Spotlight On…

Today, Ethel Rohan invites the one and only Molly Gaudry to take the stage.

Writing wise, where are you now? Where are you going?

At the beginning stages of three book-length poem manuscripts. Toward their first-draft finish lines: September 1 (Elena), January 1 (Rosalia), July 1 (Flora the Whore).

What informs your creative process? How do you keep inspired?

I work with words, the already existing work/words of writers I admire: particularly, I’ve borrowed power words from Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons (for We Take Me Apart) and now I’m borrowing power words from Jeanette Winterson’s “The Poetics of Sex” (Flora the Whore) and her Lighthousekeeping (Rosalia). For Elena, I’m working with hundreds of writers’ poems and flashes. Re: inspiration — a blank page stalls everything, so I borrow.

In addition to writing, you wear many hats. Do you worry about spreading yourself too thin and diluting the quality of your writing, editing, and living?

I do not worry about spreading myself too thin or about that having any influence on the quality of my writing, editing, or living. The writing writes itself very nearly. The editing offers a nice break. I don’t much care for or about the living. It’s something I tolerate, accept. Part of that tolerance means finding the best way(s) to spend my time. So I like to write, edit. I like to be spread, thin.

How has the Internet impacted your reading and writing? What is the future of print publication?

I praise the Internet gods. Like Matt said in his answer, I wouldn’t be where I am today if not for the Internet. As for the future of print publication, I can only hope for more books that take risks. Like NOX, like Daddy’s.

Tell us something that most people don’t know about you?

I self-sabotage in every single area of my life except career. Focusing on my career is as close as I come to experiencing God, I think. And I don’t even know what I want to do with my life. Teaching’s Plan A. But I’d take an editorial position in a heartbeat. I want to wear $9,000 suits. I want to collect cars. I’m considering publicity, becoming a publicist. Or a manager for artists too private to schmooze but still looking for shows.

If you didn’t write, what would your life look like?

Models everywhere. I’d make dresses.

Please tell us your favorite, and why:

a. Musical

Starlight Express. Saw this in London with my mother on my 13th birthday. Plus, you know, people in spandex on roller skates pretending to be trains in a little boy’s brain. Roller derby on drugs, essentially, except the track was above and around the audience members’ heads and opened up onto the stage.

b. Fable/Fairy Tale

Beauty and the Beast. I am Beast.

c. Movie

Anything Pixar.

d. Painting

Matt Pinney’s new work. Incredible stuff. Specifically, his Neo Rauch-inspired collection. The man in the white suit painting is my favorite.

e. Place

Alone on an ocean shore at night, watching the waves come in. Not a bad place to die. It would totally suck to die in a coffee shop, or on the toilet, or pumping gas, or at a dinner party. Though I might ruin the ocean forever for the person who finds me. Sorry, person.

Please do a five minute free-write with the word “plastic” and share.

Plastic. Placid. Acid. Fantastic. Ass kick. Tantric. Tic. Tock. Cock. Kick. Sick. Stick. Stuck. Stock. Sock. Suck. Lick. Luck. Lock. Flock. Flick. Fuck. Cock. Dick. Pick. Pickle. (Lardee and) Ickle. Mickelson. Phil. Nicholson. Jack. Nicklaus. Nick Claus. Santa. Saint. Nick. Prick.

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Molly Gaudry is the author of We Take Me Apart (Mud Luscious, 2009) and the editor of Tell: An Anthology of Expository Narrative (Flatmancrooked, 2010). She is Googleable.