{"id":1320,"date":"2018-03-08T23:31:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T07:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=1320"},"modified":"2025-02-25T09:22:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T17:22:36","slug":"sean-lovelace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/sean-lovelace\/","title":{"rendered":"Issue 81: Sean Lovelace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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About Sean Lovelace<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sean Lovelace lives in Indiana, where he directs the creative writing program at Ball State University. He has won several national literary awards, including the Crazyhorse Prize for Fiction. His books include The Frogs Are Incredibly Loud Here, Fog Gorgeous Stag, and How Some People Like Their Eggs. He likes to run, far.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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A Profile of the Author<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Notes on \u201cLetters to Jim Harrison\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

REPORTAGE: <\/strong>I would call these letters space travel and also \u201cliterary homage,\u201d a term possibly I made up, not sure. Certainly we know Hours<\/a><\/em> by Michael Cunningham, or the time Ben Greenman rewrote Chekhov\u2019s<\/a> stories, etcetera. Much of the Chinese poetry I\u2019ve submerged myself in (I know \u201csubmerged\u201d is hyperbolic, but it\u2019s the best word I can find) all autumn is one poet writing through history to another. Homage. My particular project begins with the 1925 death of Russian poet, Sergei Yesenin. Possibly by suicide\u2014a long story involving the Soviets, drunkenness, and writing poetry in your own blood (Apocryphal? Maybe). But jump Time and Space. To the early 1970s, wherein American writer Jim Harrison (of Legends of the Fall<\/em> fame, if any) is suffering poverty, publishing failure, doubt, and the black dog of depression. He begins writing to Yesenin, letters\/prose poetry.<\/a> Jump again to 2006, I\u2019m in Michigan. A southern boy suddenly alone in the cold. I eat my meals in bars and sleep a lot (or lay under blankets on the floor in a malaise\/sleep-like state, sweat pouring off my body). I discover Jim Harrison\u2019s books at the Grand Rapids public library. I fall in love with his writings, especially the poetry. I read all of his works. Jump to 2016, Jim Harrison dies at his writing desk, while writing a poem\u2026This hits me hard like a river boulder to the chest. A gray winter cloud. In grief and respect, I begin to write him letters. So far, I\u2019ve written 95 that are decent to okay good. I\u2019ve written about 300 that didn\u2019t leap from the water into daylight or even make it from the swirling eddy of writing, trying to. I\u2019m still writing these letters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music, Food, Booze, Tattoos, Kittens, etc.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been listening to a Mozart channel I found on my phone. It\u2019s from Canada. I recently found another better one on Amazon Prime. Again, only Mozart. I only listen to Mozart or Morrissey. At least for the last twenty years. I also like the muffled sound of snow falling on snow, especially in a swamp or lowland area near a river, but that\u2019s not technically music. As for eating, I only eat meat I personally kill. A lot of venison, since I\u2019m a bow-hunter. A giant king salmon I recently caught up in Michigan. I thought I had hooked a runaway train or deep regret, etcetera. A giant fish. We fought for many minutes (they seemed extraordinarily long at the time, and, thinking the whole thing over, later on, I realized that in fact they were). I do eat shrimp, though I\u2019m not sure why that exclusion to my rule exists but humans are inconsistent and odd, as we know. I eat a lot of nachos, with sharp cheddar, refried black beans, a wide array of hot sauces. I glow hot sauces. I have a new one a librarian (and heroin addict, though I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s relevant here) gave me that contains all four of the hottest peppers on the planet (Trinidad, Carolina Reaper, Bhut Jolokia, Red 7-Pot). Very tasty. Will clear your sinuses and soul. As for booze. I really like to drink beer and vodka and red wine but it\u2019s also important to regulate that, you know, the main motive being so you can keep <\/em>drinking. Alcohol is a variety of suicide, of course, but a lovely one and anyway this isn\u2019t a dress rehearsal. This life. So I\u2019m dealing with that balance right now. To drink wherein I don\u2019t have to stop drinking. In brighter news I am getting a puppy soon!! A rat terrier. Cute as a narwhal cub and twice as smart. I do have mixed feelings about this endeavor, but life is nothing but mixed feelings. It will either work out grandly or not at all.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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\"Willow<\/figure>\n\n\n

“Andy Warhol and the Art of the Bullet ” by Sean Lovelace<\/a><\/h2>\n\n

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\"Issue<\/figure>\n\n\n

Letters to Jim Harrison by Sean Lovelace<\/a><\/h2>\n\n

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