Author Interview! Kate Lebo, A Commonplace Book of Pie
We are very excited to have Kate as a part of our awesome author line up! Check out this fabulous interview with her and make sure to catch her at the show! Kate will be signing her book on Saturday from 2:00pm-3:00pm and Sunday from 1:00pm -2:00pm.
Tell us a bit about yourself, your book.
KL: I'm a poet, obsessive pie maker, blogger, and lover of things I can make with my own two hands. I used to work at Richard Hugo House, so you might know me if you've ever taken a class, donated money, or volunteered there. Now I'm an MFA candidate at the University of Washington. I'm on summer break right now, and rather than go back to my arts administration background, I'm trying my hand at the pie business by hosting pie stands in my front yard and selling frozen pies through my blog, Good Egg. I recommend my peach ginger pie. It's award-winning.
What inspired you to write it/pursue your project?
KL: A Commonplace Book of Pie started as a collaboration with sculptor Bryan Schoneman. We'd been paired to work together by Strange Coupling, a UW program that curates collaborative projects between student artists and community artists. Bryan and I were trying to figure out why they'd paired us together, and after about fifteen minutes of smalltalk, we came upon pie. We both loved it, both made it, and we were both a little suspicious of making something really "arty" for this gallery show. Pie became our common place--a subject we both knew a lot about and could apply our expertise to while we learned and drew inspiration from each other. Pie was also an object, an event, a place, and a desire that we knew an audience would respond to. People go nuts for pie. We tried to tap that energy with our project. Bryan created a pie safe (which I now have hanging on my wall at home) and I wrote A Commonplace Book of Pie. A "commonplace book" is a book that compiles knowledge--quotes, your thoughts and impressions, whatever you think is worth collecting. They were popular in 17th and 18th century Europe. I envisioned my commonplace book as a collection of facts both real and imagined about pie that would be equal parts fun, strange, insightful, and useful. It combines recipes and prose poetry with quotes and multiple choice tests. Jennifer Borges Foster (fellow poet and bookmaker) contributed the covers and Kim Drake designed the interior. I should mention that we did all this in less than 6 weeks.
A Commonplace Book of Pie is in its third printing, and by printing I mean I run out of copies and ask Rosanna Kvernmo of Iron Curtain Pressto letterpress some more covers for me so I can keep sending this little book out into the world.
What's your favorite part? :)
KL: My favorite part of the book is how the only thing that really identifies what it is to a new reader is the word "pie" on the cover. My name doesn't appear until the title page. Of course, I'd love for people to buy this book because they enjoy my writing, but I think what's more interesting and successful is how the simple word "pie" is what inspires them to pick this book off the shelf. By publishing this as a zine, or as an art object, A Commonplace Book of Pie doesn't have the normal book-markings that help identify just what it is you're getting into--a spine, an author, a subtitle, blurbs, or any of that stuff. That will change when I publish the full-length version of the book, so I love the zine's zine-qualities even more.
Also, my pie crust recipe rocks.
Where do you draw your inspiration from?
KL: PIE--eating it, making it, giving it away. Other writers, bakers, and friends. Our desire to love and be loved, and our capacity for self-sabotage.
Are you currently working on something new?
KL: I'm working on the full length version of A Commonplace Book of Pie and pursuing publication opportunities. It will include more prose poems, more quotes, more recipes, more everything.
Any tips for writers/crafters who might be thinking of writing their own book?
KL: Just do it. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't even have to be finished! What you make will inspire the next thing you make, so just keep making. And ask for help. All good writers, crafters--people, really--need help. Collaboration is a source of inspiration.
