REJECTING REJECTION

An interview with Adrienne Novy by Rebecca Higgins

Adrienne Novy can often be found on her computer with a bumper sticker on the back stating ‘WRITE BLOODY.’ By her sticker and her ‘My Chemical Romance’ t-shirt one thing is clear: Adrienne is a badass. This badassery translates beautifully into her poems. Her poetry can be found in FreezeRay Poetry, Harpoon Review, Vagabond City Lit, Voicemail Poems, Maudlin House, Nailed Magazine and on Button Poetry. Adrienne is a senior at Hamline and everything she does amazes me whether it is a powerful performance of a slam poem, her knowledge of the Marvel universe or stories about her dog, Milo. I was able to sit down and have a conversation with Adrienne. While she said amazing things, I said ‘Yes!’ or a pensive ‘mmm-hmm’ every couple minutes.

RH: You have a great work ethic. Poet Kaveh Akbar came to the Introduction to Literary Publishing course and talked about how you need an internal engine to keep going through the highs and lows of writing.

AN: I have been on social media trying to normalize the rejection process. When I was starting out, I would hear all the time ‘Oh Harry Potter was rejected, now it’s a best selling book.’ But when you are in the process, it feels personal. Poet Julian Randall made a really good point to me. He said, “Write the book you needed when you were younger.” A lot of the poems in my manuscript are about a genetic disorder I have called, Cat Eye Syndrome and being in and out of the hospital a lot as a kid. I only know of one or two people who have the same disorder. So I am thinking to myself-with probably much less swear words than I knew as a child-how would I have felt if I had known there was someone else out there with the same syndrome. That’s where my drive comes from.

RH: I am really interested in how you are normalizing the rejection process. What you would say to writers that feel their work is not valid because people are rejecting it?

AN: It’s very easy to compare yourself to others. I especially do that because I am Facebook friends with writers I really admire. Also I am apart of a group called ‘Submit, Bitches!’ They have lists of places with open submissions but also people can say ‘I got rejected from this place.’ It creates a community for people to back each other and their work. I have also realized there is a home for your work. If your Dream Press™ doesn’t accept you, there is still a home out there for your work. Often times that home is better than that Dream Press™. I submitted different poems to a press and they rejected me. One of the poems they rejected ended up getting picked up by Nailed Magazine. Writers beginning this process should intern with a press because when you see it from the other side, it makes a huge difference. You’ve probably seen it too with your internship at Red Bird Chapbooks.

RH: A lot of the submissions just needed another draft. I hate it because you can’t just write ‘Do another draft’ in the rejection letter. I think it is really disheartening for people because they put all this work into a manuscript but get a standard rejection letter.

AN: It’s also important to recognize that there are people on the other side of those rejection letters. You would want to send feedback but that takes time and energy. The editors are just trying to do their best. We should be really thankful and respectful of them.

RH: You self-published a chapbook of your work for the Teen Writers and Artists Project and are currently working on a manuscript. How have you grown as a writer from all of this?

AN: What has really helped me is the professors at Hamline, specifically John Colburn, Bill Reichart, Katrina Vandenberg and Sun Yung Shin. When I wrote my first chapbook, I just wanted to showcase a wide variety of poems, so people got their money’s worth from making the donation. This manuscript is much more centralized. My writing has gotten a lot weirder. Definitely more lucid. Professors really let me try out different styles. I have also had the opportunity to work with so many writers, not only in the college circuit.

RH: You mentioned that people outside of the college circuit have also helped you grow.

AN: Lewis Mundt, Cristopher Gibson, Thressa Johnson and Sierra DeMulder are people that have had a tremendously positive impact on me-both as writers and people-ever

since I moved to the Twin Cities for school. Poetry and publishing is what really gravitated me to the Twin Cities. If Lewis hadn’t start the Hamline University Poetry Slam organization, I could have missed out on a lot of experiences.

RH: You’ve talked a lot about community: reading other people’s works, supporting other writers and ‘Submit, Bitches!’ How has having a stronger literary community helped you?

AN: You really grow a lot as a person from being able to have that community. When you have readers, you see it through their eyes. They do not know the ins and outs of every metaphor or what every symbol means. My friend Tiqua literally said “I don’t think this piece makes sense in here because the theme is of the body.” It made so much sense. While I want my manuscript to have poems about Marvel comic characters, it didn’t fit. I never would have been able to grow if I couldn’t communicate with other people.

RH: What has performance poetry and slam poetry been for you?

AN: It has been both a good and a bad thing for me. It’s been good in the way that I have a really strong competitive streak. I did speech team for three years in high school and poetry reading was my main event, I feel that’s where that competitive streak comes from. I love being at slams, supporting people and listening to other perspectives. A super real thing I don’t like about slam is celebrity culture. I think the thing with celebrity culture and people having really popular work is associating who the person is with their writing. You kind of get star struck. I still get star struck all of the time. Kaveh Akbar for example.

RH: In our class, he was saying that some famous poets forget what got them to there and end up burning out.

AN: Also with celebrity culture, I do not like the pressure it puts on creative people. It is like, ‘Oh I got really successful for this one thing. What if I try to experiment and people don’t like me anymore?’ It can sometime pigeonhole writers with certain styles. It can definitely burn writers out.

RH: How has coaching slam poetry affect how you view the process?

AN: The youth are out there changing the game and making it better in ways we can’t even possibly imagine. We should listen. These kids have a lot of important things to say.

RH: Do you have a favorite poem or poetry collection right now?

AN: Oh god! I am currently reading ‘The Crown Ain’t Worth Much’ by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib. That is amazing. A poem that has really influenced me is ‘Unburningable the Cold is Ruining Our Lives,’ by Kaveh Akbar. I love George Abraham. I have their chapbook right here, ‘al youm: Yesterday & Her Inherited Traumas.’ They have been so helpful to me. Julian Randall is also another poet that comes to mind. Jess Rizkallah has been so helpful and a gracious, beautiful friend to me. I love Melissa Lozada-Oliva. She talks about heavy stuff but her sense of humor is incredible. A poem I really love is ‘Yosra strings off my mustache.’ Another poet that blew my mind is Bill Moran ‘Oh God, Get Out, Get Out.’ It was one of those book I got so much out of and inspired me to write my own stuff. There are so many more...

Photo Courtesy of Barbara Novy

Emily Butts

Emily is the Assistant Area Coordinator for Manor and Sorin.

In addition to her Residential Life responsibilities, Emily is the president of Hamline’s A Cappella Choir and a University Honors student.