Tiny Talks is an interview series with Tiny Spoon’s talented contributors. This week we spoke with Jan Elaine Harris from our thirteenth issue.
Tiny Spoon: What kindles your creativity?
Jan Elaine Harris: Movement. I love summer and being outside. I love having mornings with my dogs and my monstera plant. The sun, the green, the humidity. It opens me.
Tiny Spoon: Are there any artists/ heroines/ idols/ friends that you look up to?
Jan Elaine Harris: Borges: always. My teacher: Micheal Martone. Heather Christle and Zachary Schomberg. My students keep me honest and keep me writing.
Tiny Spoon: Do you have specific superstitions or divinatory practices that you adhere to?
Jan Elaine Harris: I listen to Hagan Fox’s Weekly Astrology Forecast, and I have had my Tarot read, and my life card is Temperance.
Tiny Spoon: We love insight into the creative process. Could you share what it is like for you, either with your work that appears in Tiny Spoon or in general?
Jan Elaine Harris: The Orange Grove poem took years to write, because I avoid writing about childhood— but I kept coming back to the moment with my grandmother and the sandy earth.
Tiny Spoon: Do you have any current or future projects that you are working on that you would like to share?
Jan Elaine Harris: I am working on a poetry manuscript, and its working title is Exclusion Zone. It’s about what we do after the world ends.
Tiny Spoon: What book, artwork, music, etc., would you recommend to others?
Jan Elaine Harris: I go outside, I go to museums, I stare at my friends’ faces, I think it’s all moving towards us— fill your hands with what brings you joy, fill your heart with the light you can find.
Tiny Spoon: Is there anything else you would like others to know about you, your creations, or beyond?
Jan Elaine Harris: There is so much darkness, genocide, plastic, hatred. We can’t look away from it. And there are neighbors, drag queens, immigrants, shining like beacons all around us. In poems, in hearts, two things can be true at once: the horrors are almost insurmountable, and resilience is still possible.
Tiny Spoon: Where can people learn more about what you do?
Jan Elaine Harris: I’m on Instagram (#geriatic millennial) I need a website and a trust fund.
