We’re so excited to launch a series of interviews with Issue 1 contributors! We really enjoyed our conversation with Genevieve about her piece “Self-Portrait as 16 Personalities: Free Personality Test,” advice for young writers, poets Solmaz Sharif and Adam Zagajewski, and more.

We loved your piece “Self-Portrait as 16 Personalities: Free Personality Test.” Your command of hyperspecific sensory details combined with the inventive form made it a treat to read. What inspired you to write it? How did the poem evolve over time, and what was the hardest part of your writing or revision process?

It’s been nearly eight months now since the idea for this piece first came to mind, and unlike most of my other pieces, which usually begin with a very specific theme or memory I want to explore, this one actually started with its structure. I had been playing with the idea of writing a poem in the form of some type of survey or test for a while, and I eventually landed on the Myers-Briggs personality test to structure it around. For those unfamiliar, it’s essentially a survey that asks a series of questions about your personality, daily habits, etc. Then, it sorts you into one of 16 personality types based on your responses. It felt fitting to choose this test because it’s quite personal, and I’ve always had a complicated relationship with it. I think I’ve taken it over a dozen times by now, and the questions are still very difficult to answer on a simple 1–5 scale. I also manage a different personality almost every time.

When writing the poem I went through the test question by question and wrote out a few sentences about whatever first came to my mind. Some questions draw on specific moments from my life, while others are more open-ended and based on general thoughts and philosophies I have. In the process, it ended up becoming a deeper reflection on how I see and navigate the world. I’ve always struggled to express myself out loud or explain why I am the way I am, and answering each of the questions through my writing gave me a space to do that in a very free-flowing way. It was easily the most enjoyable writing experience I’ve had. After completing the responses, I added the interactive scale and scoring section based on feedback I received to make the piece more engaging for readers. It was really interesting to step outside my own introspection and consider how a reader might interact with it. 

I think the hardest part about both writing and revising this poem was the sheer amount of content I was working with. It’s the longest poem I’ve ever written, and I had many drafts where it was even longer. The real Myers-Briggs test is almost 100 questions long, so it took a while to sort through them and decide which ones I wanted to actually answer.  To this day I still go back to remove or add questions depending on what feels relevant to me at the time.

At age 16, you’ve already established yourself within the literary world. What advice would you give to young writers looking to get their work published for the first time?

I’d say just take a shot and send your work out wherever it’s eligible! There are so many wonderful youth literary magazines out there, and even some adult ones that I think everyone should try submitting to. As writers, it’s really easy to be critical and sell ourselves short when it comes to how good our work is, but you never know who is going to take it. Most of my publications have been a complete surprise, and that just goes to show you’ll never really know how far you can go until you try. I always submit my work without expecting much, but I am so often surprised by how well things actually turn out. I think it’s important to remember that you are probably going to get rejected from places no matter what, but rejections don’t define your work or your potential. Sometimes it takes me dozens of tries to get a piece published, but I would’ve never gotten there at all if I had stopped after the first rejection.

If you could describe your writing style in three words, what would they be?

Curious, Vibrant, and (just a little bit) Sacrilegious.

What poets have you been reading lately that you’d recommend? Is there a line from a poem that has stuck with you recently?

I just finished Solmaz Sharif’s 2016 collection Look, and I’ve also been reading a lot of Adam Zagajewski, both of whom I would absolutely recommend. They are incredible poets whose work I find very eye-opening and relevant to our world today. I think they talk a lot about war and the destructive sides of humanity, but I’ve loved Zagajewski’s work in particular because so many of his pieces also highlight the understated beauty and persistence of nature and everyday life. The first poem I read by him was “Try to Praise the Mutilated World” back in January, and I still think about it often. It ends with the lines “Praise the mutilated world // and the gray feather a thrush lost, // and the gentle light that strays and vanishes // and returns”. To me, the mention of the light vanishing and returning is a reminder that there are periods where peace and hope may be overshadowed by struggle and violence, but they endure and always return. I find it to be a beautiful reminder not to lose hope, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for something reflective and grounding in a world that can feel overwhelming at times.

Finally, since we’re Marmalade Lit, do you have a favorite bread, pastry, or jam?

I love strawberry jam and would love to learn how to make it someday! I’m also a really big fan of pumpkin bread, especially when it has chocolate chips mixed in.