor and Founder of the web-based project Love’s Executive Order.
Brought to you by The Vermont School and Green Mountains Review
In the wake of book event cancellations due to COVID-19, this pop-up series is designed to offer poets a platform for launching new collections of poems. Stay tuned for a new reading each Wednesday and Sunday.
Here’s Matthew reading from his new book MESMERIZINGLY SADLY BEAUTIFUL, available at fourwaybooks.com.
MESMERIZINGLY SADLY BEAUTIFUL, humming with antic energy, takes on issues of sex, politics, race, religion, and poetry, all subjects our mothers warned us not to bring up at a dinner party. At times dreamily or nightmarishly surreal, at others so realistic we laugh or cringe in recognition. It’s outrageously American, crass, funny, fast talking, unbound, and yes, sadly beautiful.
–Dorianne Laux

GMR: How do you begin a new piece of writing? What conditions help your writing process?
ML: Lately, I have been listening to the great Tunisian oud player, Anouar Brahem, to get me going. I find that music is the best catalyst because it puts me into a quiet, silent space. From there I am off and running.
GMR: What was an early experience that taught you language has power?
ML: Growing up in New York City in the 1970s and hanging out with my friends on the streets around our apartment building. I always remember that talking always felt like more than just talking. The slang we used. The way we used to rib each other. The back and forth song of conversation and ranting gave me a great sense of joy.
GMR: What poets or writers do you continually go back to?
ML: I always go back to these folks: Juan Felipe Herrera, Khadijah Queen, Kerrin McCadden, Michael Morse, Matthew Dickman, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Liz Powell, and Tina Cane.
GMR: What was the best investment you made in becoming a writer?
ML: Time. Allowing myself the time, no matter the circumstances, no matter the responsibilities that I had/have—to always find a space where I could and can write. Or, the $30 bucks I paid to Four Way Books to enter the Levis Prize competition.
GMR: Does an ego help or hurt writers? How does ego play into writing?
ML: This is a loaded question. I can’t speak to it globally. Only personally. Ego is difficult for me. I try and find a healthy balance in my relationship to it, in my relationship to myself on the tundra of ego. My favorite space is the writing space and I hope in that space that my ego can disappear. Writing, the act of making a poem, always puts the ego in check. It shuts it up, or, it quiets it down. I like that.
GMR: Name the work you are proudest of writing and why.
ML: My new book, the one coming out in March, Mesmerizingly Sadly Beautiful, is the work, the collective work, that I am most proud of. It’s clean. It’s tight. It’s short. I have always wanted to make a book of poems that exists and lives in the world like a great pop record. Something like Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors. For me Mesmerizingly Sadly Beautiful is that poetry record. A pop record book of a poetry thing. It makes me proud.
GMR: What is your favorite childhood book?
ML: Harold and the Purple Crayon.
GMR: Where can we find you? Link to your blog or website:
ML: www.matthewlippmanpoetry.com
GMR: What are your thoughts on social distancing (and/or COVID-19)?
ML: I am sad for the beauty of it. Italians are singing from their balconies. We get to walk more as families in the air and sunshine. Things, already, feel quieter, like, we are all more mindful and deliberate and slower. I like these things but at what cost? People are dying and getting sick. It sucks. It’s hard but it’s important so we can take care of each other, at least we can try to. But, on the daily, it’s hard.
The Social Distance Reading Series
Brought to you by The Vermont School and Green Mountains Review
We’re thrilled to host The Social Distance Reading Series, a collaboration between Green Mountains Review and The Vermont School poets. In the wake of book event cancellations due to COVID-19, this pop-up series is designed to offer poets a platform for launching new collections of poems. At this point, we are focusing on collections by poets whose book events have been cancelled between January through May 2020.
Stay tuned for a new reading each Wednesday and Sunday.
Thanks,
–Didi Jackson, Major Jackson, Kerrin McCadden, and Elizabeth Powell, series curators.
–Kylie Gellatly, editorial assistant, interviewer.