Sweet Talk with Brynne Rebele-Henry

Welcome to this month's Sweet Talk, a series in which we Rascals chat with cool and creative teenagers. Today, I’ll be talking to poet Brynne Rebele-Henry. You can read her official bio below:

Brynne Rebele-Henry’s poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in such journals as Prairie Schooner, Denver Quarterly, jubilat, Fiction International, Rookie, and So to
Speak, among other places. Her writing has won numerous awards, including the 2015 Louise Louis/Emily F. Bourne Poetry Award from the Poetry Society of America, the
2016 Adroit Prize for Prose, and a 2017 Glenna Luschei Award from Prairie Schooner. Her first book Fleshgraphs appeared with Nightboat Books in 2016. Her second book,
Autobiography of a Wound, won the AWP Donald Hall Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2019. She’s working on her first novel, Orpheus Girl.

FG: How were you introduced to poetry?

BRH: My father’s a poet and a translator, so I grew up surrounded by literature.

FG: What has influenced your writing? Who inspires you?

BRH: Gay girls inspire me! Charting the lesbian experience is the main objective behind my work. LGBTQ+ issues always remain at the center of my work.

FG: I've read your gorgeous debut, Fleshgraphs (Nightboat Books, 2016), and am so excited to read your forthcoming second book of poems, Autobiography of a Wound (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019). Do the two works have any significant differences or similarities? Do you hope to achieve any specific goals with Autobiography of a Wound?

BRH: Thank you so much! The books are both really different. Fleshgraphs was my first book, so I was experimenting with voices and subjects, and I think it was received as more of an edgier experimental project, which is something that I admire but that I’m not actually interested in publishing regularly or being known for. As for the differences between the books, Autobiography of a Wound is a lot more focused on lesbianism and dyke girlhood and myths, which are all topics that are the main objective in my work.

FG: Do you have any other passions? Any projects you’re working on?

BRH: Lately, in terms of projects, I’ve been working on revising my first YA novel, Orpheus Girl, with my agent. This project is actually the first time I’ve worked with YA, and I love it so much! I think lesbian YA is my new favorite thing to write. I’m really partial to novels in general—they’re my preferred genre.

In terms of other passions, do dogs count? Because they’d definitely be at the top of my list. I also love fashion.

FG: If you've revised that far, would you mind telling us a bit about the plot of Orpheus Girl? It certainly has an interesting title. Also, what has your writing process been like while writing this novel? Does it differ from your writing process for poetry in any way?

BRH: Thank you. It’s a modern lesbian retelling of the Orpheus myth.

I wrote the first draft of Orpheus Girl in the summer/fall of 2016. I’d had this vague idea that I wanted to write a novel about teenage lesbians that tied into mythology, somehow, and I’d been thinking about writing it for a couple of years, and then once I figured out the premise of the novel, the rest happened pretty quickly.

My process definitely differs. My poetry writing process is faster. I generally write the first drafts of most of my poetry manuscripts in a few weeks or so. My fiction is more methodical. It takes a lot of research and planning and is generally a more lengthy and immersive process that I work on every day over the course of many months or sometimes a couple years (I’ve been working on my novel, The Glass House, for around four years now). As much as I love poetry, I consider myself primarily a fiction writer because fiction is what I wake up every morning and work on every day. It’s what I primarily spend a better portion of my time writing and researching and revising and just thinking about how I’m going to portray the lives and voices of the gay girls in my work.

FG: If you could travel back in time to any age, what would you tell your past self?

BRH: I think I’d tell my ten year old self that the sense of displacement and loneliness that I think comes with growing up gay goes away. I also would probably tell myself that wearing plaid shorts with plaid shirts isn’t a good look for anybody.

FG: What have you been reading or listening to lately? Your favourite TV shows? Are there any lesser-known books, shows or albums that you’d recommend?

BRH: I live for The L Word so I’m really excited for the reboot, and I also love Fatimah Asghar’s web series, Brown Girls. I also love Carol. I’m not sure about it being lesser-known, but I’d highly recommend Whores on the Hill by Colleen Curran (I’ve never enjoyed reading about straight girls so much). Ugly Girls by Lindsay Hunter is also wonderful.

FG: Lastly, to stay true to our name, do you like sweet or sour food better?

BRH: I prefer sweet food! Though I’m partial to sour jellybeans.

Thank you for taking the time to talk to us, Brynne! We encourage all of you Rascals to check out Brynne's books and work online.

Farah Ghafoor is editor-in-chief at Sugar Rascals and has had poems published in Ninth Letter, alien mouth, and Big Lucks among other places. Her work has been nominated for Best New Poets and Best of the Net, and has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, Hollins University, the Keats-Shelly Memorial Association, the League of Canadian Poets, and Columbia College Chicago. She believes that she deserves a cat.