December 1, 2009
"Wreckage: By Sea (I)"
Artist Elizabeth Terhune received her MFA from Hunter College and her BA from Oberlin College. She was the recipient of a Yaddo Fellowship in 1998. She has exhibited widely throughout the United States and recently had a one-person exhibition at the Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, NY. (full bio).
Writer Gretchen E. Henderson's genre-bending writing was awarded the 2010 Madeleine P. Plonsker Prize (read the news), with recent work published in Black Warrior Review, Witness, New American Writing, Mantis, Caketrain, and Double Room, among other journals. Her cartographic interests developed thanks to a summer institute with the National Endowment for the Humanities, based at the Newberry Library.

Images: 2 untitled 11" x 7" drawings, ink and graphite on paper.

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Collaborators' Q & A for "Wreckage: By Sea (i)"

Writer Gretchen E. Henderson:
What surprised you about this collaborative piece?
I was surprised by the clawed hands, groping from the blood-red heart (which might be a brain, or both morphed together). Defying figuration, the creature seems to be clawing itself into existence. In my other writings, hands are a common motif ... Although I don't see hands as central to "Wreckage," they strangely and marvelously appear in Elizabeth's rendering.

Artist Elizabeth Terhune:
What surprised you about this collaborative piece?
I was astonished that it worked as well as it did. I'd been worried that my art did not have enough of the delicate, antique qualities that would characterize an old book. My monster seemed perhaps too modern. ...

Read the full responses from Henderson & Terhune.
 

November 1, 2009
"Interstate"
Artist Kate Baird looks for the distances and differences between places through drawing and painting. She received an MFA from the University of Chicago in 2005 and currently works as a teaching artist at the Guggenheim Museum and the Kentler International Drawing Space. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter, and her work can be seen at www.katebairdart.com. (full bio).
Writer Brian Hendrickson, a Florida-born ex-Alaskan currently residing in High Point, North Carolina, teaches English and reading at Guilford Technical Community College. His poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in publications such as Indiana Review, New York Quarterly, and Pemmican. A version of this poem was first published in Versal.

Image: "Interstate," 14" x 17", watercolor and pencil

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Note: "Interstate" is the sixth Switcheroo feature from Broadsided. What is The Switcheroo? We'd love to tell you.
 

Collaborators' Q & A for "Interstate"

Writer Brian Hendrickson:
Paired with the art, do you think the poem does something different or has a different tone?
Sure. The visual element adds another layer of context, giving the original text a whole new lease on life. I can't say for sure, but I think it decentralizes both speaker and spoken to, making the poem more universal.

Artist Kate Baird:
What surprises you about Brian's poem in conversation with your art?
I think the drawing looks sort of feminine and delicate—not really intentionally, but it looks that way to me—and the poem is very forceful, violent in places, and in a male voice. That surprised me, but I was glad about it.

Read the full responses from Hendrickson & Baird.
 

October 1, 2009
"Some Things I Know Without the Field Guide"
Artist Gabe Travis is a painter and mixed-media artist who lives near Healy, Alaska, about one hundred miles from a grocery store. www.gabetravis.com. (full bio).
Writer Suzanne Helfman teaches English at De Anza College in Cupertino, California. Her work has appeared in Ironwood, Poetry Flash, Five Fingers Review, Magazine. Her collection Night Driving was published as the winning manuscript in a San Francisco State University chapbook contest.

Image: "Stake," 17" x 14", mixed media

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Collaborators' Q & A for "Some Things I Know Without the Field Guide"

Writer Suzanne Helfman:
What surprised you about this collaborative piece?
Everything. I know from teaching reading and writing, and from engaging in both myself, that a new text is created by every reader, that meaning is made collaboratively. The reader brings his or her life and world to the text, finds something on the page and interprets what's there using whatever he or she brought to the reading. To see a visual representation of this, my poem creating new images in someone else's head, and then in the world, is thrilling.

Artist Gabe Travis:
When you began this piece, was it color, shape, or some other aspect that you followed? Did that change?
It is a pretty intuitive process of holding the poem in mind, and browsing until something catches my eye. Then, once the "palette" is assembled, I begin to build the piece.

Read the full responses from Helfman & Travis.
 

September 1, 2009
"Yard work"
Artist Douglas Culhane works in sculpture and drawing. He has exhibited in New York and New England. See more of his work at www.douglasculhane.com. (full bio).
Writer Ryan J. Browne teaches poetry in Alabama state prisons with the nationally recognized Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project. He is a Colorado native and a graduate of the University of Alabama MFA program. His work has appeared (or is forthcoming) in Gulf Coast, West Branch, Bayou, and elsewhere.

Image: 14" x 17", watercolor and pencil

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Collaborators' Q & A for "Yard work"

Writer Ryan J. Browne:
Did the visual artist refract any element of the poem that made you see the poem differently?
Absolutely. After saying all that about the people who occupy prison ... Doug's piece strikes me as a startling turn of awareness to the place of prison. After seeing the proof, I thought, Yes! This is what the poem is about!

Artist Douglas Culhane:
When you began this piece, was it color, shape, or some other aspect that you followed? Did that change?
I wanted to use the dog imagery, but it looked too illustrative, literal or cute. Instead I focussed on a detail from the text. I wanted an image that was sprawling and messy, yet specific.

Read the full responses from Browne & Culhane.
 

August 1, 2009
"Interview: Antique Iron Bed"
Artist Jim Benning is a photographer/designer loving in Anchorage, Alaska using images to show how he sees things, places and people that ignite his curiosity. He says: "As a member of the board for the Alaska Photographic Center I work to bring photographers to Alaska to share their photographic vision and inspiration with the local community." (full bio).
Writer Landon Godfrey was born and raised in Washington, DC, and now lives in Black Mountain, NC, with her husband, Gary Hawkins. She works as a freelance writer and artist. Her poems have appeared in various journals, including The Southeast Review, Lyric, Chelsea, The Beloit Poetry Review, and POOL, as well as the anthology Best New Poets 2008.

Image: 9" x 12", digital composition

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Collaborators' Q & A for "Interview: Antique Iron Bed"

Writer Landon Godfrey:
What did you think an artist would pick up on from your poem?
I had no idea what an artist would pick up on from the poem. Maybe the giving over of the poem in the first place required a kind of vulnerability that manifested as surrender. Which seems interesting because the poem is about surrender.

Artist Jim Benning:
What surprised you about this piece, once you saw the artwork and poem together?
Themes of time, repetitive instances of a story being played out, the containment of a history within the bed lead me to combining the poem and the bed image within the book and page images.

Read the full responses from Benning & Godfrey.
 

July 1, 2009
"The Space Traveler and Wandering"
Artist Jennifer Bevill grew up in Alabama and studied at Parson's School of Design and Teacher's College. She works as a teaching artist in the Guggenheim Museum's Learning Through Art program and lives in Brooklyn. (full bio).
Writer Benjamin Grossberg's books are Underwater Lengths in a Single Breath (Ashland Poetry Press, 2007), and Sweet Core Orchard, winner of the 2008 Tampa Review Prize (University of Tampa, 2009). A chapbook, The Auctioneer Bangs his Gavel, was published by Kent State in 2006. He is an assistant professor of English at The University of Hartford, where he teaches poetry writing and Early Modern English literature. "The Space Traveler and Wandering" first appeared in Green Mountains Review. Other space traveler poems can be found in Cincinnati Review, Pool, The Journal, Natural Bridge and Whiskey Island.

Image: "Away we go," 10" x 5", found objects (cardboard, maps, stamps, fabric, copper wire, beads) sewn together and then papier mache'ed with wheat paste

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Collaborators' Q & A for "The Space Traveler and Wandering"

Writer Benjamin Grossberg:
What surprised you about this collaborative piece?
...the Space Traveler poems (there are about fifty!) are very different than the work in my first two collections. In those books, I had been much more about grace, balance, and symmetry. I'm not sure what I'm about now, but it's not those things....

Artist Jennifer Bevill:
What inspires you in this poem?
...I also love the tone of the poem. It's very matter of fact—need to get home, need spaceship, must build one, what's handy?

Read the full responses from Bevill & Grossberg.
 

June 1, 2009
"In Livingston Parish, Dreaming of Li Po"
Artist Cheryl Gross has an MFA in New Forms from Pratt. She writes: "When asked about my work, I always equate it with creating an environment transforming my inner thoughts into reality. Much like an architect or urban planner, that reality and humor becomes the foundation of the work." (full bio).
Writer Alison Pelegrin is the author of Big Muddy River of Stars (University of Akron Press 2007) and The Zydeco Tablets (Word Press 2002). Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, and Shenandoah. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the National Endowment of the Arts, and lives in Covington, Louisiana.

Image: "We've reached Karpland," 12" x 17", ballpoint pen, graphite, on recycled paper

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Collaborators' Q & A for "In Livingston Parish, Dreaming of Li Po"

Writer Alison Pelegrin:
What did you think an artist would pick up on from your poem?
I can tell you what I feared—Southern Gothic Junkyard.

Artist Cheryl Gross:
If you had to represent the Broadsided collaboration of "In Livingston Parish, Dreaming of Li Po" with one word, what would it be?
Perfection without intent. [The poem and art] were destined to be together like water and sand.

Read the full responses from Pelegrin & Gross.
 

June 1, 2009
"War Rug"
Designer Elizabeth Bradfield is a poet and web designer. (full bio)
Poet, translator, and new media artist Francesco Levato is the executive director of The Poetry Center of Chicago. He is the author of Marginal State, a collection of poetry, and his work has been published internationally in journals and anthologies, both in print and online, including The Progressive, XCP: Cross Cultural Poetics, Versal, and many others. His poetry-based video artwork has been exhibited in galleries and featured at film festivals in Berlin, Chicago, New York, and elsewhere.

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Notes: Thanks to the editors of the following publications where excerpts of this poem first appeared: Big Bridge, LUDWIG (translated into the Italian), XCP: Cross Cultural Poetics.
Two pieces of the poem ("Emergency Condition Responses," and "Definitions") used on the broadside quote from government source material:
• Garthwaite , Thomas L. "Ocular Prostheses and Facial Restorations." Department of Veterans Affairs, 2000.
• Joint Task Force Guantanamo. "Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)." US Department of Defense. March 23, 2003.
 

Collaborators' Q & A for "War Rug"

Writer Francesco Levato:
Have you ever written work that has been inspired by visual art?
"War Rug" was inspired by an actual war rug I have from Afghanistan that was produced during the Russian occupation. The multiple narratives in the film "Babel" got me thinking about weaving multiple voices together...

Designer Elizabeth Bradfield:
If you had to represent the Broadsided collaboration of "War Rug" with one word, what would it be?
Tough.

Read the full responses from Levato & Bradfield.
 

May 1, 2009
"Advice for Women on the Graveyard Shift"
Artist Alesia F. Norling writes, "My history includes growing up on a working farm, giving my poor parents an amazing amount of grief, and reluctantly attending various grade schools. Eventually, I found my niche at the Rhode Island School of Design. I'm a professional daydreamer and my artwork is dictated by emotion." (full bio).
Writer Karen Weyant's most recent work can be seen in 5 AM, Anti-, The Barn Owl Review, Slipstream, and the minnesota review. A recipient of a 2007 poetry fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, she teaches at Jamestown Community College in Jamestown, New York. During the summer months, she studies poetry at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York.

Image: "Shift;" Mixed-media collage painting on canvas; 11" x 14"

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Collaborators' Q & A for "Advice for Women on the Graveyard Shift"

Writer Karen Weyant:
Did the visual artist refract any element of the poem that made you see the poem differently?
When I saw the emphasis on the missing sock, I couldn't help but think that perhaps it is a strong metaphor for aspects of their children's lives that factory women (or all working women—working outside the home, I mean!) believe they are missing.

Artist Alesia Norling:
What surprised you about this collaborative piece?
I was pleasantly surprised by how the text crowded and tightened around the figure helping to visually trap her in her hell.

Read the full responses from Weyant & Norling.
 

May 1, 2009
"Snowshoe to Otter Creek"
Artist Caleb Brown: Besides painting, Caleb likes going to the town dump and taking nature walks. View his work at www.caleb-brown.com. (full bio).
Writer Stacie Cassarino lives in Brooklyn, New York and Los Angeles, California. She is a recipient of the "Discovery"/The Nation prize and the Astraea Foundation Writer's Fund, a finalist for the Rona Jaffe Writers' Award, and nominee twice for the Pushcart Prize. She has worked as a chef, and has held teaching positions at Middlebury College in Vermont & Pratt Institute in NYC. She is currently a candidate for the Ph.D. at UCLA. "Snowshoe to Otter Creek" is from her first collection of poems, Zero at the Bone, out this month from New Issues Press.

Image: "Snowshoe on Otter Creek;" Media = National Geographic for inspiration, Papermate Flair pen on tracing paper for the drawing, Adobe Streamline and Adobe Illustrator for vectorization and color; 11 5/8" X 3 3/8"

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Collaborators' Q & A for "Snowshoe to Otter Creek"

Writer Stacie Cassarino:
Did the visual artist refract any element of the poem that made you see the poem differently?
the air, even breathing, has weight

Artist Caleb Brown:
What surprised you about this collaborative piece?
I decided that the comic had to be read "up" (after reading the poem "down") and was worried that that wouldn't make sense. I'm surprised that it does, or it doesn't matter.

Read the full responses from Cassarino & Brown.
 

April 1, 2009
"Collective Origins as Ulysses/Uxoria"
Artist Kevin Morrow is a native of Wisconsin who received his BFA in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2003. Soon thereafter, he received his MFA degree from the University of Auckland, New Zealand where he studied in the Contemporary Maori Department (Te Toi Hou). (full bio).
Writer Pamela Johnson Parker is a certified medical language specialist and adjunct instructor of creative writing at Murray State University. A recent MFA graduate, her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Anti-, Pebble Lake Review, New Madrid, 6 Sentences, and qarrtsiluni, and she has been nominated this year for a Pushcart Prize.

Image: "Collective Origins"

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Note: "Collective Origins as Ulysses/Uxoria" is the fifth Switcheroo feature from Broadsided. What is The Switcheroo? We'd love to tell you.
 

Collaborators' Q & A for "Collective Origins as Ulysses/Uxoria"

Writer Pamela Johnson Parker:
Paired with the art, do you think the poem does something different or has a different tone?
I think its tone now has more gravitas, plus there's that lovely symmetry between his lines and my interwoven ones.

Artist Kevin Morrow:
Paired with the poem, do you think the art does something different or has a different tone?
I feel that paired with the poem now, gives the drawing a more specific life to the viewer....

Read the full responses from Parker & Morrow.
 

March 1, 2009
"In Our Time"
Artist Elizabeth Terhune received her MFA from Hunter College and her BA from Oberlin College. She was the recipient of a Yaddo Fellowship in 1998. She has exhibited widely throughout the United States and recently had a one-person exhibition at the Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, NY. (full bio).
Writer Ilya Kaminsky is the author of Dancing In Odessa which won Whiting Writers Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters' Metcalf Award, Dorset Prize, Ruth Lilly Fellowship from Poetry magazine. It was also named the Best Poetry Book of 2005 by ForeWord magazine.

Image: watercolor, 2" (h) 11-1/2" (w).

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Collaborators' Q & A for "In Our Time"

Writer Ilya Kaminsky:
Did the visual artist refract any element of the poem that made you see the poem differently?
There was, I think, more jubilation. Which is only a good thing. Something for me to learn.

Artist Elizabeth Terhune:
What surprised you about this collaborative piece?
I opted to let the drawing be less perfect in its match of the poemÑwhich is a real departure for me. The feather on the tongue became a plant (if you look closely you can see the veins in the plant leaf which started as the feather). The deafness/fire from the unlit match became the churning growth of flowers and an ink splatter.

Read the full responses from Kaminsky & Terhune.
 

February 1, 2009
"From a Lighthouse Keeper"
Artist Helen Beckman Kaplan is a painter from Brooklyn who was educated at Rhode Island School of Design, Tyler School of Art, Indiana University and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She has been a resident at Yaddo and Millay Colony, and has exhibited her work in New York at AC Project Room and Edward Thorp Gallery. (full bio).
Writer Karen Llagas was raised in the Philippines and currently lives in San Francisco where she works as a teacher and an interpreter. She has an MFA from Warren Wilson College and her work has appeared/forthcoming in Crab Orchard Review and Field of Mirrors, an anthology of Philippine-American Writers. In 2007, some of her poems received one of the $2500 prizes in the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Fund competition.

Image: "waves," collage/cgi, 7" x 6.5", 2009

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Collaborators' Q & A for "From a Lighthouse Keeper"

Writer Karen Llagas:
What inspired you to "dibs" this poem?
...refracted through Yuko's eyes, the poem takes on a smoother sense for me, a feeling maybe that lots remains when something is lost, and that's how it should be. Water moving and changing, constantly inconstant.

Artist Helen Beckman Kaplan:
What surprised you about this collaborative piece?
I think it is romantic to see how art and literature from two different artists come together as one piece ...

Read the full responses from Llagas & Kaplan.
 

January 1, 2009
"The Dry Tortugas"
Artist Yuko Adachi is a Tokyo-born artist who was raised in Japan, Paris, London, and the United States of America. She has been painting since she was a little girl and has been showing her works through solo and selected group shows internationally. (full bio).
Writer: Nevada City, CA poet Molly Fisk is the author of Listening to Winter, #4 in the California Poetry Series, Round House Press/Heyday Books; Terrain, a collaborative chapbook with Dan Bellm and Forrest Hamer, Hip Pocket Press; and Salt Water Poems (letterpress), Jungle Garden Press.

She's a commentator for NPR and community station KVMR-FM Nevada City, and her radio commentary has been collected on the CD "Using Your Turn Signal Promotes World Peace (and other observations from a working poet)," KVMR, 2005.

Fisk teaches at U.C. Davis Extension and the Sierra Nevada Cancer Center, and runs a six-day internet poetry workshop every month called Poetry Boot Camp (poetrybootcamp.com), with more than 400 participants from around the world, including the South Pole.

Fisk has won the Dogwood Prize, the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize, the Billee Murray Denny Prize, and the National Writer's Union Prize. She's a National Endowment for the Arts fellow in poetry, and has received grants from the California Arts Council and the Marin Arts Council.

Image: "We are all one III," mixed media on paper, 5" x 5", 2008

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Collaborators' Q & A for "The Dry Tortugas"

Writer Molly Fisk:
What inspired you to "dibs" this poem?
...refracted through Yuko's eyes, the poem takes on a smoother sense for me, a feeling maybe that lots remains when something is lost, and that's how it should be. Water moving and changing, constantly inconstant.

Artist Yuko Adachi:
What surprised you about this collaborative piece?
I think it is romantic to see how art and literature from two different artists come together as one piece ...

Read the full responses from Fisk & Adachi.