Writer in the Spotlight

Steve Meador is a journalist graduate of Bowling Green State University, whose work has appeared in Wind, The Yearbook of Modern Poetry, Flutter, and Autumn Sky Poetry. Additional work is forthcoming in Umbrella, Word Riot, Unfettered Verse, and Thick With Conviction.

Editor's note: I receive up to 40 poems a day, (90% of which I turn down) and "Little Dreamers" arrived a few days after we put out our Winter 06 issue. I couldn't bear not to include it, and convinced my webmistress to slip it in! I was so impressed with the material in A Good Sharp Knife that I suggested we feature it somehow, and the Writer in the Spotlight series was born.

You have a degree in journalism. How does that help your fiction writing?

Actually it has been more of a detriment at times, more so in the poetry than the fiction. I tend to fall back on the reportorial style. I have to remember that I am not writing a news release or other story with just facts, figures and events. It can be easy to take the quick route, leave out all the beautiful language and description. The other side is that sometimes I overcompensate and get too frilly with the words. Though I am not perfect, it has helped with punctuation and spelling.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting to write?

The same advice you hear from everyone: read, read, read. But don’t read something that isn’t enjoyable. If you have to force your way though it, then it won’t settle in, you won’t learn anything.

What do you look for in fiction, poetry? What are some trends you see that you don't like?

I look for books with similarities to what I enjoyed in school. Those are quickly becoming the “good ol’ days.” It’s getting hard to find books like Catcher In The Rye; The Thread That Runs So True; Cold Sassy Tree; Black Boy, to name a few. Today I really like the styles of Wendell Berry and Kent Haruf. I suppose they write about things I remember from growing up. I recently read Jim The Boy, by Tony Earley, and found it to be an excellent write.

I don’t read lots of poetry. There will be plenty of folks who say, “and it sure shows,” but I want my ideas and work to be my own. I don’t want to be influenced by something I read. Words have a way of hiding in the mind and showing up later, pretending to be original.

The only trend I see that, in my opinion, is bad for the literary business is that more and more “authors” have to be celebrities or sports stars to get anything in print. But the public is just as much at fault. People wait in line to buy the books of the famous. Plus, most big publishers are now only accepting work through agents. The system is stifling. There is incredibly good work that doesn’t get a chance because the authors simply give up trying.

A good trend is the proliferation of excellent online journals and ezines.

Tell us a little bit about the young adult books you're writing.

Did you ever ask a climber about his or her trek to the Mt. Everest summit? First I submitted a book in verse, basically a short novel written in poetry. They liked it, but told me that the form is hard to sell (think money issues) and to write it in traditional novel form. I did and they liked it, but told me that there is so much great language and work crammed into a short manuscript that I should take the chapters and write a book based on any or each (think money issues). So, I figure if I get one chapter stretched into a novel, then I will be a celebrity and can tell them what I want to do next (think out of touch with reality). The characters are 12 to 16 years old living in a small town in Georgia. It has a contemporary setting with small-town atmosphere. There’s excitement, first love, death, theft, troubled youth things, etc. I think I’ll stop here; it’s beginning to sound like every other book.

Your poems sound so autobiographical, and you did a great job of nailing that nostalgic tone; that's why we jumped on "Little Dreamers" right away. Do you write mostly from experience?

Doesn’t everyone? I have been blessed with one of those memories that can recall events 40 or 45 years ago almost exactly as they happened, often nearly verbatim. It is my gift. I can take those memories and either relay them as-is or adapt to something more contemporary. I am part of a large boomer group who can enjoy what I write, because they had similar experiences. My poetry is somewhat simple, hopefully to evoke an instant emotion, add a little something to the moment. If during the day it creeps back and induces another smile, or brings a few seconds of reflection, that’s as good as it gets for a writer. I am not looking for reading groups to spend hours or days trying to interpret an underlying meaning. Read it, enjoy it and move on.

What do you feel are your best poems, and why?

I am a writer who cherishes every piece. Imagine such a person! Two come to mind for opposite reasons. The first, Pack Your Bags, is what got me started on the personal trip. It just came to me one day and then I wrote for several days, one piece churning up the memory for another. All the work in the first lot were sad, to me anyway. Then the humorous thoughts dominated and "Percy" was the first of that trend. Both are in another chapbook, Pack Your Bags, which will be released by Pudding House Publications later this year.

Pack Your Bags

He always placed it near the front door,
the dark blue Samsonite with cream
colored trim, luggage that was popular
in the fifties and sixties. It was the smallest
piece in the set and he packed it
with a couple pair of underwear,
a pair of socks and whatever pants
and shirts he could stuff in.

Then he waited patiently on the couch,
hair combed, wearing the Jewel T suit
that had receded from finger tips
to two inches above the wrist
in the last year and a half.
The day would end the same
for him as it always did.
The man from the Children’s Home
would fail to show up, as my mother had threatened,
and my brother would fall asleep on dirty cushions.

I would wake him the next morning
for the walk to school,
and tell him that the orphanage
only took kids whose parents had died.
I didn’t tell him that ours were probably
already dead.

Percy

A cat always lands on its feet.
Percy did,
after I cradled his upside down body
two feet off the floor
and sprung my arms wide
for his grand release.
Nearly quicker than the eye,
his roll to stability,
but his weaknesses were cheese
and faulty judgment
of character.
He landed perfectly on all paws
after watching six feet
of step ladder float by,
and again after clawing the air
as he was being swallowed
by twelve feet of cherry tree trunk.
I straddled the limb
and ate cherries
thinking
of who might have a ladder
tall enough to reach our roof.

Copies of A Good Sharp Knife, published by Pudding House Chapbook Series can be purchased for $10 by contacting Steve at Steve@homesonly.com . Steve's second chapbook, PackYour Bags, is due out later in the year.