My new book, Gods of Water and Air (forthcoming from Kelsay Books), is a mixed bag of poetry, prose, drama, and flash fiction. I like books that incorporate different genres, like letters and narrative, poetry and essays. Japanese haiku poet Basho's books The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Records of a Travel-Worn Skeleton intrigued me with the readability of a story told through different media all between two covers.
Mixing up genres of writing is supported by an increasing number of journals. I think of TheNewerYork, that states "There are literary gems everywhere, from the disclaimer on a box of crackers to the instructions on your algebra test." I also think of Danse Macabre, a magazine with a soundtrack that defies description and also includes different languages, providing a quirky and fascinating journey in every issue. They invite submissions of conventional forms, but a wide variety of them, and leave room for some invented forms. It will be interesting to me to see how readers react to finding a one-act play in the middle of my poetry collection. And to experiment with publishing pieces in some of these less-conventional formats.
