Christopher Carter Sanderson, London Independent Story Prize 2024 2nd Competition Poetry Winner 'Broadway & 116th'

London Independent Story Prize 2024 2nd Competition Poetry Winner 'Broadway & 116th' by Christopher Carter Sanderson

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- Can you please tell us about you and your daily life?

I live in the rectory of St. James Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY with my wife who is the priest here and our young son. Most days I help bundle him off to school and help with the buildings and grounds around the church and its historic cemetery. I am lucky enough to have a room to myself where I write every day - unless I’m awa,y in which case I take my writing along.

- When and how did you get into writing?

My childhood was very much filled with reading. I submitted my first poem to The New Yorker when I was 14 and stuck to poetry throughout my college years, was often professionally published, then added writing theatrical adaptations which were often produced, and then wrote my first novel at 30. This was followed by original plays, and I wrote my first published novel at the age of 49, I think. And I’ve always kept writing poetry. Shakespeare writes in iambic pentameter verse and much of my celebrated professional work as a theater director is with Shakespeare. My published works include a novel which some have called prose-poetry titled The Too-Brief Chronicle of Judah Lowe, a translation/adaptation of The Dhammapada into iambic pentameter verse titled The Support Verses, Earliest Sayings of the Buddha, a non-fiction work on the theater that is often used as a textbook on immersive theater, and a translation/adaptation of a play from French titled UBU IS KING! My poetry appears in lots of literary magazines, and I have and excerpt of a play that I translated and adapted for the same novel-in-progress that this poem comes from appearing in the prestigious translation journal Asymptote.

- How often do you write? Do you have a writing routine? And what inspires you to write?

I write every day. These days, I write my first drafts completely by hand. The novel I am working on, and which Broadway & 116th is taken from, is titled June, Julie & August. It is currently a large stack of yellow legal pads. And that stack is growing. Since I write in different genres, all of which are converging on my current novel, I’d have to say that my inspiration usually comes with a sense of what genre might best tell the story that wants to jump out into the world. In the case of June, Jule & August, it is all of those genres plus recipes, a play list, and a bibliographical appendix!

- How does it feel to have your work recognised?

As you’ve probably noticed, I am a late bloomer. Among many other things, I am late to realizing that excerpts from a book I am writing can be published while I’m writing it – though I have read excerpts like that from many of my favorite authors. Recognition for work I am engaged in currently is a new thing for me. And it is wonderful. Loneliness is an enemy, and solitude is a friend to the artist, I often say. Recognition brings a welcome sense of community and a very encouraging and enriching way for readers to be a part of my process.

- What's the best and most challenging thing about writing Poetry?

The best thing about writing is being read. And a close second is hearing someone talk about how my work moved them, entertained them, or made them think in a new way. The most challenging thing about writing for me is finding an agent. Four books now and great interest in a fifth… and I‘ve negotiated the four publishing contracts myself so far and have no agent. I miss having that kind of partner in the great world of publishing, which is a daunting world, even for a hard-nosed old bastard like me.

-  How did you develop the idea for your LISP-selected poem? Is there a story behind your poem? And, how long have you been working on it?

The story behind my poem Broadway & 116th Street is that it was written by a character in my novel-in-progress titled June, Julie & August. Her name is Janet Daily. She is writing in 1980 at an old Victorian house on a fictional small island off the eastern shore of Long Island in New York State, in the US. Janet is spending the summer there with the character named Julie of the title and about a dozen of Julie’s other friends. They’re all in their late 20’s and wondering what life will be like after 30 and partying a lot in the meantime. Janet knows Julie from the diner where Janet is a waitress out on Route 1 which is a highway that through New Jersey. All or most of the gathered friends know each other from Princeton, New Jersey where they had lived and known Julie before the summer of 1980’s long vacation together. Janet went to Wesleyan College before continuing to write, think about grad school, and support herself as a waitress. In the novel, this poem has just been published in the New Yorker and that is giving Janet a lot to think about… especially since it is not her favorite poem that she’s written and most of her other pomes are in a very different style. I wrote the imagining Janet writing it on the train ride home from visiting New York City to Princeton (about a one-hour train ride) and that she had taken the subway while she was in town. It rises from the underground around 116th Street to an elevated platform and that experience has always felt very evocative to me. The subtext about wanting to feel better, to elevate one’s mood seemed natural to the poem being at that spot. With an underlying subplot of the novel involving an angel who observes the friends mostly from above, the sense of rising behind the poem seemed to fit the novel, too. I’ve been polishing Broadway & 116th for about a year now.

- Can you please give us a few tips about writing a poem?

Let the words incite a feeling beyond the words. And don’t be afraid to rewrite, rewrite, and rewrite again. Read your favorite poets’ work and be bold about writing poetry that’s nothing like it at all. Read Shakespeare and don't give up until you understand it. Reading Shakespeare will be a teacher for life. Start with the Sonnets if the plays are too much, especially if you are a poet.

-What's the best thing and the most challenging thing about competitions? 

The best thing about competitions is winning them because it helps you explain this crazy thing you are doing to your loved ones. The most challenging thing about competitions is waiting to hear how you did.

- Lastly, do you recommend that writers submit to LISP?

Of course, I recommend that writers submit work to LISP. It is a great credential to have in your writer bio. And the exposure that the LISPP prize adds -being interviewed and doing a reading – multiplies the attention your work garners from the win itself. That too is incredibly valuable. Stay tuned to see if LISP allows me to have an actress read my poem as the character Janet Daily!