Long Beach poet Donna Hilbert settled here a baker's dozen years ago and feels that she's found her literary home. "Long Beach is a great place to live and write," she told me. "I love the diversity, the climate, and the community."
She is currently working on her next collection of poetry, which will be published next year by Aortic Books, a small literary and arts press based in Long Beach. However, she still took the time to answer a few of my questions over email.
Carma Spence: What types of genres do you like to write?
Donna Hilbert: I consider myself a poet who dabbles in other forms. I started out writing fiction in college, but when a professor suggested that I try writing poetry as a way of bringing more imagery into my fiction, I took his advice.
For many years I wrote both, side-by-side, stories and poems in process at the same time. Over the years I have settled into writing much more poetry than prose. Recently, I have written a few essays about writing and have enjoyed using a form in which I can speak in a straightforward way.
CS: Where do you get your ideas?
DH: My ideas come from the process of putting pen to paper. I seldom sit down with any intention. I write in longhand, usually with a fountain pen, on a yellow legal pad or in a notebook.
I am not particular about the paper, but I am particular about my pens. I never write directly onto the computer (except interviews)! I write my first few drafts with my non-dominant, left hand, and then the next several with my right hand. After I type the poem into the computer, many more drafts will follow before I am satisfied that I have done all I can with the poem.
CS: Did you always like writing?
DH: Yes, I think so. The only activity I like more than writing is reading.
CS: Do you have a set schedule to do your writing?
DH: I like to write in the morning when I’m full of energy and before necessities of the day overwhelm me. Sometimes the writing comes to nothing and I will move on to other tasks or reading after lunch. But when I am writing a poem that is really going somewhere, I will work on it constantly over a period of days or weeks -- whatever it takes.
CS: How do you feel about the current state of writing? Is this a good time for writers?
DH: I think the times are as good for writers as they are for anyone else. I am grateful that I have the privilege of spending my life doing what I love. I never take this privilege for granted. I feel incredibly lucky.
CS: What is the best advice you've ever received as a writer?
DH: “End on an image and don’t explain.” I came across this recently in a 1982 Paris Review interview with late poet Stanley Kunitz. I had heard the “end on an image” part many times in creative writing classes and it is an axiom that I do believe in and repeat to my students on a weekly basis. The “don’t explain” part makes it even better.
CS: What is the best advice you can give as a writer?
DH: The best advice I can offer a writer is to be a reader. Reading should be just as much a part of your day as writing. Read the best work that your genre has to offer. And, if you can find a few other writers who you trust to read your work and give you feedback -- that can be a good thing.
CS: What do you like about being a writer in Long Beach?
DH: The poetry community here is varied and vital, with many literary magazines, small presses and poetry readings. It is a warm, generous and open community.
I must mention Marilyn Johnson and Joan Jobe Smith of PEARL Editions & PEARL Magazine, Kevin Patrick Lee of Aortic Books and Re(verb magazine and Paul Kareem Tayyar of World Parade Books for being especially supportive of me. The presence of CSULB and Long Beach City College with their strong creative writing programs contribute mightily to making Long Beach a great city for writers. I must also mention Gatsby Books -- in just over a year it has become a terrific hub for writers and readers in Long Beach.
CS: What's next for you and your writing?
DH: I am in the final stages of putting together a new poetry collection that will be published next year by Aortic Books. I wish I could tell you the title, but I haven’t quite settled on it yet. I am also working with a young academic in Switzerland, Mariacristina Natalia Bertoli, who is translating some of my work into Italian and French.
For more information about Donna Hilbert and her work, visit her website at www.donnahilbert.com.
Books by Donna Hilbert
- Traveler in Paradise: New and Selected Poems
- Transforming Matter
- Deep Red
- The Green Season
- Two Novellas: Waiting For My Baby The First Time He Saw Paris by Donna Hilbert and Gerald Locklin
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