Several times a month we connect with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.
Name: Jennifer Schomburg Kanke
Title of Pieces Published in Sweet: “The Shape of the Body, 1979”
Issue: 7.3
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You can find out more about Jennifer on her website.
What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?
An excerpt from my novel was published in the Fall 2022 issue of Shenandoah. I won the Editor’s Award for Fiction from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions for the short story “A String of Beads” which has been published in their fiction anthology.
I’m serving as a MeterKeeper in Annie Finch’s online Poetry Witch Community, helping other poets connect with their abilities to write metrical poetry. I had a poem and short story coming out in Stained: An Anthology of Writing about Menstruation, edited by Rachel Neve Midbar and Jennifer Saunders from Querencia Press and I also have poetry included in a feature on meter and magic in Pratik: A Magazine of Contemporary Writing.
Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?
I’m currently looking for a home for a short novel that I wrote by entraining to William Wordsworth’s long poem The Prelude and then just writing wherever my mind went (then heavily editing and revising after, of course). It’s called A Pleasant Loitering Journey and I liken it to if William Wordsworth had written Fried Green Tomatoes after reading Gravity’s Rainbow. Stylistically, it’s what some people might call ecriture feminine, there are a lot of direct addresses to the reader and the narrative is non-linear (and there are a few multi-page footnotes just for funsies). It tells the story of an HR executive who becomes a goddess after she survives cancer, then she goes on a revenge spree. It was just so much fun to write and part of my healing journey after going through chemotherapy for ovarian cancer in 2019. I think people will either love the narrator’s voice or hate her, I don’t think there’s a lot of in-between. I love her and she cracks me up.
Who is your favorite author?
Right now I’m very into Iris Murdoch and Muriel Spark.
What is your favorite poem/essay/book?
The book I’ve been recommending to everyone lately is Alison Stine’s Trashlands. I don’t really have a single consistent favorite.
What inspires you to write?
I never have a sufficient answer for this question. It’s sort of like asking me what inspires me to breathe. I have no idea, I just do it because if I don’t I’m pretty sure I’ll die.
What are you reading right now?
Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Allison and The Legend of Brightblade by Ethan M. Aldridge
What is your favorite sweet? We would love for you to share a recipe or link to place that serves it. Pictures are great, too!
I don’t eat much refined sugar, so some folks don’t consider my sweets to be sweets, but I think they’re plenty sweet enough. There’s this recipe from Well-Plated that I’ve adapted by using soaked dates instead of honey and it’s so versatile! I wrote about it on my blog last year: https://lightmeridian.wordpress.com/2022/01/11/chocolate-chip-cookies/
Thank you, Jennifer, for taking the time to reconnect with us. We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!
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