#CopingWith is CCM’s interview series run by managing editor Joanna C. Valente
Harold Abramowitz’s book, “Blind Spot,” which came out on August 15, 2016. Of “Blind Spot,” TC Tolbert has said, “It’s one thing to write a novel about trauma – to tell a coherent story, to create (and be comforted by, to whatever extent) a narrative arc of pain and loss. But it’s something else entirely to find oneself inside a series of imagistic and syntactical loops – a Venn diagram of partial thoughts (or dreams or memories) that become more certain and more troubling each time they refuse to relate or resolve. Harold Abramowitz’s Blind Spot is not about anything – about, from the Old English, ‘outside of.’ Instead, it’s a kind of prayer made out of attention (Simone Weil). Incantatory and somatechnic. I fucking love this book. Abramowitz writes the mind and body (in trauma, in everyday life) from the knotted and careful inside.”
As such, we interviewed him about his book, although instead of asking boring lit questions, our managing editor Joanna C. Valente asked him about everything else instead, like what his favorite meal and apocalypse plans are.
Here’s what he said:
Describe your favorite meal.
My wheel of favorite foods is always spinning. Right now, my favorite meal would be: First course: any kind of vegan tomato soup + the Gracious salad from Cafe Gratitude in Los Angeles: butternut squash, radicchio, cashew mozzarella, garbanzo beans, sun-dried tomato pistachio pesto, brown rice and quinoa slathered with smoky hot sauce. Second course: vegan pizza topped with kimchi and Sriracha. Third course: a really good hippie cookie.
What music do often you write to, if at all?
I am almost always listening to music, except when I write. It’s kind of either or for me.
What are three books that you’ve always identified with?
The three books I am schlepping around with me in my bag right now (which is as far back as I can go today) are:
Memory of Fire: Genesis by Eduardo Galeano, Negro League Baseball by Harmony Holiday, and Dingbat 2.0: The Iconic Los Angeles Apartment as Projection of a Metropolis, an anthology, edited by Thurman Grant and Joshua G. Stein
Choose one painting that describes who you are. What is it?
Charred Landscape by Lee Krasner
Lee Krasner
Choose a gif that encompasses mornings for you.
What do you imagine the apocalypse is like? How would you want to die?
The tough part is deciding what we are going to do next.
If you could only watch three films for the rest of your life, what would they be?
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg by Jacques Demy
Swordsman II by Ching Siu-tung
A Touch of Zen by King Hu
How would you describe your social media persona/role?
I know better. I am a total idiot. This is really important. I know better. I am a total idiot. Why am I doing this? Hey, look at this. I know better. I am a total idiot. Why am I doing this? This is really important. I know better. Hey, you need to see this.
What’s your favorite animal and why?
Hummingbirds are really my best friends.
What do you carry with you at all times?
An array of pens. I can’t read my own handwriting anymore, but I love them. Ballpoints. I have six of them with me right now: two green, two black, one silver, one blue and white.
Harold Abramowitz is from Los Angeles. He is author and co-author of books of poetry and prose, including Dear Dearly Departed, Not Blessed, and UNFO Burns A Million Dollars. Harold writes and edits as part of the collaborative projects eohippus labs, SAM OR SAMANTHA YAMS and UNFO.
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.
