My Sister Is Writing a Memoir
by JC Reilly
and I’m
hardly in it,
except
as that odd
teaspoon
of vanilla
a recipe calls for,
inexplicably,
in a chocolate
cake.
JC Reilly’s most recent collection, What Magick May Not Alter, will be out in April from Madville Publishing. She serves as the Managing Editor of the Atlanta Review. When she’s not writing she plays tennis or practices her Italian (badly). Follow her @Aishatonu.
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What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “My Sister Is Writing a Memoir”? I knew the memoir that my sister was writing was focused on her relationship with her best childhood friend, Lisa. In fact, they were writing the memoir together. But when I read an early draft, it was almost as if she didn’t have a sister at all, and I was completely flummoxed (and maybe a little hurt). So I think I wrote the poem “My Sister Is Writing a Memoir” as a way to write myself back into literary existence–but used the metaphor of vanilla to demonstrate how insignificant I am to her book. (Also, why DO we put a teaspoon of vanilla into chocolate cake batter? That seems bonkers.)
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Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.
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