CONTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT:
INTERVIEW WITH MELANIE FIGG
Rappahannock Review Poetry Editors: We fell in love immediately with the letter format of “Dear Jim,” and how it feels so immediate. What inspired you to write in this form?
Melanie Figg: First, thanks for inviting me to talk about my work with you! I love writing formal poetry but had never tried to write in ottava rima before. I liked the idea of taking what I thought of as one of the “old-fashioned” forms and putting it in a casual voice—the letter format let me do that. I often use formal poetry to explore difficult subjects. (My book Trace has villanelles and sonnets, but none of my sestinas made the cut.) Using formal restrictions provides a kind of oven mitt for the poet to approach hot topics like grief. With form, your brain can focus on the rules and structure—rather than the difficult emotional material. It’s an easier way to access hard material. I love teaching poetic forms, and I encourage my students to use the opportunity of focusing on form to tackle some emotional topics that they might have been avoiding.
RR: We thought this direct, personal structure was a great way to make the piece feel real. Was this based on a real conversation or grounded in another concept?
MF: The poem was based on a real conversation. My friend, poet Jim Moore, had sent me a note after the death of my mother. A reply to him was on my To Do list—so to me it seemed the perfect content to pair with ottava rima.
RR: We were surprised at the notion of jealousy of a cat, in the lines “I know, god, it’s just a cat. Still— / she watched my mother die.” As part of the difficult process of grief, what brought you to focus on jealousy in this moment?
MF: Honestly, I didn’t begin the poem by wanting to focus on jealousy—I think the word might have just surfaced as a rhyme for “house”! That’s why I love writing in form, the rhyme schemes force new diction choices, tighter syntax. Teaching form is my favorite topic to teach because it trains poets to build stamina and nimbleness by working with language.
As for the jealousy…I often write about the complicated space of layered emotions—when there’s loyalty underneath the secret, when there’s shame on top of the sadness, when there’s jealousy but you’re not “supposed” to feel that way. That’s emotional territory that I like to explore in my poems.
After my siblings and I learned of my mom’s death, one of the first things we talked about was what to do with mom’s cat. A neighbor had been coming to feed her, but it’s one of those logistics that people don’t think about until they have to deal with it. It made me think about her cat being there. Cats are smart, and I think all animals are very tuned into the spirit world. It still gives me an immense amount of comfort—knowing that mom was not alone as she died, that she was tended to by a beloved pet as she passed over.
RR: We noticed that your website offers consulting sessions for writers—that’s a fantastic idea; how did you get started doing that work?
MF: I have taught creative writing for nearly 30 years, and I offer detailed manuscript reviews on poetry, fiction, and memoir. In 2017, I became a certified professional coach as a way to deepen my training and expand how I work with writers.
I offer 1-1 coaching for writers, and other creative people (musicians, visual artists) on “process” issues: procrastination, perfectionism, time management, how to stay motivated—the tricky barriers that keeps us from completing work and feeling satisfied. I work with writers at every possible creative crossroad: people who are just trying to build a writing practice to start getting their ideas on paper, writers who are struggling to complete a first draft or shifting to the deep structural work of a second draft, writers who have finished a final draft and are now looking for agents and starting to build their platforms. I love watching my clients find more joy and ease with their writing practice. It’s very satisfying work.
RR: We also see you live in the DC area. How has that experience and place influenced your work?
MF: I really like where we live in Maryland (“inside the Beltway” for those who care!). Our house is up against the woods with lots of deer, foxes, and owls. I live in one of the most diverse cities in the country, and we are just a few metro stops from downtown DC. Being close to DC has been wonderful for my writing—I often write about art, or get inspired by art—having so many free world-class museums near has been great. A big metro area like DC also means there is a large literary ecosystem—a wide range of literary organizations, festivals, visiting writers, and reading series—stuff that is so important for any writer.
Melanie Figg’s work in Issue 8.3: