Those are the poems that keep me alive. The meaning and purpose of the work. Well, you know, I have the privilege of writers contacting me, and they’ll send me stray poems and short stories, and that’s kind of marvellous because I never know what’s coming in the mailbox.
JGH: So, you said that you wanted to break the heart of the world and then heal it. Do you think that it has to be broken to heal?
DA: You know the truth is, I think, that for a lot of us, it’s already broken. And to a certain extent the only way to do really serious work is to risk that heartbreak, and I don’t know any other way to do it. Not only breaking the heart of the world but you’re also breaking your own heart over and over again.
JGH: Isn’t that true.
DA: Yeah, its just …what you’ve seen and what seems to have gone on for all of us is very, very painful and difficult.
JGH: It’s so difficult to take a step back and realize who you are and what you maybe did wrong in the story too.
DA: We always want to pretend that we’re the noble and good character, but the insight is to be the son of a bitch in the story.
JGH: So, a question from our editorial board members: are there any tropes that you see that absolutely infuriate you in literature?
DA: Just the same ol’, same ol’ . It’s awkward because you know, I like some of the young writers who are doing the same thing over and over again but, and I did this myself, it’s the kind of boastful “I’m more serious than you” attitude. I find that very, very tedious. The need to discredit other people’s work in order to get credit for your own work, I find that really depressing and exhausting.
When Dorothy was younger, she worked with a writer who was brilliant but he could just “strip the skin.” He would say things that would be true, but they would be terrible.
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