Jennifer Code is a great writer who is becoming my friend, and thats so exciting. Jennifer Code is a dreamboat.
I met her at a bonfire in my backyard. She told me she wrote poetry. Two years later I spent time with her newest book, Necessary Reservations. Mostly hearing it read aloud, and reading it aloud. I bumped into her briefly at a couple shows at the Transac in Toronto (where she lives). And then one day I gmail chatted with her and asked her if I could interview her about Necessary Reservations. She replied that she doesn't really do interviews, and she definitely does not read aloud. but she said yes to both things any way.
She gave a lovely, insightful and generous interview, that left me feeling more inspired and excited about writing (and about talking about) than I had felt for a long long time.
Jennifer Code's poems have to do with body parts and experiencing specific interactions. Emotions, memory, and details so specific that they are not type cast or stock images, but very brief, unrepeated moments. There is a visceralness that i often expect from more extreme work, or work about gore or melodramatic. And Jennifer's work is intense, but not the ways we are used to. Subtly off-putting by how real to life they feel. No, not quite like that, really like, like this. Her word choices (and rhythm and order) is deliberate and clear, metaphoric without being overly general, or grandeous.
We also talked briefly about whether or not Henry Miller is a lesbian.
We talked about a lot of other things too. Jennifer's writing process, the Humber writing program, editing, writers she loves.
Find her work and buy it (and then don't just put it on your shelf, read it!) .
Jennifer's first book: rough draft
Jennifer's second book: necessary reservations
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