Poetry Consultations with Alexandra Lytton Regalado

We need time and distance.

We need to get out of the way.

We need another set of eyes.

We need to trust chiming bells, listen for off-key or flat sounds.

We need to toss extras and strays into the bonepile.

We need to listen to its pulse.

We need to prune and carve.

We need to let it be its own thing.

It’s great when we learn to trust our instincts for editing. To understand that we need to separate ourselves from our creations, to strangify the work so that we can see how it resonates, revise without remorse, go deeper if needed, abandon or amplify ideas, test new strategies. Maybe it’s enough to let that new poem sit for a while and have another look when the dizzy haze of excitement, the thrill of completion have burned away with the morning’s light. Some subjects feel too close to us we feel the urge to stick the whole manuscript in a drawer and look at it years later. Sometimes, what tips off that editing process is honest and clear feedback from a trusted reader.

I cannot read a book without a pencil in my hand. I engage with the text in the margins—asking questions, making exclamations of praise or surprise. After letting that first impression wash over me if the poem is really good I’ll re-read it and try to figure out its dance moves, try to discover the architecture, and see what tricks and tips I can add to my toolkit. Reading good poetry spurs my own creative impulse—I make notes on ideas for my own work, sometimes I magpie-steal a great word or phrasing style. I like to approach the poem cold, then I gather some information about the author, I might read a review, I might look for older work to compare the range and development of style. Poets that I have been reading or re-reading lately and that serve as tuning fork for my own writing are Ada Limón, Natalie Diaz, Tracy K. Smith, Paisley Rekdal, Carolina Ebeid, Tarfia Faizullah, Ilya Kaminsky, Aracelis Girmay, Patrick Rosal, Eduardo C. Corral, Yusef Komunyakaa, Eavan Boland, Robert Hass, Larry Levis, Sylvia Plath, and Ranier Maria Rilke.

I am an editor, translator, and writer and in my own experience it has been useful to switch hats throughout the process of writing a manuscript. I have served as a judge for literary prizes including the Neustadt Prize, the Andrés Montoya Prize, the Poetry International Prize, the Alta California Chapbook Prize, as well as the Juegos Florales, the annual national prize in El Salvador. I’ve been a reader for the National Poetry Series and for the Miami Book Fair fellowships. I currently serve on the advisory board for the Lorca Latinx Prize and am a humanities advisor for the Latino Poetry Initiative of the Library of America. I have an MFA in poetry as well as an MFA in fiction and I love writing that pushes genre categories.

When I consider a manuscript I approach the work openly and try my best to engage with it. I approach from different perspectives—I see the bird’s eye view of the manuscript and also focus on the individual parts of the poems, the verses, the words, and sounds. Big picture concerns: How does the structure work towards strengthening the main themes and ideas? How is the manuscript formulated? Is it an A/B side of a record, is it a series of boxes you go opening up, is it Act 1, Act 2, Act 3? Why does this poem exist? Here, we consider intention/urgency/innovation. What is it saying and how is it saying that in a new/different/unexpected way?

Zooming in then: When I annotate your manuscript I present an x-ray of what is going on my mind as a reader so you can see if the results are in line with your intentions. I ask questions, make comments about what resonates and what is in discord; I consider word choice/image. Sometimes it’s about adding more, considering another layer, going deeper—sometimes we haven’t fully committed to an experiment and we need to underline our intentions, go to the next level—but most of the time it’s about sifting through the noise and cutting out the flab, paring away to the core, discovering the strengths of the poems and building on those, sharpening, clarifying. What I most appreciate is an authentic voice and when editing, my ultimate goal is to respect the writer’s style and intentions. I do offer suggestions and alternatives, but mostly, I ask questions. So, with thanks to BLP, I offer you my eyes and my honest feedback.