In this conversation, Shenandoah contributor Luisa A. Igloria discusses the process behind her brand-new poetry collection Caulbearer available August 20. Her poems “Drift” and “Animus” appeared in issue 69.2.
Can you tell me the story of this book: When did you start working on it? What were some of your preoccupations as you were writing it? How did you know when you had a complete collection on your hands?
I can’t pinpoint an actual date, especially since I’ve maintained a daily writing practice for the last 14+ years. But it seems it was after spring 2020 when I started thinking about poems that were “speaking” to each other. That was around the onset of the global pandemic lockdown. Just before that, in January 2020, I’d made a quick trip to Baguio my home city in the Philippines), mostly to accomplish some of the legal paperwork to ensure that my mother would receive the care she needed (she was transferred to a care home, where she remained up until the last couple of months of her life, when she passed away in a hospital there—that was September 2023).
And so, it feels like this book came together out of a sense of loss and some deep grieving. In my personal life, over the decline in health and eventual death of my mother; and on a larger scale, now that one of the last core people in my family circle was no longer in the world, the feeling of being newly vulnerable. With all that came with pandemic isolation, I also felt as if newly severed from the country of my birth (though I have lived in the US for more than 25 years).
In writing the poems in Caulbearer, I think I was also trying to find my way to a sense of re-grounding and consolation; to feel reborn, in some way, or to feel my way back to the world.
If I’ve got this amazing statistic right, this is your fourteenth collection of poetry! What threads or interests carry through the collections? In what ways is this collection different from the work you’ve published before?
I believe that everyone has a certain set of subjects they carry throughout their writing/creative life. I find that I’ve always written about place and history, the complex dynamics of family, living and writing as an immigrant in the diaspora. I’m also always writing about Baguio, how it was made a hill station in the early 1900s, and how the collision of indigenous and colonial forces still echoes to this day. Inevitably, I write about how landscapes are precariously transforming, especially in the context of climate change.
Is there a passage/poem/image/quote you feel is a good representative of the book as a whole, or do you have a current favorite? Can you give us a taste of something you’re especially proud of?
The title poem, of course — “Caulbearer” is a kind of meditation on, perhaps even an ode to, what I name in the poem as “specimens of tenderness.” When yucca flowers are in bloom, yucca moths collect pollen to deposit along with their eggs inside the ovary of another flower. The moths are responsible for pollinating the yucca plants, and their larvae depend only on yucca seeds for food. Theirs is a symbiotic relationship—the plant with its white, bell-like flowers, and the yucca moths with gauzy, elongated wings (that look as sheer as cauls). I’m struck by how, despite the violence and destruction (both natural and human-caused) in the world, magic like this continues to exist.
I’m curious about some logistics: How did you come up with the title? What about the cover art (that image by Elmer Borlongan is so lovely)? How did you find a home at Black Lawrence, and what does the Immigrant Series or the prize itself mean to you? What’s it been like to work with different presses/editors over your career?
I didn’t immediately know what title the book was going to carry, until after I wrote the poem “Caulbearer.” It seemed to bring everything together—the reason for why I query and write about history (both large and personal) is so that I can find those (hopefully well-lit) passages and doors leading forward.
Elmer Borlongan is one of the Philippines foremost expressionist painters, and I have always loved and admired his work. There is always something otherworldly, even fey, in his canvases, though his subjects are always grounded in the real lives of everyday people. I wrote to him and his wife Plet Bolipata (who is also an amazing artist) to ask for permission to use the image (which they generously granted). In fact, they also let me use a photograph taken by Elmer on the cover of my book The Saints of Streets (University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2013). Elmer’s work is magical.
I submitted my manuscript to Black Lawrence Press’s 2023 Immigrant Writing Series prize opportunity, and I’m so glad that it was selected. It’s meaningful because of how it champions immigrant stories and immigrant writing, and it’s a real pleasure to work with a publisher and editors who take such care with what they do. Since my last book prior to this (Maps for Migrants and Ghosts, Southern Illinois University Press, 2020) came out around the time of the pandemic, I feel like I didn’t have many opportunities to schedule programs or readings (except virtual); I’m excited to be able to do more things in person for Caulbearer.
Have you been able to tour or do any events—or do you have any plans to travel and promote? What’s been your favorite moment in terms of connecting with readers
I have some events lined up, both virtual and in person, and I hope there’ll be a few more opportunities ahead, into 2025. I’d love for Caulbearer to be adopted for use in Creative Writing and Literature courses — and I worked with my youngest daughter Gabriela to produce a Study/Reading Guide that will be made available soon on my Black Lawrence Press page.
I love interacting with students in workshops and similar settings, both inside and outside the traditional classroom.
Can you tell us about your time being Poet Laureate of Virginia, especially during the pandemic?
It was an honor to serve as the 20th Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth – and at that time to have become the fourth Poet Laureate of color to be appointed to the position. I had three cornerstone projects which were supported by a grant from the Academy of American Poets and the Mellon Foundation: one, to launch a Young Poets in the Community program, which I accomplished with the help of the Poetry Society of Virginia; two, to create and maintain a Virginia Poets Database, through Old Dominion University’s Perry Library and Digital Commons; and three, to curate a year-long series of virtual programs, workshops, and events centering poetry and local poets. It was wonderful to work with so many poets and communities to realize these public-facing projects. In 2021, when then VA Governor Ralph Northam was collecting new artifacts to put into a new time capsule for the base of the monument where the Robert E. Lee once stood, I was invited to contribute a poem. It still gives me goosebumps to think that a contribution from someone like me, has become part of this moment in history.
Anything special you’re working on now or next?
Mostly, I’ve been teaching (creative writing and literature courses) both at ODU’s MFA Creative Writing program, and at The Muse Writers Center in Norfolk; but I continue my daily writing practice, and I think I am close to pulling a new manuscript together.
Also thrilled about two things: (1) working on a poetry collaboration (since October last year) with my new colleague, the amazing poet Marianne Chan; and (2) getting ready to post a national call for submissions to an exciting new anthology project similar to Dear Human at the Edge of Time: Poems on Climate Change in the U.S. (Paloma Press, 2023)