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Allison Cobb is the author of two volumes of poetry, including the recently-published Green-Wood. (You can read an excerpt here.) She’s a native of Los Alamos, NM, and came to Portland by way of Brooklyn, NY. She’ll read for the Spare Room reading series with Jesse Morse this Sunday, Feb 7 at Concordia Coffee House on Alberta Street. We caught up with her to talk about poetry and places, among other things.
Q: You’ve published two books of poetry with small presses (Born Two with Chax Press, and Green-Wood with Factory School.) How hands-on was the experience? How involved were you in the process of publication? And would you recommend the small-press experience for poets who want to publish?
A: Both publishers (Charles Alexander of Chax Press and Bill Marsh of Factory School) are poets, members of my poet community, and people I admire. They publish books because they feel passionate about poetry and making it available to a readership. I feel like it is an extra privilege to be published by a peer, someone who wants to publish your work, usually at a loss to themselves (because small presses don’t make a profit, as we know).
As far as recommending the small press experience, it’s the only publishing venue available for most poetry, and it is only available thanks to some very dedicated poet-publishers. I would recommend that poets buy small press books to keep these presses thriving!
Q: I recently reviewed Peaches & Bats 5, a local poetry journal, for this site. I really enjoyed your poem excerpt titled “From Green-Wood.” Can you say a bit about the longer work this came from? What led you to write about the Green-Wood Cemetery, and what other themes are you drawing from in this work?
A: I moved across the street from Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY, in 2002. It was an accident that I started writing about the cemetery — I just began wandering around in it because it is 500 acres of open space — the largest in Brooklyn. Then I got interested in the history, and one thing led to another and eight years later became a book. I think in the end I discovered that Green-Wood and the history of its development could be used as a kind of “mirror” for the American landscape. Green-Wood became a departure point for examining post-September 11 America. Like, how did we get here?
Q: You write about the natural world, and our (often toxic) relationship to it. Do you think of yourself as an “environmental” writer–and if so, what does that mean to you? Are there other writers concerned with ecological issues whose work you enjoy or admire?
I am drawn to writers who are concerned with the “big issues”–and ecological destruction would fall into that, but I wouldn’t say I’m drawn to “environmental writers” per se. Alice Notley is my favorite contemporary writer. Susan Howe is big for me, too. Alicia Cohen is an amazing local poet whose recent book Debts and Obligations takes on these issues.
I would re-read Alice Notley’s Close to Me & Closer … (The Language of Heaven) and Desamere. I always seem to, anyway.
Thanks, Allison!
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[...] Allison Cobb is the author of Born2 (Chax Press) and the just-published Green-Wood (Factory School), which chronicles her experiences in Brooklyn, New York’s famous nineteenth-century Green-Wood Cemetery. She was born in Los Alamos, New Mexico, as were the first atomic bombs, and she now lives in Portland, Oregon. Check out RLP’s interview with Allison. [...]
1 year ago
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[...] Allison Cobb is the author of the poetry collection Born2 (Chax Press) about growing up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, (birthplace of the atomic bombs) and the just-published Green-Wood, a work of poetic nonfiction (Factory School). She lived for many years in Brooklyn, New York, where she worked for an environmental organization. She now lives in Portland. In Green-Wood, Allison Cobb wanders Brooklyn’s famous nineteenth century Green-Wood Cemetery and discovers that its 500 acres – hills and ponds, trees and graves – mirror the American landscape: a place marked by death but still pulsing with life. Through the lens of Green-Wood, the book explores the history of the American landscape, changing attitudes toward the land, and the impacts of private property, industrial poisons, and war. This is history and poetry, a testament to what survives and an elegy for what is lost–the long dead, the landscape itself, but especially those who died in the twin towers and in the United States’ ongoing wars. Jen Coleman [...]
1 year ago
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[...] Allison, on October 18th, 2010 I did an interview about Green-Wood several months ago with the good folks at Reading Local Portland. Their web site [...]
1 year ago