Eileen Myles Talks Books (2017). Maladjusted magazine.

I met with punk poet and writer Eileen Myles after a reading of their new book Afterglow, which is out in the UK in February. It's no secret that Myles' writing continues to leave a lasting impression on me, so with that in mind, I struggled to string a sentence together. I did manage to say just how influential Chelsea Girls was for me the first time (of many) that I have read it. A couple of months later, I started thinking about writers that have influenced not just my own writing, but my entire lifestyle. I thought about the likes of Myles and Winterson and started to wonder, who are the writers that inspired them? What are the books that shaped their adolescent years?

I got in touch with Myles, who was just coming to the end of their US book tour, and we scheduled to talk the following week. Publishing over 20 books of poetry, prose and fiction over 40 years, I just knew that they would have an interesting and eclectic collection of books that inspire them.

So as not to put them on the spot on the day, I asked them to compile a list of their top 10 favourite books of all time ready for when we spoke. The list came back almost straight away, when it comes to writing, they don’t mess about. 

So, Eileen, how was the Afterglow tour? 

Great now that it's done. I was on tour from early September till just last week with big gaps in New York in between. Each place was different. Pittsburgh was astonishing - there is a place called City of Asylum that has houses for writers and their families seeking political asylum in US. San Diego - UCSD where I taught and wrote/lived much of the book. El Paso was astonishing in the back yard of the Blackbird Cantina, The Saturn Bar in New Orleans, Drawn & Quarterly in Montreal, The Strand in New York… it was all very great! Happily I love reading my work...yeah I saw friends all over North America, it was fun and I'm so glad it's over. I'm kicking back in Marfa right now.

You have been hailed as a ‘literary legend basking in the latest literary renaissance’- that’s quite a title! Are you enjoying the new surge of interest and the republishing of your earlier material?

Yeah it's totally validating. I mean if it's a small room and everyone's listening, the room is full. I'm a poet and we read our work and publish communally so I always experience total success in the readership I knew, and knew me. I mean we act like the mainstream is reality. It's not. Reality is all these little scenes people consume and experience work within, so I've never felt unknown but of course it's nice to see my work more widely known and get money. It's the right time and I welcome it. And having a young audience means my work works. 

When reading your earlier writing for the first time, I found it just as relevant, way over a decade after it was written. When you revisit your youth within the earlier work does it feel like looking back on someone else? How does it make you feel?

No. I am them. I was learning to write in my earlier books so I see that happening, but I know them very well. I don't think people change though we do get devastated and have to come back from that. There blazes of joy as well, that I also have to recover from just to keep walking down the street or driving my car.

Do you plan to do any readings in the UK when Afterglow is released in Feb?

Yes! March! I do the UK in March and then on to Australia and NZ in May, but for now, still…

So, Eileen, what are your top 10 books of all time?

Here goes…

La Batarde- Violette Le Duc

Master and Margaritte- Mikhail Bulgakov

Nightwood- Djuna Barnes

Maude Martha- Gwendolyn Brooks

Hotel Wentley Poems- John Wieners

Under Glacier- Halldor Laxness

The Activist- Rene Gladman

Winter in the Blood- James Welch

Collected Poems- James Schuyler

Tropic of Capricorn- Henry Miller

WRITTEN FOR MALADJUSTED MAGAZINE IN 2017