John Lee Clark, author of How to Communicate
Poetry Category, sponsored by Wellington, Management, Inc.
Each week leading up to the 35th annual Minnesota Book Awards, we are featuring exclusive interviews with our finalists. You can also watch the authors in conversation with their fellow category finalists here.
Would you tell us one or two things about your finalist book that you are particularly proud of, and why?
I don’t know about pride, but what I can tell you about is the awe I feel. Some of the poems came unbidden and didn’t need any help from me. The first and the last sections of my book are comprised of poems like that.
What advice would you give to an aspiring writer with an interest in your category?
First, you probably shouldn’t listen to what I’m going to say. Are you ready? Okay, here’s my advice: Don’t go to school to learn to write. Instead, write and submit what you write. Let the rejections create a tunnel for you to follow. Eat books to survive.
Tell us about a favorite book. Why did you find it moving, influential, or otherwise memorable?
I hesitate to attempt an answer because, for me, it’s not the book itself but the reading experience. Some of my most memorable reading experiences happened when I opened a book that’s obviously not a great one. Recently I read Mary Austin’s 1912 novel “A Woman of Genius,” for example. It has plotholes so big you can swim laps in them. It has bigoted representations. Yet it was a beautiful reading experience. At one point I thought it was going to crash, it was so bad. Somehow it redeemed itself. Whole passages are still carrying me. Favorite book? Certainly not. Do I recommend it? Not really. I cannot give you a reading experience; you have to have it yourself.
Tell us something about yourself that is not widely known.
People often ask me, “So, what do you do other than write? Do you have hobbies?” Am I to gather from such inquiries that it’s not well known that all I want to do is write?
The Minnesota Book Awards is a celebration of writers, readers – and libraries. We’d love if you would share thoughts about the role and value of libraries.
As a Braille reader, I have little use for most libraries. Yet most of my reading comes from libraries—the National Library Service for the Blind, Bookshare, Project Gutenberg. Those are essential resources and are based on the same foundation on which any library is built — the consolidation of readers and books.
John Lee Clark is a DeafBlind poet, essayist, translator, and actor in the Protactile movement. He is a current Bush Leadership Fellow, a core member of the Protactile Language Interpreting National Education Center, and a Disability Futures Fellow. He has won the National Magazine Award and Frederick Bock Prize.