{"id":2721,"date":"2020-01-03T18:08:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-04T02:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=2721"},"modified":"2025-02-25T09:26:54","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T17:26:54","slug":"issue-85-michael-mcgriff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/issue-85-michael-mcgriff\/","title":{"rendered":"Issue 85: Michael McGriff"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n\n
\"McGriff-Jackson-3<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

About Michael McGriff<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Michael McGriff is the author of several books, most recently the poetry collections Early Hour<\/i> (Copper Canyon Press, 2017) and Black Postcards<\/i> (Willow Springs Books, 2017). A new edition of his co-authored story collection (with J.M. Tyree), Our Secret Life in the Movies,<\/i> has just been released from Deep Vellum. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Poetry London, The Believer, American Poetry Review, <\/i>and on PBS NewsHour. He teaches creative writing at the University of Idaho, and his work can be explored online here [https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2014\/11\/02\/360859192\/our-secret-life-watching-the-quirky-criterion-classics<\/a>] and here [michaelmcgriff.com<\/a>].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author photo credit: Marcus Jackson<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\n\n

\n\t\tA Profile of the Author\n\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Notes on “That the Deer Tick Is the Pilot Light of the Universe” and “4 AM”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I think of “4 A.M.” as I do much of my work-it’s a kind of lovechild between Yannis Ritsos, Tomas Transtr\u00f6mer, and Frank Stanford. In that power trio I continue to find a model for how to write about the intersection of solitude, inwardness, and a kind of metaphysical landscape. Description and image-making are what electrify poetry for me, especially when those elements become proxies for the inner life of the writer, no matter how opaque or obvious such a life may be. “That the Deer Tick Is the Pilot Light of the Universe” is dedicated to my friend, the unofficial arts mayor of Marfa, TX, Tim Johnson. This isn’t a private poem, but its quick associations and leaping motions are meant to reflect what I admire in Tim’s imagination and artmaking. All my poems carry the DNA of other artists; those who inspire me the most are friends who defiantly live and breathe art and human subjectivity in a world that increasingly values Internet fame and group-think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Records? Come over some time and we’ll slide the KEFs out from the wall, warm up the tubes, and listen to all the new pressings from the Neil Young Archives.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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

Issue 95: Sean Cho A.<\/a><\/h2>\n\n

<\/svg><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":25234,"featured_media":791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-profiles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2721"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2721"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38143,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2721\/revisions\/38143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}