Author Joan Leegant: Novelist of the wandering Jew in search of connection...

Author Joan Leegant: A novelist of the wandering Jew in search of connection...




With Doug Holder



Joan Leegant is the author of WHEREVER YOU GO, published July 2010, and AN HOUR IN PARADISE, for which she won the PEN/New England Book Award, the Wallant Award for Jewish Fiction, and was a Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Formerly an attorney, she taught at Harvard University for eight years. Since 2007, she has lived half the year in Tel Aviv, where she is the visiting writer at Bar-Ilan University and lectures for the U.S. State Department. When not in Israel she lives in Newton, Massachusetts. Her latest book WHEREVER YOU GO portrays three lost souls in the Israel--each in their own way trying to find themselves. I interviewed Leegant on my Somerville Community Access TV Show “Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer.”





Doug Holder : I heard you once shared a pastrami sandwich with Allen Ginsberg, the iconic Beat Generation poet?



Joan Leegant: What I recollect of it—I was a teenager, but I was in awe. This was in the mid 60’s. And he had just completed a performance—he was sort of in his guru stage. He was chanting, etc... So I was sort of surprised when he asked my father Bernie, who was a cousin of his, to get him a pastrami sandwich. This was a serious disconnect for me. I didn’t expect him to be so down-to-earth. He was a very regular guy. He asked how the family was, etc... He was an object of curiosity of course for the family. He hadn’t the huge reputation he would make later on. By-the-way the pastrami was excellent--it was N.Y. pastrami of course!



DH: When did you first go to Israel?



JL: My first trip to Israel was in the 1970’s. I was 27. I stayed for a few years and I was enamored with the country. I really admired its spunk and its community at the time. In the late 70’s I had come out of an anti-war period. Israel had just been involved in two wars in 1967 and 1973, and I was used to the sight of soldiers. I speak the language and have Israeli friends—so I am quite comfortable there.





DH: The three young protagonists in "Wherever You Go" seem like lost souls--they are looking to define themselves. They come to Israel. Is Israel a good place for this?



JL: That basically is the theme of the work. People are seeking to connect to the divine or something larger than themselves. They want to find one little corner of happiness. So people do come to Israel seeking something...and sometimes they find it is available--whether it is religious, political activity, or a sense of belonging.





DH: There are two sisters in the novel Dena and Yona. Dena is a staunch ideologue living in a settlement in the desert. Yona lives in New York (and travels to Israel), is an adulteress, and is trying to reconcile with her estranged sister. Who are you more sympathetic to?





JL: Yona is the character who has a lot more compassion, and she is far more vulnerable. I have more compassion for her.



I do admire but I don't agree with the politics at all of the sister Dena. She is a very principled person. There is a part of me that really admires people who want to live by their principles, and are passionate about that. But this can turn into fundamentalism. And that is the point of the book.





DH: There is a lot of hostility in the book towards American Jews. Do you feel that when you are in Israel?







JL: I don't feel it. But I have observed it. I think there is a level in which they are more cynical. The people portrayed in the book are fundraisers for the right wing settlements. And they are aware that the American Jews who financially support the settlements are not going to live there or send their children there. They are not prepared to make the sacrifice to live there. But they will offer their financial support. The people who are willing to accept the money are cynical and that's who I am portraying. One of them says that the Americans come here and help them out but go back to live in their affluent communities and big houses. I guess some Israelis feel that Jews in the diaspora are not living their destiny in Israel.





DH: You teach writing in Israel at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv. You have also taught writing at Harvard University Extension. How do the students differ--what are the writing about? How do your courses unfold?




JL: I do two things. We do alot of reading and discuss other authors work. Then we have workshops. Students work is discussed.


Like the Extension School my students in Israel are of an older population. I teach in an Master's program in Israel--most of the students are native English speakers who are either in the country for the program or live there. This is a program in the English Department of an Israeli University. They are often from South Africa, the United States, Great Britian, etc... Like Harvard Extension they come from diverse backgrounds.



The subject matter they write about is different. Some of my Israeli students come from the army and write about their army experience. Some people have lived in the country for twenty-five years or more and write about their immigration experience. There is a Jewish women in my class from India, and she writes evocatively about the Jewish community in her native country. So often people write about immigration--the tapestry of the immigrant experience, the Jewish experience, Jewish identity, etc...






For more information about MS. LEEGANT go to http://www.joanleegant.com

Poet Laureate of Portland Maine comes to "laureate-less" Somerville, Mass.

Poet Laureate of Portland Maine comes to "laureate-less" Somerville, Mass.

Interview with Doug Holder


Poet Steve Luttrell is the newly appointed Poet/Laureate of Portland Maine. He is also the founder of the well-respected,and much lauded small press literary journal "The Cafe Review." I was glad to speak to Luttrell so I could ask him how it's been being a Laureate, and pick his brain about his fine literary journal. It is always good to have a poet laureate on my show on Somerville Community Access TV "Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer," especially when there is no official Somerville Laureate selected by the city to interview.


Doug Holder: Steve you started the Cafe Review in 1989. Most small press journals fold after a year or two. What is the secret to your success?

Steve Luttrell: I think the big part is how fortunate I have been to work to work with the people I have. It has not been a solo effort. Over the years there have been a dozen people that have worked with me. They are currently working with me, and they are poets, artists and writers. They are people who volunteer their time. We are a volunteer staff so everybody gets along well. We have our differences of opinions--there is a lot of give and take.

DH: And you have no problem in delegating authority?

ST: Oh- absolutely not. There are obviously different schools of thought. You know--one strong editor having his her own voice. But I think three or four poets, readily exchanging ideas works better. There are poets that I might not have published that people have said: " I really liked seeing that poet."

DH: Can you tell us about the interview you conducted with the poet Robert Creeley 15 years ago or so?


ST: He was at his summer residence on the Maine coast. He told me to meet me at a well-known diner "Moody's." I walked in and he said, "Could I get you a cup of tea or coffee?" I was in the presence of this man I read and admired for years and he was asking me if I'd like a cup of coffee. The point being was that he was a real down to earth--feet on the ground--type of guy. He had a lot of interest in different things. So I conducted the interview in his summer home, and put it on tape. I transcribed the tape and sent it to him. We kept going back and forth. We finally came up with a product we both liked and we published it.

DH: I am told that The Cafe Review was sort of birthed in a cafe.

ST: Well, there is a small cafe in Portland , Maine, where a bunch of us used to read poems in the backroom. This was in the mid 1980s. The owner was happy to see us because we bought stuff. That went on for a number of years. At one point someone suggested that we had a lot of great poetry being read, and said we should save some of the stuff. I started going around after our readings and gathered the poems up and put them in a little stapled 20-25 page chapbook.

In those days we were a monthly. I must of been insane to think that I could keep up with that. In 1992 we switched to a quarterly, which is a much more doable format. We started dealing with more than local poets and brought in visual artists. The Review sort of evolved on its own.

DH: I know Plougshares Magazine got its start at the Plough & Stars bar in Cambridge, Mass., Somerville's own Ibbetson Street Press got its start at a bagel shop, and many others started in coffee shops and such. What is it about these place that strikes the literary imagination and ambition?

ST: They are places people like to meet. I think historically coffee shops and bars are where many poets and writers gathered. In Paris they had salons, and coffee shop gatherings. They were places people came together and discussed ideas. I think it is a relatively old tradition. I don't think it is anything new. I think it is a place where poets feel comfortable getting together in social situations.

DH: You are the newly appointed Poet Laureate of Portland, Maine. I know Robert Pinsky, was a very active poet laureate--bringing poetry to the people so to speak. Do you have the same style?

ST: I don't know much about the man's poetry. I do agree with you that he was a real man of the people. I admire that. I am a huge fan of the new poet laureate W.S. Merwin. We will have to see what he does. I just like his work. I think he done some wonderful translations. But Pinsky was a wonderful laureate. You have to give back to the community that honors you in that way.


DH: What would you say to the City of Somerville to encourage them to appoint a poet laureate?

ST: If you are honored by a city and you return the honor it can only be a good thing. I think Mayor Curatone should consider it. The Poet Laureate positon in Portland, Maine has brought attention to the fact that there are some very creative people in the city and that the city has a rich literary history.

DH: You have been quoted that "you know what you like" when it comes to poetry. Well-- what do you like?

ST: I'm pretty eclectic. For me it is a poem that I can read a certain amount of times and still think I get something out of it. It is like a good home movie. The title of one of my poetry books is " Home Movies." I view poems that way. They are like home movies. They are tracks in the snow. I can see where I have been. I consider it a good poem if it places me back when I wrote the poem, where I was, when I "found" the poem.

DH: Did you study with any memorable poets?

ST: James Lewisohn. He lead a sad life, but he was a wonderful poet. I met him when I was 16. He introduced me to Allen Ginsberg, William Everson, etc... At the time most of my contemporaries were reading Robert Frost, etc... And I was grateful that I began with the Beats because they spoke to me where as poets like Frost---well, you really needed more life experience to really understand. Ginsberg had that great sense of street language. He was very influential for me.

DH: What can we expect in the newly released Cafe Review?

ST: Poets featured include Alice Bolstridge, Larry Dyhrberg, Bill Edmondson, David Filer, Erica Goss, Megan Grumbling, Jeff Hardin (AZ), Jeff Hardin (TN), Leonore Hildebrandt, Preston Hood, Susanna Lang, Lynn Levin, David Moreau, Renée Olander, Henry Rappaport, Marija Sanderlin, Christopher Seid, J.B. Sisson, and James K. Zimmerman-- interesting cover by photographer Fred Field, and much more.

DH: I always joke with Gloria Mindock of Somerville's Cervena Press that we are "holy fools" because we spend a lot of time publishing and make little or no money from it. Why do you do it?

ST: It feeds my spirit. It puts me in a position where I am reading and interacting with a wide variety of poets in a more direct way--much more than I normally would.