Poet Tzynya Pinchback

POET TZYNYA PINCHBACK

Let’s start getting your shine on. Who are you?

Tzynya/mother to serendipitous girl child/poem and prose-maker using narrative as shaman, lyric as landscape/is vessel ‘out to sea’, weathered, with one foot on dry land/at home in Georgia, at home nowhere/is love song, bawdy limerick, and swamp boogie fiddle repurposed as syllable and form.

When did you realize you had a passion for writing?

When I was very young, like 5 or 6, I used to sit with my Dad as he composed music or wrote songs - that is probably when I fell in love with rhyme. I wrote silly stories, and horrid, sappy love letters in the diaries I kept as a teenager. But it was college that I started to realize a passion for writing. After changing my major from Marketing to Journalism, I turned down an intern with a major hospitality company to work in the campus library. I spent an entire semester re-cataloguing various interpretations Julius Caesar, and went to my advisor and changed my major to Literature.

All writers adore words. Describe your love affair with writing.

I am writing’s forlorn mistress. Writing has had its way with me. We fight often over my (mis)use of language, broken metaphor, lackluster observance of grammar rules, etc. I’ve left writing and it has left me. I’ve dismissed lovers, abandoned country and home, ignored children, gone days without properly bathing -high on caffeine and squares of caramel - all for the promise of writing. Some days I lie in bed, dressed pretty, waiting for writing to maybe come around and take me out for a meal.

Name two poets with whom you share similar writing styles.

Out of respect to the poets I enjoy, and the Because of the relationship I have with my writing, I don’t feel my style is tight enough in its own skin that I can make a real comparison with other poets yet. That is to say I am still defining my voice, and cannot be trusted to stick to any form or method for too long. There are plenty of poets whose works I relate to, and whose works seem to echo long after I have put them down. I can’t imagine narrowing the list to two. Poets you will find in the small basket next to my bed: Sandra Cisneros, Chris Abani, Anne Sexton, Jayne Cortez, Lucille Clifton, Ntozake Shange, Lord Byron.

What makes them similar?

The singular thread, if one has to exist, weaving together the poets I am reading currently (and read most often) is imagery and voice. Whether I am reading traditional forms (Haiku, Sonnet, Ghazal) or reading free verse, prose poem (which happens to be my favorite), performance poetry, I am always drawn to poets who write from the vein, unbridled, and who paint a landscape within a few syllables. And I also like a damn good love poem.

Name and thank one poet, dead or alive, that has been instrumental in inspiring you to write.

Pablo Neruda. Nuff said.

Now let’s get to the nitty gritty. What does your audience look like?

Like me, they probably have strange hair and can be found sitting cross-legged on the floor of a bookstore between the Graphic Novels, Self-Help, and Erotica sections. They sew quilts for Grandchildren; are high school sophomores standing on the front porch, holding hands, lingering in Good-bye. They run the PTA and boast a hot Tupperware collection. They spew conspiracy theories and understand the virtues of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes at 3 A.M. They still believe in the power of the boycott. They voted Republican in the last election. They collect ceramic teapots and lace handkerchiefs; tailgate before the game, and drink raspberry ale or Corona for breakfast. They are overachievers. They are on line, right now, at the Unemployment Office, hoping to make it to the Check Cashier before closing time.

New authors usually lack the business knowledge of writing. What has been the most valuable lesson you’ve learned about things beyond the page?

The best piece of advice I have is something that was shared with me. Ask yourself if you want to sell a million books, or if you want a million people to read your work. Once you determine your objective, it will guide how you tend to the business of writing. Oh, and do research, lots of research.

Give me one to four lines that will make us go 'hmmm.'

Tears do not know words/are laid hot on skin, do not dry in sun/take center stage without orchestra or script, carry own spotlight and finger cymbal in side pocket/are conjure woman without tooth or shoe, head thrown back caterwauling, “Pa!”

What advice would you give an aspiring poet regarding publishing?

Publishing is a hard knock life (and that is a bad cliché). Get accustomed to rejection slips; collect them in, if you will, a pretty box next to your computer, and on rainy days fold the little papers into origami cranes. If you are particularly whimsical, you might string them over the hearth in winter, or fashion them into a belt. Fellowship with other poets and artists who you can share work with, attend workshops, and submit to anthologies. From that will grow opportunities to publish. You should be mindful to research publications for style, audience, and theme prior to wasting the cost of postage to submitting. And try to avoid those messy submission fees - a poet has to save their pennies.

You have actually been previously published quite a few years ago. How would you say publishing now differs from publishing then?

Yes, I published a chapbook of 6 poems under the title EveSongs in 1996, under the advisement of Dr. Okunor and the University of New Mexico African Studies department. I had a great support system, and the University really helped to promote and encourage exposure. But back in 1996, I printed, distributed, scheduled signings, hustled for book reviews myself. Now, PODs are very popular and provide a quick turnaround. I think it’s a great opportunity to see your name in print, but also it’s a great opportunity to have your work delivered as a sub-standard product. So it’s imperative to do the research and choose what works best for you: self-publishing or traditional publication. Concerning my manuscript, Sinner Woman Gospel Song, I am in the process of submitting to a few small presses, but I am not counting out the self publishing option, especially because the collection is small – 10 poems. I just want to deliver something of quality, something artful.

Show me some skills. In fifty words or less, what is poetry to you?

To paraphrase Kierkagaard: “A poet….a being whose heart is torn by secret sufferings, but whose lips are so strangely formed that when the sighs and the cries escape them, they sound like beautiful music... and then people crowd about the poet and say to him: "Sing for us soon again;" that is as much as to say. "May new sufferings torment your soul."”

Tzynya L. Pinchback

a Writer

http://tzynyawrites.blogspot.com/