What are you reading on the subway or in the waiting room today?
I’ve been reading a lot of novels lately; I’m enjoying how it feels to be encompassed by prose. I’m reading Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje and loving its spare and poetic prose, its strangely muted emotional arc.
What book(s) popped for you in 2015?
I read Ruth Ozeki‘s novel A Tale for the Time Being last year, and it stays with me — its oceanic plot and vivid characters. I also finally read Bhanu Kapil‘s Humanimal one fall afternoon by the lake. So amazing. Neither of these came out in 2015; I am an unsystematic reader.
Whose words do you return to regularly?
While I’ve been picking up novels to delve into lately, I return to my poets, always. On my “go-to” poetry shelf are, among others: Myung Mi Kim, Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Emily Dickinson, Patrick Rosal, Joy Harjo, Kate Greenstreet, H.D., Kazim Ali, Lorine Niedecker, Anne Carson.
Is there an author you can’t wait to read next?
I have been holding on to Claudia Rankine‘s Citizen, waiting for the space and attention I want to give it. I have a feeling that time is coming soon. Also, Octavia’s Brood is on my mind to pick up next.
What are you working on now? What can VIDA fans look forward to from you next?
I am slowly, slowly working on a second manuscript. So far, it’s a combination more queer::eco::poetry plus a kind of specultative eco [prose] poetry.
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TAMIKO BEYER is the author of We Come Elemental (Alice James Books, winner of the Kinereth Gensler Award and a Lambda Literary Award Finalist) and the chapbook bough breaks (Meritage Press). She is a nonprofit communications professional dedicated to the struggle for social and economic justice. She lives in Dorchester in Boston and at tamikobeyer.com.