"A DIY approach is often the best way to build a community, and to build a readership." - Derek Pollard

Widdoes Peak presents an interview with poet and editor Derek Pollard

Happy turkey day, turkeys 🦃

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving to all of you who live in the United States of America. I will not be eating turkey this year as my in-laws are in town and we’re doing both a traditional Chinese meal for lunch (Peking duck, roast pork belly, Hainan chicken rice, noodles, noodles, and more noodles, etc) and then later going out for dinner at an Italian restaurant. Can you tell we love our noodles in this house?

This week has been filled with Chinese soap operas, which are as dramatic as you can imagine but also much sweeter and more innocent than American soap operas, and me trying to politely negotiate a way to prevent one of my in-laws from placing half rinsed (with water only) dishes and utensils back into the cabinets amidst the clean ones. My in-laws are wonderful people, but OMFG, my germaphobia really goes to 100% anytime I witness this.

Speaking of OMG, I’ve recently been given some exciting news that will likely make the next three weeks quite hectic for me as it will require hefty amounts of revisions on a project I had shelved until recently. I promise to come up for air before the new year.

The Widdoes Peak Returns

But before I go under the waves of revision, I did want to share with you a very exciting conversation I had a few weeks ago. The Widdoes Peak has returned, this time with my friend

Derek Pollard

, who is both a remarkably talented poet and exacting editor.

Derek’s spent over thirty years writing and publishing poetry and knows his stuff. Anytime I get the fortunate opportunity to chat with him, I learn something new. His knowledge of literature and the arts absolutely dwarfs mine. I can sometimes feel a bit out of my depth when speaking with him. But he’s also such a generous individual who really, at his core, seeks meaningful connections through his work.

I first met Derek when he friended me on Facebook - back when I actually used that platform - prior to my matriculation into the MFA at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Derek was already in the prestigious PhD program funded by Black Mountain Institute. After I moved out to Nevada and began the program, he and I would run into each other in the halls and have really great long conversations about literature and how to make a creative life, the best places to eat in Las Vegas, etc.

Derek also once shocked me when he calmly told me that he’d gone out to Red Rock Canyon in early September (which is usually in the triple digits Fahrenheit here) and had taken an incorrect turn and ended up on the 10 mile trail instead of the shorter 3 mile one. If you have ever experienced summer in the Mojave desert, you will understand just how miraculous it is to be able to not only attempt to hike, but to leave any climate controlled environment for more than 10 minutes at a time. I run from my car to the store because the heat radiating off the asphalt feels as if it will melt my skin. Derek has guts.

He is also the reason I became the managing editor of Interim for 2.5 years while pursuing my MFA and another 2 years as a periodic guest editor (I guest edited issues 36.3 and 35.2). Derek asked me to work on this with him. I was fortunate to gain the experience of running a literary journal through his mentorship. I learned so much about what it takes to curate an issue, to proofread, to put on memorable literary events, and to dedicate myself to approaching poetry and literature as art rather than just a juvenile expression of vanity.

During our Widdoes Peak chat, Derek and I had a fascinating conversation about writing, poetry, literary journals, and editing. He talks at length about the importance of literary journals, which he still believes in and which I’m less certain about. But from the way he views their function, I understand his perspective. Derek always gets me to think again about what it really means to be given the gift of being able to write and the drive to create art. It’s really not about the self like we believe it to be. It’s about the connections to others, to nature, to the past and to the future. It’s about a life of building those connections authentically. Egotripping only gets in the way of what we’re really meant to be doing with our work.

Derek also reads several of his poems selected from his most recently collection: On the Verge of Something Bright and Good. They are so beautiful. One of the poems made me sense a place in time that Derek was recalling in such a delicate way that I couldn’t help but cry when I first read it. I highly recommend checking his work out. He truly believes in the power of the written word to build community, which is something we all desperately need and desire to be a part of.

Let me know what you think! Also, if you are a writer or artist interested in participating in conversation, please reach out.

About Derek Pollard

Derek Pollard is Series Editor for the Poets on Poetry Series (Univ. of Michigan Press). His books include On the Verge of Something Bright and Good (Barrow Street), Till One Day the Sun Shall Shine More Brightly: The Poetry and Prose of Donald Revell (Univ. of Michigan Press), and, with Derek Henderson, Inconsequentia (BlazeVOX). Poems of his have appeared in numerous anthologies, and his multimedia work has been performed and exhibited throughout the United States.

Dear poets, an invitation to query

If you are a poet who reviews poetry or writes on poetics, Derek invites you to connect with him to discuss whether your work might fit well in the Poets on Poetry series. Mention that you discovered him through this interview on my Substack, unless you are already familiar with his work. You can find more details on the University of Michigan Press site.