#CopingWith is CCM’s interview series run by managing editor Joanna C. Valente
Lynn Melnick is a contributor in our anthology “A Shadow Map,” which is due for release on February 22, 2017 (although it did be launch at AWP this year in DC). Lynn is also the author of the book “If I Should Say I Have Hope” published by YesYes Books in 2012. Of the book, the Matthea Harvey has said, “On the melancholy-go-round of these poems, there’s a swan-seat for sadness but also a tiger called Beauty and a horse called Hope.” Lynn’s second book is due out from YesYes Books, “Landscape with Sex and Violence” (forthcoming October 2017).
Describe your favorite meal.
My favorite meal is an Eastern European Jewish dish made with egg noodles, cottage cheese, and sour cream. (Sadly, I can’t eat dairy anymore so I can no longer eat my favorite meal!)
What music do often you write to, if at all?
I find music distracting when I write.
What are three books that you’ve always identified with?
Hmm. Identified with, as opposed to loved?? Ok. Dancing on the Grave of a Son of a Bitch by Diane Wakoski, It Could Always Be Worse (a Yiddish folktale) by Margot Zemach and The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
Choose one painting that describes who you are. What is it?
The Storm, 1893 by Edvard Munch
Choose a gif that encompasses mornings for you.
What do you imagine the apocalypse is like? How would you want to die?
I don’t. I want to die knowing my children are safe and happy.
If you could only watch three films for the rest of your life, what would they be?
All About Eve, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Mulholland Drive
How would you describe your social media persona/role?
Less shy than I am in life.
What’s your favorite animal and why?
Until I was well into adulthood, I thought seahorses were mythological and then one day I saw one.
What do you carry with you at all times?
Worry, doubt and tampons.
Lynn Melnick is the author of Landscape with Sex and Violence (forthcoming, 2017) and If I Should Say I Have Hope (2012), both with YesYes Books, and the co-editor of Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poets for the Next Generation (Viking, 2015). She serves on the Executive Board of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts.
Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014), The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press, 2015), Marys of the Sea (ELJ Publications, 2016), & Xenos (2016, Agape Editions). She received her MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She is also the founder of Yes, Poetry, as well as the managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine and CCM. Some of her writing has appeared in Prelude, The Atlas Review, The Feminist Wire, BUST, Pouch, and elsewhere. She also teaches workshops at Brooklyn Poets.