Curtis Smith Interviews Linda Romanowski

Curtis Smith: Congratulations on Final Touchstones—and on the nice press and Eric Hoffer nod it’s received. I’m always interested in a first book’s journey. Can you tell us how you ended up with Sunbury? 

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Linda Romanowski: First, Curtis, thank you so much for your patience and for your kind words. It was a two-fold journey with Final Touchstones and its destination toward Sunbury Press. At the time, I was deep into my thesis writing for my MFA in Creative Writing, Non-Fiction, at Rosemont College. Rosemont sponsored an annual event known as Push to Publish, where local writers could meet with prospective agents/publishers. We jokingly called it a speed-dating service for writers. In 2020, when COVID struck, previous in-person interviews were shifted to zoom meetings. I chose to meet with Lawrence Knorr, CEO, of Sunbury Press, as his author search was the most appropriate “match” for me. I submitted samples from FT. Lawrence asked when the book would be ready. His comment shocked me so much, I blurted out my submissions to him were part of my thesis which was my priority. (I thought I had cut my throat for sure after that confession!) He smiled, said that it was fine, and to submit my document to Sunbury Press once I handed in my completed thesis. In 2023, Final Touchstones was published by Brown Posey Press, an imprint of Sunbury. 

CS: Final Touchstones is a transgenerational family memoir. Some of the chapters are your stories—and others were shared with you over the years. What challenges did you encountertaking these told stories and translating them to print? I’m guessing you felt a keen sense of duty to make these stories feel just alive to your readers as they are to you. 

LR: Curtis, this compilation was done over a 40 year period, with no thought of any organized presentation. I had sketched out the memories. I exchanged ethnic memory emails with a friend of mine, who told me at one point I was wasting my time sharing these memories with him. What I thought was an insult, was the message, the push to organize these stories. When I joined the Rosemont College MFA Program, these writings found their way into class assignments. So, once I realized the opportunity knocked to corral these fleeting moments, the challenge was immediate. A mind and heart balancing act. In time, all the techniques and knowledge learned from my graduate classes cleared the path, and the initial chaos subsided. In essence, it became the book I did not know I was writing.

CS: The book includes both poetry and prose. In terms of style and structure, that’s a risk—but it pays off. Can you discuss that decision? What does this bring to the book? 

LR: I followed the layout of Dudley Randall’s book, Roses and Revolutions, recommended by one of my MFA professors. Randall did an excellent job balancing these genres which provided an exceptional reading experience for me. A scaffold came to mind, that the structure’s foundation be prose, with interjections of poetry, and to do so in a selective way. My thesis instructor thought it was a great idea. I was adamant that any poem which followed a story remain where I placed it. Her poetry classes evoked a latent passion deeply hidden in me. After hearing a story from my centenarian cousin regarding an event I knew nothing about, I was infuriated. The prose wasn’t enough. I paired a poem with it. My advisor loved it: Don’t change a word of this! People tell me I do my best writing when I’m angry! That aside, I learned the value both genres bring to the writing and reading experience. It was a risk worth taking, and, at this point, there was no book in the works.

CS: When did you begin collecting these stories? Sometimes writing about family can be tricky. Did you set any parameters for yourself as far as what stories you might not share—or was everything on the table?

LR: As I mentioned before, my notes were in bits and pieces, then evolved into emails. My first “formal” encounter began with my maternal grandfather in 1977. Priceless, wonderful moments. One of the last things he said to me before he died was that I was the only one who asked questions. As years passed, my mother’s first cousin and I began talking weekly by phone. Cousin Mary was a wonderful resource. I also read several Italian heritage books, which regenerated many memories and experiences. 

Yes, families are slippery slopes. I’ll paraphrase a quote that the worst thing that can happen

to a family is to have a writer born into it! I did set parameters. The question was, how much did it really matter to share certain situations, was it worth alienating my loved ones, and could I be

wrong and unnecessarily hurtful? Ours is a family where there is no lack of opinion. So far, there

has been no backlash.

CS: The book chronicles the story of an Italian family, but it also tells the greater story of the Italian-American experience. What kind of reception have you received from the community? 

LR: Curtis, it’s amazing. Every reader who has spoken with me not only loved what I wrote, but

told me a story of their own. With no exception. Mission accomplished! My response is the same: Thank you so much for sharing. Write your memories down, and if there is someone in your family who knows something about your family, talk to them. My Cousin Mary’s death was devastating, because she was the last living link to the past and the present.

CS: The city of Philadelphia looms large here—it’s almost like another character. How important was capturing place in this book? What aspects of this background made the pieces richer?

LR: Curtis, thank you for your complimentary words regarding how I posed Philadelphia. Another aim achieved, though not my initial intent. I am a novice writer, yet, above all things, I am a very proud Italian from South Philadelphia. I knew enough that every immigrant who left their homeland had no choice but to love their new environment. I see it as survival, now that I turn your question over in my mind. Any neighborhood, regardless of ethnic background or race, needs an emotional anchor. How do we do this? By living, by taking what’s inside us, by assimilating what’s before us, then, sharing and moving forward. There’s a saying that in South Philadelphia, everyone lives in parishes and street corners. Why? Because that’s the common ground, the human baseline. To ignore this is a disservice to who we are. 

CS: Was memoir/nonfiction always your thing? Or did you start as a fiction person—and if so, did having that fiction writer’s toolbox help in the process?

LR: I’ve been scribbling/writing since I was a child. There is no memory when it all started. I can say that my parents reading to me/learning to read, watching movies and cartoons were/are ceaseless sources of inspiration. So, it appears fiction/fairy tales came first. Undoubtably, writing book reports played a role. Honestly, the longer I live, the more I believe that the Truth/Non-Fiction is far more interesting and more unbelievable than fiction. Speaking of toolboxes, I do have one for non-fiction, originated by an MFA professor, and from that, I’ve developed one for poetry. 

CS: How has the promotion gone? After the solitary hours of writing and editing, sometimes going out in public to promote can be strange. Have you enjoyed it? 

LR: The initial promotion was unbelievable. My book launch was a great success, the most heavily attended in Rosemont College history to date. As you know, promotion is an ongoing process. It can be daunting; I was as prepared as I could be. Now that my website is up and running, we’ll see where it takes me. It has been very enjoyable, I’ve met so many terrific people, Sunbury Press continues to be great advocate of/for its authors. And none of this would have been possible without the support and the talent of Carla Spataro, the Director of the Rosemont MFA Writing and Publishing Program! Carla, my classmates, the Rosemont Writing Community, Sunbury Press, my wonderful husband Ken and family made me who I am today.

CS: Now that the first book is done, what lessons have you learned that you’ll use when you start the next one?

LR: In so many ways, the writing is the easy part!!! I’ve learned everyone has something to offer. The Greater Philadelphia area provides endless opportunities for promotion, for participation in local events, and for sharing my resources. Social media cannot be overlooked. I plan to set up a Facebook author page. My website, LindaMRomanowski.com, is now in place and LinkedIn will play a role as well. In the end, it is all about connections. 

CS: What’s next?

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LR: Great question, Curtis! I am a continual contributor to Moonstone Arts; my poetry submissions have been accepted there. I submitted a poetry chapbook to them for a contest. Likewise, I contribute to Vine Leaves Press, their 50 Give or Take, a daily posting from contributors. I am a curator for TheCityKey zine. I also do speaking engagements and have one coming up in May 2025. There is a podcast pending with a television station in Central PA. 

A second book presents a diversion whether to pursue a continuation of Final Touchstones or taking a different path, since I am a Nonna to a three-year-old grandson. In either case, I need to renew my rabbit hole trips in my respective writing genres. 

Thank you, Curtis!!!

Curtis Smith’s most recent novels are The Magpie’s Return (named one of Kirkus’s Best Indies of 2020) and The Lost and the Blind (finalist for Foreword Review’s Finalist for Best Indie Adult Fiction 2023). His next novel, Deaf Heaven, will be released in May 2025. 

Curtis Smith Interviews Courtney Bambrick

Courtney Bambrick teaches writing at Thomas Jefferson University’s East Falls campus in Philadelphia. She was poetry editor at Philadelphia Stories until 2024.  Her poems appear or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Mom Egg Review, Landlocked, Clockhouse, Pinhole, Thimble, SWWIM Everyday, New York Quarterly, Invisible City, and more. Her poem “Flesh & Fat & the Universe” was on Healing Verse: Philly Poetry Line. Her chapbook Rape Baby, a runner up in the 2013 Pavement Saw competition, was published as “Caring for Your Rape” at The Fanzine. Her chapbook Gargoyle  was a semifinalist in Iron Horse Literary Review’s competition. Her chapbook World Without is now available from Bottlecap Press. https://bottlecap.press/products/without

Curtis Smith: Congrats on World Without. It was a really cool read. How did you hook up with Bottlecap Press for this project?

Courtney Bambrick: I generally use Chill Subs and CLMP’s Calls for Submissions page as my starting place when I am thinking about submissions. I had heard of Bottlecap Press because a poet I met where I teach, Margaret Stearns, had published there. I reached out to a few other poets who had worked with Bottlecap and who reported positive experiences.  I was initially apprehensive because Craig Mullins at Bottlecap has the ambitious goal of publishing a chapbook per week, but I liked the look of the books in the online store and decided to proceed with him. I think that the fact that this chapbook had been on the shelf for almost ten years helped me feel less precious about it than I might have. I was able to let it go without worrying or fussing too much. Since this is my first chapbook, I could imagine myself twisting up in knots over decisions, but because Craig works so fast, I had to trust my gut. And so far, I have been pleased!

CS: The chapbook is such an interesting form. It invites us to read a collection in a single sitting, especially a collection like World Without, where all the pieces are connected in one form or another (more on this later). First, have you been a fan of chaps for a while? If so, what do you like best about them? And second, was this the idea from the start? Or did you write one World Without poem, then another, and then think you had something chap-worthy?

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CB: I love chapbooks for all sorts of reasons–mainly what you mention: the invitation to connect the pieces and to read it in a sitting. In a collection like World Without, the pieces fit almost like sections of a single poem. The short form limits my chance of overusing a conceit — I hope I am not wearing out the reader’s welcome! Another of my chapbooks discusses the aftermath of a break-in and rape I experienced in 2002, so the form allows me to experiment with different expressions of trauma, knowing that the reader will not have to sit with that pain for very long. It also anthropomorphizes the rape, which is a weird, uncomfortable thing to do — and something I did not want to do for more than twenty or so pages! Meanwhile, my collection Gargoyle hangs together in a very loose theme related to architecture and archaeology as metaphors for relationships — but I have reorganized and retitled and reframed it a bunch over the years!

CS: Each piece here begins with inviting the reader to imagine a world without a certain object (water, doors, mirrors, paper, children). I’m curious how you came up with this list—and was there anything about the objects that unified them aesthetically or thematically?

CB: The only thing unifying the various topics of the poems was my own small-ish obsessions. The first one arose when sharing a hotel room with a friend and trying to get out the door at the same time for an event and thinking: if mirrors didn’t exist, no one would judge me too harshly for my asymmetrical eyeliner. And that idea, the world without mirrors, rolled around in my head until it was a poem. I don’t remember the next one, but it was over several months or years that the one poem led me to consider other such worlds.

CS: There are so many great elements here—humor, reflection, transcendence. Given the interconnectedness of the pieces, the chap also achieves a unique tone. Can you address the collection’s overall tone and how it helped shape the collection?

CB: I am not sure if I am the right one to answer this question, but because my own entries into these ideas and poems were so varied, the overall sense of the collection as a collection feels inconsistent. The repetition in the first line counters that to a degree, but once I began thinking about these absences, I couldn’t stop. Personally, I try not to sit with unadulterated sadness for longer than I need to, so some of the sorrow in the collection has to be surrounded by humor. When I first started writing these, I was coming to terms with the decision not to bear children, an estrangement with one of my siblings, a move out of a beloved neighborhood. The intervening decade has included my partner’s kidney transplant, a restored relationship with my sister, a global pandemic, a new job — you know this world! We are always negotiating loss’s role within our lives. Hopefully, it is not our only experience — but it feels weird to make dinner after learning about a loved one’s cancer diagnosis or a mass shooting. We make space for grief alongside petty irritations, laughter, desire, and anything else. It is not always comfortable, but it is inevitable.

CS: Can you talk about your process? Are you an every-day writer? What’s your go-to access point to get a poem rolling?

CB: Writing every day is something I aspire to! I will write every day for a week or two if I give myself a very specific task or to-do list. Otherwise, I try to write a few days per week. I like to have a notebook handy for breaks in my day [I am currently using a combination of Kokuyo Campus notebooks, the Dollar Store Jot brand composition books, and the Decomposition books]. I will write in a flurry; it often feels self-indulgent. I am working on allowing myself space without feeling guilty. Then, days, weeks, months–sometimes years–later, I will type up what I had written. Sometimes I compose on the computer. Each interface demands a different energy or pace — and that affects the resulting writing. Some weeks, I write whenever I give my students a 10-minute reflective writing task. That has led to some interesting results. I feel like the mood of a space, light, time of day, how pinched my feet are in my shoes, etc. all affect what I write and how I write. I love the Mary Oliver analogy about making a date with writing — you might get stood up or you might find a spark — But you cannot know until you arrive at the scheduled time and place with or without your red carnation.

CS: You’re also very involved in the literary community. Can you address this—what it means and what it brings to you and your work? What’s the state of the current lit scene in Philly?

CB: I am less involved than I used to be! I appreciate the duality of writers: on one hand, we are solitary, observant, removed; but on the other hand, we are ego-driven and attention-seeking! I know I am not the only one!

In my own writing life, I have embraced the support I received from others. As a younger, newer poet, I learned about different series and different organizations from attending open mics! It was through open mics that I met Eileen D’Angelo of Mad Poets, Rosemary Capello of Philadelphia Poets, Peter Krok of Schuylkill Valley Journal, and others. These are among the earliest journals I sent work out to. I was made to feel welcome in these spaces. I took several classes with Donna Wolf-Palacio at the University of the Arts’ continuing education program. She became an important mentor and conduit to a number of other writers who remain very special to me!

A lot of the writing I worked on during my  MFA at Rosemont College was related to the 2002 break-in I mentioned before. It was the focus of my thesis collection. Writing and sharing some of those poems in that period of time was initially difficult, but rewarding. Not only was I embraced by the poetry community, but by fellow survivors. I learned that vulnerability is a given: we are all vulnerable to violence, disease, loneliness, whatever. Through open mics and the opportunities they have given me to connect, I have learned to lean into and rely on the friends and strangers present in each room. 

Friends note that I am a noisy audience member which might be distracting to the person sitting in front of me, but I want the poet to hear me say “mmmm” when their writing moves me! I want them to know that they are being heard and appreciated.  If they make me laugh, I don’t want to hide that from them!

I have struggled, I think, to find a balance between the work I used to do organizing series and events and my own work. This Summer/Fall 2024 issue of Philadelphia Stories will be my last as poetry editor after fifteen years of involvement. I have loved helping other writers find spaces for their work — whether with us or in other outlets. I am grateful for the trust poets gave me as an editor. And I learned a lot about persistence and not taking rejection personally. A few people have said that most writers should spend time on editorial boards and I think it is useful advice.

In terms of the state of poetry in the Philadelphia area, I am always overwhelmed! There seem to be worthwhile events happening all the time. There are several “scenes” or “communities” but there is a lot of overlap and intermingling which is great. I went to two poetry events on a recent Saturday: a memorial for Mad Poets mainstay Dan Maguire coordinated by David Kozinski and Eileen D’Angelo at the Manayunk Roxborough Art Center and the launch of the Wild Indigo reading series coordinated by Raina Leon and Sarah Browning and featuring Gabriel Ramirez and Denice Frohman at Young American Cider in Germantown. When I got home, I realized that I had missed another couple of events that I had wanted to attend! I like that we have locally-focused communities of poets as well as those with a broader reputation. I like that there are so many opportunities in academic and non-academic settings to find mentors and community. 

I certainly worry about the broad disinvestment in arts organizations and education and how that might ripple out into the poetry community. Philadelphia’s arts and culture are a major draw for a lot of people, but the artists, teachers, and workers in the cultural sphere are being squeezed out of a lot of neighborhoods and jobs. And with events like the closure of the University of the Arts, and the general defunding of arts and humanities education and programming, the very arts and culture that Visit Philly, etc. promote are in serious jeopardy.

CS: What’s next?

CB: I will continue working on my full length collection and continue sending work out to be read and judged by strangers. Eventually, I hope, those strangers become editors or even friends! When someone asked me why I sent work out for consideration, facing rejection each time, I thought again about community: the larger and broader my community, the more opportunities I have to meet more people who want to talk about poetry! People who maybe want to hear my poetry! People who might invite me to read to them!

I hate the verb “networking” but I love building networks! Nets and webs to catch and connect one another. Trampoline-work. Basket-work. Fabric-work. “Networking” sounds gross and corporate, but we need to work on our nets every now and then.

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Curtis Smith Interviews Jane A. McNeil and Jon Wilson

Jane A. McNeil spent her childhood in St. Petersburg, Florida. After graduating from college, she moved to Philadelphia, PA. She and her husband of 28 years have two grown children and three dogs. She owned and operated a monogramming business, served on several boards, earned an MFA in Creative Writing, wrote and produced “Dishmans Springs” at Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley, PA, and mastered the sport of rowing at the age of 50. This is her first publication.

Jon Wilson was born in Scottsbluff, Nebraska and moved to St. Petersburg with his family in 1956. He worked for thirty-seven years as a reporter and editor for the St. Petersburg Evening Independent and the St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times.). After retiring from newspapers, he worked as Florida Humanities communications consultant for eleven years. Wilson holds master’s degrees in journalism studies and in liberal arts from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. He is the author or co-author of four books about St. Petersburg, and in 2021 received a Key to the City from Mayor Rick Kriseman for inclusive chronicling of St . Petersburg history.

Links to Jon’s work:

Days of Fear (co-author Jane A. McNeil) https://www.amazon.com/Days-Fear-Lynching-St-Petersburg/dp/1940300738/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3GPIU67OK3YCT&keywords=jon+wilson+days+of+fear+paperback&qid=1691942104&s=digital-text&sprefix=jon+wilson+days+of+fear+paperback%2Cdigital-text%2C143&sr=1-2

The Golden Era in St. Petersburg: Postwar Prosperity in the Sunshine City https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Era-St-Petersburg-Prosperity-ebook/dp/B00XRFTO48?ref_=ast_author_dp

St. Petersburg’s Historic African American Neighborhoods (co-author Rosalie Peck) https://www.amazon.com/Petersburgs-Historic-African-American-Neighborhoods/dp/1540229157?ref_=ast_author_dp

St. Petersburg’s Historic 22nd Street South (co-author Rosalie Peck) https://www.amazon.com/Petersburgs-Historic-22nd-Street-South/dp/1596290838

Curtis Smith: Congratulations on Days of Fear: A Lynching in St. Petersburg. This was a horrible event. When did you become aware of it? Would it have been the type of thing one heard whispered about if they grew up in Florida?

Jon Wilson: I first became aware of it as a high school student reading a local history book. It contained just a brief mention of the event. I did not think of it seriously until many years later when I was taking a college course on race relations. My professor recommended I write a paper about the lynching. The paper turned into an article for the Tampa Bay History journal. Some 40 years later, Jane McNeil and I decided to collaborate on a book.

There were a number of lynchings throughout Florida and I doubt if this one gained particular attention statewide. However, St. Petersburg’s Black community certainly was aware of it, although the episode was not widely discussed. I would guess that fewer white people knew about it unless they were local history buffs. St. Petersburg experienced several growth spurts during the decades after 1914. New white people from the Northeast and Midwest moved in. Old-timers with local memories died away. The lynching became an obscure event to the extent that a high-ranking newspaper editor dismissed it as unfounded rumor.     

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Jane McNeil: Fifteen years ago, I rediscovered my mother’s play. When she died in 1981, I was almost 14 and aware of her writing but not of the contents of the play. Out of all my friends, she was the only mother I knew who had a home office. Finally, after I read a copy of her script in 2008, I learned for the first time about Edward and Mary Sherman, John Evans, and Ebenezer Tobin. These individuals and the lynching were never discussed in my classes in school. My parents did not discuss the subject of her play in front of me or my sister. In the 1970s, our neighborhood in St. Petersburg, Florida, consisted mainly of residents over 65. Religion was a part of everyone’s lives. Our town was considered the retirement capital of the United States. Murders, violence, and racial crimes existed elsewhere. We were a vacation destination, not a historical lynching site.

CS: Can you talk about the research this required? What sources did you use and how did you access them? Did anything in the search process surprise you?

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JW: When I did the original paper, the research took weeks. It required combing the microfilm of at least four local newspapers and another in Camden, NJ. This was in the early 1980s, so a few old-timers remained who had memories of 1914 and were somewhat willing to talk about them. It was clear that the episode stood out in their minds, and apparently one interviewee was warned not to talk to me.

Jane McNeil conducted amazing research, using both archival and human resources. She built excellent profiles of the Shermans – the victims of the assault and murder that led to the lynching. She reconstructed their careers and detailed their years of travel around the country before they landed in St. Petersburg.

What surprised me was learning that the lynching was planned in secret by a committee of wealthy men. I had more or less assumed that an angry, racist mob acted on its own emotion-fueled volition, driven to extreme violence by the idea that a Black man had assaulted a white woman.    

JM: My first inquiry began at the Pinellas County Courthouse in Clearwater, the county seat. I started in the archives and found the property deeds of the Shermans and the few friends who purchased the lots from them shortly before his murder. Since the county records did not date back to 1914 and no one in the courthouse seem to be able to tell me where they were located, I went online to dig further. Fortunately, the websites, Ancestry.com and Newspaper.com, were where I found a significant amount on the couple. On Ancestry.com, I gained access to federal censuses, city directories, and marriage records. From there, I found a wealth of information simply from tracking the couple’s movements from the directories. Edward was a traveling salesman who appeared in several different newspapers over three decades. Mary, on the other hand, was harder to find information on. Women were rarely mentioned in the paper unless they were prominent, notorious, or slain. By luck, Mary’s older sister married into a large family from the Pine Barrens. It was this relative that I had a hunch where to locate Mary’s photo album. This was the day I could barely breath when I emailed Jon with the incredible news. We not only had her entire album, we had her actual handwriting. Other sites, Familysearch.org, Myheritage.com and GeneologyBank.com were a big help as well. From a newspaper account, I discovered at the National Archives a file on Edward Sherman dating back to 1938. Inside the file, I found 11 documents, two of which were personal letters written by him when he attempted to apply for a position in the treasury department under President Harrison. The historical societies of Wildwood and Camden were quite helpful. There, I found archives I could never have uncovered online.

CS: This happened almost 110 years ago—but do you see the violence and social currents that fueled it as still part of our present-day life? If so, how?

JW: Fear, anger, resentment of government, and an unwillingness to let our system take its course still exist. Sometimes active protests and violence erupts. The 2021 assault on our Capitol is a case in point.

JM: In 2017, a group of white supremacists organized a march in Charlottesville, VA at the University of Virginia. A 32-year old woman protester was killed by a Neo Nazi who drove his car into the crowd. Earlier, on the same day, David Duke, a well-known white supremisist and Klansmen leader, had proudly proclaimed his support of President Donald Trump. Trump responded with condemnation of the march, but only days later, walked back his remarks by suggesting “there were very fine people, on both sides.” This is when I saw an eerie similarity to another President and his relationship with a hate group. On November 13, 1914, the front page of the Tampa Tribune reported the lynching of Mr. Evans. Next to it was an article from Washington (D.C.) regarding a meeting between the Black, Harvard-educated activist, Charles Monroe Trotter, and President Woodrow Wilson. Mr. Trotter had been invited to the Oval Office to state his concerns about the recent segregation of offices in Congress. President Wilson’s response to Mr. Trotter’s demands was to scold him for his tone and kick him out of the building. Less than a year later, the President invited D.W. Griffith to debut his film, A Birth of A Nation, at the White House. In the film, a black-faced white actor is depicted raping a white woman which emboldened the KKK to reorganize its base and recruit new members. Consequently, this decision would spawn decades of racially-motivated crimes and atrocities. If history tells us anything, it is has a nasty habit of repeating itself.

CS: How was the co-authoring experience? How did you tackle the project? Did you plan it out first and then divide the labor? If so, how did you bring it all together in the finished product?

JW: The co-authoring experience went very smoothly.  Jane and I didn’t really have a formally outlined plan, although we knew what we wanted to cover. Much of the time Jane would uncover great information and write it up. I would then try to meld it into our narrative with the aim of keeping a consistent style and voice throughout. 

JM: Co-authoring was unusual for me. From the start, though, Jon was the lead author. Halfway through the book, he asked me if I wanted to co-author because of the amount of my research. This was quite generous since I felt I did not contribute to the writing other than the epilogue. Jon is the only other person on earth I know who knew the story as well as I did and was committed to telling it.

CS: What do you hope your readers will take from reading this book.

I want readers to see that St. Peterburg’s history is not just one of sunshine and rainbows. It has a darker side that is not pleasant, but that is important to consider. Those days of fear in 1914 demonstrate how anger and hate can get out of control and produce tragic results, even in what seems to be a tranquil city. In 2023, we are a partisan and divided nation. Some people talk of “civil war.”  I hope a book such as ours can play a small part in causing would-be insurrectionists or vigilantes to step away from their violent fantasies. 

JM: If anything, I want our readers to be able to see the similarities between today’s social media and the yellow journalism of the day that promoted racist and inflammatory articles. The only white owned-newspaper reporters in 1914 were white men. The owners of these publications had no accountability when it came to sensationalized reporting and the harm it inflicted on the Black and Brown communities. Today, we still see the familiar “dog whistles” from certain news websites and cable news aimed toward the white supremist community. Lastly, I hope students and readers will be inspired to tell more stories from the past that were intentionally forgotten or purposely buried. Because if we don’t expose our historical wrongs, how will future generations learn to prevent the same atrocities from happening again?

Not a Typical Journey: Curtis Smith Interviews Merril D. Smith

Merril D. Smith is a historian and poet with a Ph.D. from Temple University in American History. She is the author/editor of many works on history, gender, and sexuality. Her poetry has appeared in Black Bough Poetry, Anti-Heroin Chic, Fevers of the Mind, and others. She one of the hosts of the online dVerse Poets Pub. Her first poetry collection, River Ghosts was published in April 2022 by Nightingale and Sparrow Press. She lives in southern New Jersey near the Delaware River with her husband and cat.

You can find her at merrildsmith.com or on her blog, merrildsmith.wordpress.com. You can find

River Ghosts on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/River-Ghosts-Merril-D-Smith/dp/B09WZ8F9XJ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=H88P7SQGOIVR&keywords=merril+d.+smith&qid=1654011427&sprefix=Merril+D%2Caps%2C64&sr=8-1

or through the publisher, Nightingale & Sparrow: https://nightingaleandsparrow.com/river-ghosts-by-merril-d-smith/

Curtis Smith: Congratulations on River Ghosts. I really enjoyed it. I’m always interested in the journey of a first collection. How did you end up working with Nightingale and Sparrow? How has the process been?

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Merril Smith: Hi, Curt. Thank you so much for the interview.

My journey is probably not typical. I had had poems published in the N&S magazine. Then I submitted to their call for chapbooks. My book was shortlisted, but it didn’t make the final cut. I received some feedback that encouraged me to submit when they had a call for full length manuscripts. Unfortunately, the EIC has had some severe health problems, which seem to be ongoing, so there were long periods when I didn’t know what was happening with my book, or even if it really was going to be published. I do love that they accepted my older child’s beautiful artwork for the cover.

CS: Your previous books have been on the research/academic side of things. Was writing poetry always on your radar—or did it evolve from your other work? Do you find the academic/research side of your brain influencing your creative work? If so, in what ways does that manifest itself? Or is your poetry created under its own unique lens?

MS: Writing poetry was not on my radar years ago. It began after I started a blog, which has evolved into a poetry blog. Writing nonfiction prose and test writing is very different from writing poetry, but I do think everything is connected. For example, even in my academic writing, word choice is very important. Also, I do sometimes research topics for poems because I feel the need to have the background information on a historical event or astronomical phenomenon—just to have it in my brain though the details might not appear in the poem.

CS: There are a lot of poems here—and whenever I talk to a poet or story writer, I wonder about the process of ordering the pieces for the book. How was this process? Was there some kind of structuring or thematic element that you used to put this together? Or was it more intuitive—a feeling out of the pieces’ rhythms?

MS:  Some of the poems in this book were in the chapbook manuscript I submitted. By the time, I was seriously working on this book, we were in the first wave of the Covid pandemic, everything was shutting down, and my mother died. I created my own mourning ritual, and nearly every morning, I’d walk down a nearby street to the Delaware River and toss a stone in the water. So, the river and ghosts became the theme, and I wrote or revised some poems to fit that theme, but I also used some of the poems I had submitted earlier. As far as ordering, I knew I wanted to begin and end with poems that fit the theme. In between, I tried to group poems by subject and/or size—like a few short ones together.

CS: I know you live near the Delaware River—and you often take walks along its shore. Did this come into play with giving your book its name? What do you like about being riverside? What inspiration do you find there?

MS: Yes, the river was and is a source of inspiration and came into play with the name. I don’t know why—I’m not a swimmer—but I always seem drawn to water. If I go anywhere and there’s a pond, river, ocean—that’s where I want to walk. I’m fortunate to live close to the Delaware. We have a park in my town that is located by the river, and it was the site of a Revolutionary War battle. I’ve never seen a ghost, but others claim to have seen them there. I’m trained as a historian, so I think of how important rivers are—centuries of people and animals following them inland to the sea or across continents.

CS: When does form come into play? For some the whole process starts with form—and for others, it arises from the page once things are in motion—do you find yourself in one camp more than the other? In the end, what do you want from the forms you choose?  

MS: I have written to prompts where there is a particular form. Generally, I just start writing, and see how the poem wants to be formed. Sometimes, a word/line will demand a line break or space. Poems can be bossy.

CS: I also talk to my students about understanding what inspires/fascinates us—and once recognizing these, using them instead of working against them. In these pieces, I see a gravitating toward memory and family. Do you think this is accurate? What other themes do you find yourself drawn toward—and how do you handle these in your work?

MS: Yes, I think you’re right, Curt. I think the poems in this book do gravitate toward memory and family. I would say in general, I’m fascinated by time, and perhaps historical memory, as well as personal memory.

CS: There are also a number of ekphrastic poems here—and others that were inspired by outside sources/quotes. I’ve talked to a number of poets about this—and I’m interested in how you view this structure. Do you consider your pieces a kind of complement—an echo—or perhaps an homage? A splintered narrative that addresses how this original piece resonates in your sensibilities?

MS: Some of the poems in this collection began as responses to prompts. Perhaps all the ekphrastic poems included here, as well as the one inspired by quotations. That said, I really do enjoy writing ekphrastic poems. This past April for Poetry Month, I wrote a poem a day responding to the art of three artists. I think it depends on the art. I’ve written some as narratives inspired by the art, and others might pick out one element from a piece of art and spin that into something in the same way that one might take a word prompt and go off in some other direction. I like for the poem to be able to stand alone, but if seen with the art for someone to understand the connection, even if it’s somewhat tenuous.

CS: What’s next?

MS: I’m working on a chapbook that delves more into time and historical and prehistorical memory. Unlike River Ghosts, I’m writing all of the pieces with this collection in mind.

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