Lizzie Harris will be reading at The Difficult to Name Reading Series On A Boat this Saturday, June 13.
I first saw you read at The Disagreement at HiFi. In addition to all of your poems being awesome, you also were talking to the audience in between pieces, making them laugh. Have you always engaged crowds in this way or is this a technique you've worked on?
It's mostly a nervous tick: the more on edge I am, the more I babble. Also, historically, I've tried to take on pretty dark subjects, so the levity is nice. It gives the audience, and me, a breath. It sort of tells the people that they have license to react however they want. They can laugh, they can poetry-mmm, they can just sit there.
Your collection Stop Wanting has gotten a lot of great press. What's the process been like promoting your first book?
Self-promotion is really rough––I'm not sure anyone likes doing it. I will say that I've had a lot of really awesome, moving and generous conversations with strangers in the last year, so it hasn't just been one giant exercise in writing personal statements.
What can people expect from your reading?