Interview: “Nixon on the Piano” Author, Sid Miller

Today’s interview is with Sid Miller, the founder and executive editor of Burnside Review, which has a new issue due out in April.  In addition to his duties with the journal, Sid has two new poetry collections out, one entitled Dot-to-Dot, Oregon (Ooligan Press) and the other Nixon on the Piano (David Robert Brooks).  In reading Dot-to-Dot, Oregon I found Miller’s poetry provided an entry point through which I could relate to a genre that has escaped me nearly all of my life.  I immediately skipped to the section on Northeast Oregon and began to experience the places I grew up through anothers eyes.  And although the language is beautiful enough to gain appreciation from the most seasoned critic, it was this context that allowed the poems to find a home within a novice like myself.  I highly recommend you pick up both of these new collections, I promise they will not disappoint.

Sid will be reading from Dot-to-Dot, Oregon tomorrow (1-21) at 7:30pm at Powell’s Books on Hawthorne.

Click through to read the interview and an excerpt of Sid’s work.

Q: You have two new poetry collections out, can you tell us a little about each of those?

A: Nixon on the Piano is basically a collection of poems from before the time I started the Oregon project.  The oldest poems go back to Flagstaff in 1999 and go until about 2007 when the manuscript got accepted.  Dot-to-Dot, Oregon, is a collection of 50 poems that take place in the cities, towns and monuments of the state.  Told in three voices, they are not so much descriptions of the places, but my reaction to each place on that particular time and day.

Q: Dot to Dot, Oregon features poems inspired by your travels throughout the state.  Was this the plan all along, or did a couple trips spark the desire to continue this approach?

A: Yes this was the plan all along.  I conceived of the project before I started traveling.  The whole inception of the book is described in the introduction.

Q: Was there anything about Oregon’s literary community that really impressed you while you were putting together the Burnside Review All-Oregon Issue?

A: The thing that impressed me about the literary community is the same thing that has impressed me about the larger arts community of Oregon since Burnside Review’s inception; that there is a wide and deep pool of very talented folks in this state and not only that, but mostly everyone wants to be involved in one worthwhile way or another.  Because of the budget we could only print thirty-three contributors, but the issue could have easily been twice that size.

Q: What do you feel is the role of lit journals in the larger literary landscape?

A: This is a hard one and one that I struggle with.  Overall, the role of literary journals is to get good writing into people’s hands.  And now a days there are no shortage of journals out there.  But how does Burnside Review stand out in the crowd?   It’s easier to see our role locally, where we’re a truly independent voice with a unique aesthetic.  But when I go to AWP in April, it will be a little harder to see that in the midst of that national stage. The thing I’m most proud of is how long we’ve lasted.  Most independent journals only make it a year or two, and we’ve just passed six.  I hope that with help from my assistant editor Bill Bogart and our graphic designer Regina Godfrey we are putting something out that there that only we are capable of, but ultimately I don’t think I can be the judge of that.

Q: What if anything do you see Burnside Review doing to adapt to the growing digitization of the literary world?

A: Nothing really.  We’re a print journal.  If  finances or other factors made it so that we could no longer put out a physical product, Burnside Review would cease to be.  I’m not discrediting digital journals, there are a ton of wonderful ones out there (two in this city, Caffeine Destiny and Born), but that’s not what we are or what we want to be.  We want to be able to be carried around to the point that all our corners are dinged or used as a coaster for a glass a whiskey.

Sid graciously allowed us to republish “Umatilla” a poem from Dot-to-Dot, Oregon: it follows below.  I would like to thank Sid for taking the time out to answer our questions!

Umatilla

In the graveyard one can count
the stones on fingers
and memorize the names.

Quiet here—the Army Depot
too far away to hear
the sound of marching.

Even the Columbia
just a few blocks off, moves
too slowly to be heard.

With so much lawn here,
not a soul is worried.
Pull up a blade of grass

and tightly wrap your finger.
As the heat builds under
the nail, the first live body

walks by—a young man
in work overalls. Impossible
to tell if he’s coming or going,

just happy to be doing
either, a grin
and a half-drank longneck

dangling between two fingers.
Like the others, he’s happy
to mind his own business.