Friday, August 6, 2010

author talk: from context to the core of things



very short version of this post:the second part of my recent author talk is up:
author talk: Rose Hunter + Dorothee Lang Part 2
on poetry, solo travel, languages, pov + photography, roads, spaces and ?

longer version with notes:in June, Rose and i went ahead and started an author talk via e-mail. the base plan for this talk was to have a brief conversation about our current books. which then lead to some associated themes: solo travels, expectations, reality... you name it.

at some point, we thought of wrapping it short, but it was too interesting to cut this, and so the talk moved on to questions that went much deeper than first planned, like here:

"Writing and photographs - I wonder if you could say something about the intersection between these two art forms, for you? Do you see yourself primarily as a writer, or a photographer, or both?"

another fascinating point was the contrasting comparison of both books - looking at the way the books developed, the way they found their structure. we also looked at single poems and stories, some of them published before online - which then lead to the aspect of context:

"A special treat of reading through your collection was the encounter with poems I have read before, in another place. Context is one of the aspects in writing and in layout that keeps fascinating me, the way the environment reflects on a text or an image, and vice versa."

which also is true for this talk: it was surprising to see how placing 2 books next to each other brought out aspects a single review doesn't reach. it's a different way of looking at a book, and the process that lead to it.

the first part of the talk went online 2 weeks ago, now the second part is on:

author talk: Rose Hunter + Dorothee Lang Part 2
on poetry, solo travel, languages, pov + photography, roads, spaces and ?

(the first part is here: author talk Part 1)

2 comments:

daniela elza said...

Thanks for the interview, Rose, and Dorothee. I think there is a lot of value in these conversations. We learn from each other just in the mere asking of questions. Let alone answers. It is wonderful to be able to talk across continents.
The whole idea of mapping the inside and the outside is a wonderful definition for writing. And walking this territory is transformative. And reaching to each other across and within is doubly so.

Rose Hunter said...

Thanks for reading, and commenting, Daniela! I see you're from Vancouver. I was there for one year, about ten years ago now (wow). I like your website. I'll go back over there....