Eight questions for Corinne Manning
Corinne Manning has a lot going on right now. The Seattle writer is the founding editor of the James Franco Review, she co-founded the Furnace Reading Series, and has been quite prolific with her own writing by already having a book review and short story published this year.
The Furnace Reading Series is run with Manning and fellow Seattle writer Anca Szilagyi, and is unique in that it features one writer, reading an extended story for an hour. The latest version, featuring Jeanine Walker, takes place on Wednesday, February 18 at Hollow Earth Radio. A chapbook of the story is also published (and available for sale at Elliott Bay Book Company).
The James Franco Review is likely the most talked-about things in the Seattle literary universe. It has been written about locally in the Stranger and beyond in the Los Angeles Times and Entertainment Weekly. It is a journal that rests on the premise that it treats each submission as though it was submitted by the 127 Hours star who also fancies himself a man of letters. As Manning explains in her editor’s note, “The name James Franco is a kind of patron, the society’s new version that has nothing to do with financially supporting artists. Our new kind of patron opens doors. How strange for a person’s name to be so feral that it could open doors to a conversation about the industry’s limitations on literature in addition to the limited opportunities for new writers in the literary world.” The JFR published four poems by Moroccan born poet Yasmin Belkhyr earlier this week.
To learn more about everything she’s working on, I submitted a handful of questions to Corinne Manning via e-mail that she was kind enough to answer.
The Furnace Reading Series is having its next reading on 2/18. Can you talk a little bit about the series, how you curate it, and/or what’s coming up for the next edition?
The Furnace is co run by Anca Szilagyi and myself and our goal is to feature prose and really create an opportunity for the writer to really shine with time and resources to perform their work in innovative ways. In readings that feature multiple writers the short time limit is a real handicap to prose writers — 8 minutes may mean multiple poems to a poet but to a fiction writer that might just be two pages. Anca and I want audiences to consistently get the feeling of experiencing an entire piece and for writers to get the affect of offering something whole. We make chapbooks for each event to honor that experience, so as audience member you can sit and listen but also hold the work of the author in your hand.
For curation we often look out for writers who we don’t see reading very often. Rae Diamond, for instance, is a musician but wasn’t part of the literary scene even though she writes essays. It’s been exciting to give some writers their first shot at featuring an event, and in some cases to invite writers up from Portland or down from Bellingham, like the great Brenda Miller.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/94531246" params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450" iframe=”true” /]
After February we will have a reading in May featuring Lisa Ritscher. We will be opening for submissions for the next season of events (August 2015) with the theme The Furnace Neighborhood — featuring work where setting is a major aspect of the essay or story. We have two writers that we are hoping to feature from outside of Seattle, which will depend on funding. We’re looking forward to seeing what happens!
Why did you choose Jeanine Walker for this next reading? How would you describe her work, “Polarities: A Verbatim Play in One Act”?
Jeanine is on the stage for Cheap Beer/Wine, and as a musician but she’s a really incredible poet and writer. We wanted to offer her a stage where her writing could take over the room, which is definitely the way “Polarities” will seem. A snap of the fingers and we’ll all be sent back to 1993. For that hour we’ll all be teenagers again.
One of the things I love about the James Franco Review is its blind submission process, and the changing editors every two months. I think (hope?) that is an effective means to countering what you talk about with the name James Franco opening so many doors that wouldn’t be there for other (likely more talented) writers. With the first issue due out soon, are there any particular pieces you like that likely wouldn’t have been published elsewhere?
I think that something really special happened in the submission process when editors were asked to read dangerously but choose based on their tastes. What each of the first round of editors confronted was the idea of where their tastes came from. It made for a more conscious reading experience, I think, where editors were really examining why they liked something and what it means for a particular piece to go public. What I think won’t be found in other journals is how varied the issues are already turning out to be, as I see what’s getting accepted for issue 2, and I think that kind of variety of the kinds of poems or kinds of prose that appears is more compelling then whether or not one of the JFR poems would have appeared in another journal, because again we’re confronting the tastes of editors and slush pile readers in all journals. I do think we got to snatch up some brilliant work that other journals might have missed because their readers weren’t reading as conscientiously.
What did you mean when you said you wanted editors to “read dangerously”? (It’s an idea that I really love, by the way, because books are still being censored in 2015 and giving something some people consider taboo or offensive or dangerous my full attention feels like an act of subversion).
That idea comes from Edwidge Danticat’s collection of essays Create Dangerously. When she gives the edict “Create dangerously for those who read dangerously” she’s referring to immigrant writers who may have escaped dangerous situations but are still in many ways writing for the people who haven’t. It also really shifts things as a writer if you consider that people may be literally risking their life to read your work. By calling on editors to read dangerously I’m asking them to make more work available. It’s a call to action but on the other end — find those writers who, for example, might be risking an opportunity to be considered mainstream by writing a certain way. A good example of the result of not reading dangerously and the limitations that puts on literature can be found in Junot Diaz’s article “MFA vs. POC.”
Can you talk about how the James Franco Review has evolved from when it was announced in November to what it is becoming with its first issue?
It’s actual a thing and not a concept! The hype at the beginning was really exciting but that hype kind of proved its point — there hadn’t even been a first issue yet and an online journal was getting written up everywhere. It shows the power of a single name. I’m not certain how many people actually read the About page back when it was going viral and knew that the journal was calling foul on our current relationship with the publishing industry and with literature and the kinds of stories we get to read (or choose to read). I felt like I snuck an idea that might have typically been ignored into the public consciousness. It was painful at times when the message got warped by media outlets covering just because it was popular. But now that I’m actually getting to put work up on the site and make it public it’s very exciting and refreshing again. If going viral is a kind of celebrity then this moment right now, when the actual work is coming out, is centering. Making work public is the central purpose.
With the attention it has gotten (LA Times, Entertainment Weekly, etc…), has the JFR’s existence gotten back to James Franco? Has he acknowledged the JFR or said anything about it?
He posted this photo, which I thought was very nice.
Do you have anything forthcoming of your own writing that we should be on the lookout for? (The last thing, I think I read of yours was the review of Women in Vol. 1. Brooklyn.)
I have a story, “Professor M” in Moss. This is probably one of the stories I feel proudest of right now. It’s also a sexy story.
What was the last great book you read? Any favorite local authors?
Earlier this fall I re-read Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and that really is just one of the most incredible books. What’s accomplished there feels superhuman, and I’m just in awe that we get to have Junot Diaz. I’ve also been getting into Sarah Waters, she is an incredible storyteller. Her books just take your life over for three days. There are so many local authors that I love — I’m a big fan of Anca Szilagyi’s work, of course, and have been really excited by what Michelle Peneloza and Anastacia Tolbert are creating.
