A mere thirty days after Savannah Brown released her poignant collection Closer Baby Closer, she finds herself grappling with the creative currents that fostered the work. Enigmatic and riddled with dark humor, the core of the compilation is the deeply reflective poem ‘Nightmare Stations’. As her third anthology and Doomsday Press’s inaugural publication, it traverses the evolution of closeness from seeking to remembering, though she doesn’t strictly demarcate life’s physical and digital closeness. Brown infuses her eclectic mix of terror and levity, often within the same gasp, while always seeking clarity.
The collection is an intricate tapestry of human connection, painted with strokes of morbidity, whimsy, and fervor. In Closer Baby Closer, Savannah assembles pieces of life’s chaos, interrogating the silent echoes beyond our fleeting moments. Amidst the seeming chaos, she hones in on the subtleties of language, grounding her gaze on our collective experiences, such as the universal ‘Wilhem yawp’. The poetry offers windows into shared terrains of fear and aspiration, like her poem ‘Top comment’ that pledges enhanced empathy and connection.
We connected with Savannah Brown to uncover the roots of Closer Baby Closer, the enigma of intimacy, the reverence of dreams, and beyond.
What are your thoughts on Closer Baby Closer since its release and the transition to new projects?
With the collection out, Brown reflects on the customary distance time creates. She resides in creative flux, caught between promotion and fresh endeavors. Yet, unlike past projects, this collection harbors warm sentimentality. There’s solace in the collection’s raw, unfiltered honesty, which stands resistant to her habitual retrospective scorn.
How have the fundamental questions of your early works matured over time?
Savannah recalls a relentless curiosity dating back to childhood. Over time, she’s fine-tuned her articulation about understanding one another. While humor and introspection bind her collections, each work is a time capsule of her relentless fascinations.
Could you trace the development of thoughts on human connection from the past years?
Addressing the question, Brown alludes to personal evolutions, including coming to terms with late-diagnosed autism. She frames human engagement as an intersection of fear and fascination. Over time, as self-understanding deepened, so did her engagement with and questions about others.
Do Sweetdark and Closer Baby Closer contrast in their portrayal of intimacy?
Brown differentiates the two anthologies, citing that where Sweetdark evoked a timeless quality, Closer Baby Closer distinctly belongs to its era. The paradox of using poetry—a medium not recognized for clarity—to elucidate raw emotion becomes an intentional dialect in her work.
During the collection’s creation, were any prose writings influencing your poems?
Savannah shares an anecdote about a speculative novel, penned with zeal but put to rest after its chilly reception. This speculative narrative sowed the seeds that blossomed into ‘Nightmare Stations’, the dark heart of Closer Baby Closer.
Was navigating between fiction and personal poetry effortless?
Despite acknowledging distaste for genre-hopping, Brown admits her narrative prose informs her poetry. Prose unlocks a mechanical facet to storytelling, while poetry aligns more with unveiling personal truths.
How did you approach structuring Closer Baby Closer?
The act of assembling a collection is a cherished process for Brown. This work, almost following a chronological order, communicates experiences from joy to terror and culminates with a touch of liberation.
Any lingering connections to ‘Nightmare Stations’?
Brown admits ‘Nightmare Stations’ endures as the collection’s true heartbeat, narrating the vivid dread of nightmares. By sharing these nocturnal journeys—fraught with fear and self-inquiry—’Nightmare Stations’ becomes an ode to the darkest corners of the mind.
Did including humor alter your writing or connection with your readers?
The integration of humor is a conscious choice by Brown, designed to disarm readers, invoking both laughter and poignancy without obscuring the core message.
In the collection, the term “miracles” surfaces repeatedly. What significance does it bear?
Miracles—a word laced with religious undertones—is revisited by Brown, revealing a personal dialogue with love, existence, and the sheer marvel of being.
How has creating this anthology influenced your current poetic endeavors?
After years of confessional writing, Brown confesses feeling weary of self-focus. The writer yearns for explorations outside herself, signalling a new chapter in her poetic expedition.
This discourse has been shaped and encapsulated with a focus on clarity and brevity.
Savannah Brown’s Closer Baby Closer is now available.