Amorak Huey: On Stalling Out After Publication
Poet Amorak Huey hit a creative roadblock after publishing his latest poetry collection Dad Jokes From Late in the Patriarchy. He shares his cure (and more!) in this article.
Author:
Amorak Huey’s fourth book of poems is
Dad Jokes from Late in the Patriarchy (Sundress Publications, 2021). Co-author with W. Todd Kaneko of the textbook
Poetry: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018) and the chapbook
Slash / Slash (Diode Editions, 2021), Huey teaches writing at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. His work has appeared in
The Best American Poetry,
American Poetry Review,
Talking with Poet Hannah VanderHart about Her Illuminating Debut Collection, âWhat Pecan Lightâ
It would be wrong to call Hannah VanderHartâs poems masterful, though at times it is tempting to, anyway.
In âWhen Someone Says a Poem Is Masterful,â a poem near the end of her first full-length collection,
What Pecan Light, the speaker asks, âwho wants to master the body of a poem? (no one should).â A beat later, an admission: âI have a master in my family tree / Jack Allums / he will always be there.â
These are poems that meet the white reader on a common ground, sometimes even the literal ground of a chicken coop, as in âWhen We Are Not Talking About Race In The South We Are Talking About Race In The South,â and then swiftly ask what is it to farm and be farmed, to cultivate and to reproduce a system of violence.