I gave myself a constraint where each entry must take place on a single neighborhood street. Many of the poems are inside the main characters’ home, but often they are outside in the front lawn, or back yard, or just down the street visiting a neighbor. While most of the pieces weren’t written with this concept in mind, once I found my through-line, I was able to collage and re-work them into some type of (hopefully visible) narrative, all the while writing pieces to connect the dots and fill in some necessary world-building details.

It’s hard to nail down what it’s like working with Leigh Chadwick, as you can imagine, being Leigh Chadwick, and based on all that other stuff I just said. Things just sort of…happen. I began writing in ways I’d never written before, and sometimes we’d even write at the same time, working on lines simultaneously, forming something real and depressing and beautiful out of nothing. Simply put, working with Leigh Chadwick is transformational. 

KEVIN SAMPSELL IS A WRITER, PUBLISHER, COLLAGE ARTIST, AND BOOKSELLER IN PORTLAND, OREGON. HE RUNS THE SMALL PRESS, FUTURE TENSE BOOKS, AND IS ALSO THE CO-CURATOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL COLLAGE WEBSITE, SHARP HANDS GALLERY. HIS PREVIOUS BOOKS INCLUDE THE NOVEL, THIS IS BETWEEN US, AND THE MEMOIR, A COMMON PORNOGRAPHY.

The last few paragraphs of this interview notwithstanding, I think I am ready to do a more serious interview about art. Art. (Felt the need to start a new sentence so I could make sure “art” was capitalized.) In the past, my interviews have been called “jokey” and “some of the best interviews ever conducted in the history of interviews” and “thank you for existing, we need this in our lives,” but I think it is time for me to dive deeper. 

The editors of Olney asked me to write an introduction for this interview, which is the first entry in my new column, “Mediocre Conversations.” Why the editors of Olney were dumb enough to give me a column, I will never know. It is something I am sure they will—if they don’t already—regret.

Growing up steeped in conservative church culture, the first concert I ever went to was for the Christian pop music girl group Point of Grace. My dad, who is named J. C., particularly enjoyed the rapper Carman (who sadly passed away recently!) in part because one of the lyrics in his songs went: “Tell me who’s in the house? J. C.! Jesus Christ is in the house today!” And my mother, of course, loved Amy Grant and dc Talk. In the ‘90s, what Christian family didn’t? And in the entirety of my life, I never knew of a prominent openly LGBTQ Christian musician. I couldn’t imagine that. Until Grace Baldridge, who goes by the stage name Semler, hit number one on the Christian music charts in February on iTunes after releasing an album in that category. She even got a tattoo in honor of the accomplishment.