KARYNA MCGLYNN

 

I’m a tactile and visual person with no talent for drawing, painting, or sculpting, so I’ve always been terribly envious of visual artists—envious of their literal (as opposed to conceptual) tools, envious of their ability to confront people with the immediacy of the visual, envious of their ability to take up space in the physical world. As a poet, my real talent lies in metaphor and juxtaposition so, when I fell into collage, it felt like a natural extension of my written work. I’m continually surprised at the shared aesthetic between my poetry and visual art—both are gurlesque in that they explore serious issues of gender, ambition, violence, and sexuality in campy, provocative, and playful ways. The images above include: It Is Easy to Type (12x16, mixed media on gesso board), World Again Amazed By New Art (12x12, mixed media on canvas panel), and Pardon Me For Bragging (9.75x12.75, mixed media on book board).

KARYNA MCGLYNN is the author of Hothouse (Sarabande 2017), The 9-Day Queen Gets Lost on Her Way to the Execution (Willow Springs 2016), and I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl (Sarabande 2009). Her poems have recently appeared in The Kenyon Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Ninth Letter, Georgia Review, Ploughshares, and New England Review. Karyna earned her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston and was recently the Diane Middlebrook Fellow in Poetry at the University of Wisconsin. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Christian Brothers University in Memphis.