FROM RIGHT TO JONG by Christine Trzyna
(This article appeared in July 1994 Next Magazine.)
I've worked a number of trade shows before, but the ABA Convention was the best. The Orange Ocean Press Booth, ion the Small Press area, was home base for me and visited by a horde of O.O.P's published poets.
When Moss Sheridan showed up with a substantial tote of autographed books - one from Allen Ginsberg- we realized that for a paltry $1. donation to help rebuild LA's earthquake ravaged libraries, we too could be the owner of a brand new hardback. The PR people at the convention center claimed 30,000 were in attendance and the book signing lines were hot and incredibly long - definitely requiring cushy flats to endure the waiting. I, never the less, circled in my corporate heels and braved the lines.
Somebody had to keep plugging in the Orange Ocean Press and surfing videos at the booth,so I planned my autograph hunting with discrimination. Though, OK, once I escaped by telling the guys I had to go to the ladies room. My prime target: Erica Jong.
I love Erica Jong and through thousands of books have passed through my life, each of hers remain in my permanent collection, making it through my many moves. But something went wrong and I found myself in the Disney gate instead, where I could only see her from afar. If I'd had more than a buck on me, I would've tried to "tip" the gate-keeper; instead I told the truth, tears swilling in my eyes. I got sympathy and was allowed int the FEAR OF FIFTY line.
Although I am not of her generation, Ms. Jong's seven poetry books and six novels, her many essays, have always spoke to me. She has always written honestly about the struggle for a woman to be an artist/writer/per. As I waited, I thought of all the things I I would say to her when it was my turn. When the time came I was too dumbfounded by emotion to do anything but smile.
FEAR OF FIFTY, due out in August (1994), contains an entire chapters, "Seducing the Muse," which is dedicated to her experiences as a poet back when a woman was called "poetess." It includes the ambivalence of sending work out, the glory of success, the poetry scene in which she read, and the way the publishing world turned its back on poets.
To quote Ms. Jong, "I returned again and again to poetry after each novel because poetry was guaranteed to be obscure, thus ambition-proof, so it was possible to write it with little thought for the outside worlds... The best you can do is work at not caring too much about the outer symbols and continuing to do whatever it is that centers you and makes you remember your true self... Poetry has remained that for me."
