Lara Konesky is a poetess, writer, teacher, entrepreneur, baby’s little mommy, sweet eyed lover, pit-bull about to break her chain or cat in heat rubbing up against your leg depending on what day of the week it is and who she’s talking with. Lara and I met a couple years ago in German Village and began sharing and writing to each other on line. That sounds pretty platonic but it was a bit more than that. Essentially you can’t interact with Lara that distantly…or that distinctly and purely…she simply won’t let you. She tends to grab you by the short hairs, looks you in the eye and calls your bluff.
I kind of wanted to interview Lara along the lines of those Myspace and Facebook social interview apps. Partly because I’ve seen her have so much fun with them on line. She has a reputation as a poet who gets up in our face and challenges us to a sexually honest dual. It can be innervating, exhilarating and horrifying all at the same time. She has a very powerful voice in the sense that she rips away all our socially acceptable band-aids and then spits in the wound…which, in certain ancient societies would have been just what the medicine man ordered. And it would have cured the dying and healed the diseased.
W-Lara, tell us a little about yourself. Who are you named after?
L-Anyone my age was named after Lara from Dr. Zhivago...I mean, we have a theme song for Christ's sake.
W-Is your mother still alive?
L-Yes, and she has a facebook page. It's embarrassing.
W-She sounds like a romantic? What kind of mother is she? Will she be offended by your description of her?
L-No. I WAS named after a Russian mistress after all. My mom is not offended nor shocked by anything I do/say/am. She has dealt with me long enough.
W-Do you have children of your own?
L-Of course. I have two, four and fourteen. Both boys.
W-When did you start writing?
L-The first time I was confined to the mental institution at about thirteen or so. Or after I started my first period. What else am I going to do with the hormones?
W-Did you study writing in school and where?
L-I studied philosophy at a Catholic College.
W-You’ve got two books out at the moment and you’re editing another anthology due out beginning of the new year. All poetry? Tell us about them.
L-I have one book out on Grievous Jones Press based out of the UK, called Next to Guns, and it is basically a bunch of (deleted) poetry that was fun to write, not as much to live. And the anthology is something I created with Andrew Taylor, from Erbacce Press in Liverpool, and it is a collection of writers writing to other writers. Since the writing community is such a(deleted) orgy anymore, I figured this was necessary to air some dirty laundry and get it all out on the table. It's called Blood at the Chelsea, and will be out on Erbacce Press at the start of the new year. oh, and I have works at New Aesthetic (http://newaesthetic.in/), Word Riot, Opium 2.0, Silenced Press, etc.
W-I apologize. I thought I saw a second book. Maybe it was a promo or something for “Close to Guns”. But you are also interested in writing prose and scripts as well?
L-"Next to Guns, butthead. Not close to guns.” I write whatever I feel compelled to write. Maybe porn next. Who knows?
W-Some how I don’t see you reading Edna St. Vincent Millay, Emily Dickenson, Emily Bronte or Maya Angelou. Who inspires you?
L-I mean, of course I am going to say Plath and Bukowski, but right now I stick to the less known but no less amazing, Puma Perl, David Oprava, Rob Plath, Andrew Taylor, the list goes on...
W-What do you like about Bukowski besides total excess?
L-there is nothing else to like but the total excess.
W-Your voice is so honest in that it’s both self-effacing and castrating all at once? It is a voice full of love and hate, self doubt, a kind of female blood and guts sexuality and yet a kind of clarity and strength that is hard to describe. In fact I call it a 'voice' as opposed to a 'style' because I can’t find the difference between your actual voice and your poetic voice most of the time. Can you give us a hint of where that voice comes from?
L-Shock therapy? Date rape? Too much porn? Heart break? I can't tell you, really. But it seems to be working.
W-I don’t know many people as bright and courageous as you these days…. What are you doing for a living at the moment?
L-Living.
W-OK. The “what are you doing for a living” question was lame. When do you find time to write and where?
L-I sit at the kitchen table and ignore my family to write.
W-So who is your favorite philosopher and why?
L-My favorite philosopher is NOT Kant. It sounds trite, but Sartre, probably...probably more interested in his personal life.
W-Did I mention Kant? Ok, I'll bite, why Sartre? Sartre was certainly a funny looking fellow though. Picasso made him look the funniest with those big round glasses. If he was a dog I'm thinking one of those little hairless things. I have a book on his travels through Italy. Have you ever read his travelogues? They're actually great observations on society.
So why Sartre?
L-No, you didn't mention Kant. If you read my shit you know I have a weird Kant thing. Sartre. Existentialism.
W-The constipated existentialism or the leap of faith Nike brand 'just do it' kind? I’m a fan of Kierkegaard. I especially liked that he would write criticisms of his own work anonymously and get them published when no one else would pay attention to his ideas.
There was a time when the term 'dodgy' came to replace the older term 'edgy' which related to an even older term 'cutting edge'. Which of these ideas would you feel most connected to? And give us a few words from something you’ve written to give a sense of the voice I was describing earlier.
L-Dodgy, as in the dodgy end of town? I like dodgy. I want to be the neighborhood with the crack dealers on the corner where the kids aren't allowed to play.
And the constipated version. "like an opiate jerking off to a sugar buzz..."
hahahaha. the opiate line is from one of my poems and the constipation relates to existentialism.
W-Thanks for your time Lara. Good luck with the guns!
Next to Guns by Lara Konesky is published by Grievous Jones Press. http://www.grievousjonespress.com
Blood at the Chelsea an anthology from Erbacce edited by Lara Konesky and Andrew Taylor will be out after the New Year.
http://www.erbacce-press.com/
http://kanteatskids.blogspot.com/
