Artist Biography: Nandi Comer is the current Poet Laureate of Michigan. She is the author of American Family: A Syndrome (Finishing Line Press) and Tapping Out (Northwestern University Press), awarded the 2020 Society of Midland Authors Award and the 2020 Julie Suk Award. She is a Cave Canem Fellow, a Callaloo Fellow, an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, and a 2019 Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellow. Her poems and essays have appeared in Green Mountains Review, The Offing, Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review, The Journal of Pan African Studies, and others. Nandi has served as a writer-in-residence in Detroit Public Schools and collaborated with organizations, including YArts and InsideOut Literary Arts Projects. She serves as a poetry editor for Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora and is the co-director of Detroit Lit.
Instagram: @nandicomer Facebook: Nandi Comer
Spotlight Transcript
Co-Executive Director and Program Facilitator, Dom Witten, interviews today's Poet Spotlight, Nandi Comer.
Dom: How would you describe your creative process?
Nandi: My creative process is a mix of intuition and craft. I start with a freewrite often. The language in the work will often let me know what kind of conceits the work demands. Sometimes it comes out as a sonnet, an abecedarian and other times I realize I am writing a short story. I try not to force the shape until the piece reveals itself to me. When I realize where it going that is when the real work of revision kicks in. This year I have been trying to practice everyday and that has given me a lot of space and pressure to work harder at my thoughts.
Dom: The poem "On Coming Home to Teach" appears in your first book American Family: A Syndrome (2018) and your most recent book Tapping Out (2020), how does this poem contribute to the overall narrative within each book differently and/or similarly? Â
Nandi: Yes. That poem. Shortly after American Family was accepted for publication Tapping Out was also accepted. I considered removing the poem from either of the manuscripts, but when surrounded by very different poems I realized they told two different perspectives about a teacher wanting to help and escape the world they coexist in with this student. In American Family, the conversation is about community and how the violent world outside is a shared experience. The reader should see this voice as one that understands the history of violence that brings these two figures into a conversation about the effects of said violence on their shared psyche. Many other teachers appear in Tapping Out. In the context of those poems, the voice of the teacher is a child in "Learning to Roll Our Tongues," is in the crowd in "Sangre! Sangre! Sangre!" and later at home in front of this student in "On Coming Home to Teach". The teacher in Tapping Out is not as much a part of the community of the student as much as a survivor of it and still trying to figure out where their voice fits.
Dom: As the Michigan Poet Laureate you travel across the state to engage with writers of all ages, genres, performance and writing styles. How does being in community with other Michigan poets and writers influence the work you're writing?
Nandi: Even before becoming Michigan Poet Laureate I was aware of the diversity of Michigan writers. I followed the work of so many that were writing from the Upper and Lower Peninsula and I looked to their work for inspiration often. What has changed is my ability to share opportunities with writers from Michigan. I invite local poets to accompany me at as many events as possible. I have participated in slams and Poetry Out Loud. Recently I organized a professional development conference for writers in Detroit. I have celebrated poetry all over the state in so many ways. The thing that has most changed me is that I have changed my perspective on the needs of writers. Each writer is on their own journey and I just want to make sure there is infrastructure in place to support whatever writers want to do.
Dom:Â What are you excited about in your work lately?
Nandi: I am excited about a series of poems that involves a lot of research. I have been in the archives of newspapers researching the events surrounding the death of Malice Green. This has been eye opening. The work is a reflection of the shift away from car work and I am excited to push further into poems about post-industrial Detroit.
Nandi Comer will be visiting Alpena, MI for 2 FREE events on September 14th at 7:00pm for an Open-Mic at PIF Cider (no registration required) and September 15th from 11-12:30pm at the Granum Theatre at Alpena Community College (registration required). Registration link: https://tinyurl.com/NandiComerAlpena.
Interview Published: 09/02/2024
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