Hi Alison: I apologize for any suggestion that your own work (the novel) in
and of itself would be down there with your dismissal of those suspect
biographers, or biography as an abused genre (in your recent post).
"Ghastly" I suspect would be the last word applied to your own work. I was,
however, picking up on some of your formerly expressed misgivings about
writing for commerce(compromise). And I am sure many of us do write meet the
needs of a genre/market are implicity apprehensive about getting our good
names 'soiled. Actually - if that did not come through - I wanted to
celebrate and honor that you can do both: write for a living, as well as
keep your strong hand in the making of poems that pay relatively not.
Maybe this two-handed skill is not much different than poets that don't get
their writing souls drowned in the industry of teaching (which in and of
itself can be soulful) or any other industry that pays the bills. It takes a
strong will.
Though, frankly, given my own career, such that it is, I have been well
served by work that's diverted me from writing poems as a central obsession.
It's been good to be shaken up, challenged etc. by other forces. Ah yes, to
variously mix with time. Not that there's ever very much choice on that
score!

Stephen V



> What's this? "Ghastly" commercial endeavour?  A _beautiful_ commercial
> endeavour, I hope!  I hope it sells lots and lots, but I do nothing without
> putting my whole heart into it.