Courtney LeBlanc: A Riot on the Poetry Scene
By Melissa Nunez, written May 2022
I think of everything I’ve put/ into my mouth, all I’ve swallowed/…my voice, grew smaller, shrank/…I keep swallowing/ till there’s nothing left, till I disappear into the dirt,/ the earth finally swallowing me. – “A Girl Becomes a Woman”
Courtney LeBlanc is the author of two poetry chapbooks and four full-length collections, the most recent of which, Exquisite Bloody, Beating Heart, is a must-read for fans of powerful poetic voices that deftly encompass a wide range of female experience: rage, resilience, romance, regret. She is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Riot in Your Throat (RIYT), a press with a promise to deliver “poetry that punches you in the gut and refuses to be quiet.” While conversing with Courtney, the resemblance between this independent press editor and the design of the RIYT logo is striking. She embodies the essence of the image and its message through her fierce writing, her commitment to elevating the voices of feminist writers, and her overall verve evident even through the computer screen. I was eager to hear her thoughts on writing and publishing.
Who are some women writers who have inspired you?
I’m so glad you asked this question and love that you specified women writers. Almost all my favorite writers are women because I identify with them and the issues they write about. Some poets I love are Megan Falley, Jeanann Verlee, Shaindel Beers, Melissa Fite Johnson, Laura Passin, and Kelly Grace Thomas.
Some of your poetry touches on body image and the negative effects of trying to fit a societal or patriarchal standard. Do you find writing your experiences helpful for processing these events and the emotions involved?
Yes. Writing provides an outlet, a way to talk about the things that I (or women in general) still deal with in a way that feels cathartic. It is a place to put the emotions, so they don’t stay inside. I also hope it is helpful for other women who identify with the experiences, that it gives them an outlet as well. I feel like writing saves me sometimes in that sense.
There is a powerful feminist thread woven through your poetry collection and an encouraging rebelliousness in your body of work. What message do you hope to convey to your readers through your words?
Don’t stop fighting. Unfortunately, right now in the United States, we are in this situation where women’s rights are being threatened. To be honest, I’m tired of being scared and I’m tired of being angry. I’m tired of fighting the same fight. It has been 50 years and yet here we are again. But I hope that other women who feel like me use these feelings to keep fighting. I hope that’s the message that comes through in the collection.
There is a vulnerability present on the pages (even in those poems most powerful) that was very compelling and impactful for me as a reader. Do you ever have any qualms about personal visibility and subject matter in your poems?
Absolutely. There have been poems that I’ve written and then decided I’m never going to do anything with them. They are just going to stay in my journal, or maybe I’ll share them with a couple of friends. It is scary and hard to be vulnerable. But then, being vulnerable is very human. It is another way that we connect with other people and other writers. If I can be brave and put those words out there, it might give someone else the courage to do the same. To see themselves in that vulnerability. It is scary, but I also think it’s empowering. It’s a fine line sometimes.
Do you have any words of wisdom for writers who experience reservation as a barrier to sharing their writing?
Writers shouldn’t feel that they must share their work. If they are writing from a place of raw emotion and deep vulnerability, then it is OK to not share that. If you have someone you trust, someone you feel safe with, you can just share with that one person. Sometimes it can be helpful to wait until there is some distance between those emotions, but it might remain something that you don’t ever share with anyone. Ultimately, it comes down to that decision on each piece of writing (whether poem or story or essay). If you are uncomfortable, then don’t share. I believe it is more important to write some things than it is to share them. We want everyone to read our words, but you also have to protect yourself and your heart.
We carry the crystals/ to ward off evil, to bring luck, to add heft and make our bag/ a weapon…We carry our hearts/ when they got too muddied on our sleeves…We/ carry it all, the heavy world digging into our shoulders/ and slumping our backs. – “We Carry”
Do you have a method for deciding on the form your work will take? I love coming across new or unexpected forms and there are many in your body of work (i.e., Self-Portrait as a Form Rejection Letter, Postcards Never Written, Pantoum for Amy Winehouse).
The forms tend to develop organically. Some specific forms, like the pantoums, I will set out to write but might not know the topic. I actually wrote a series of poems about Amy Winehouse. It started with the first as a form poem and then I ended up writing close to 20 poems about her because she is so wonderful and tragic. With the other poems, they just sort of come to me. Sometimes the first draft will be in almost a paragraph format on the page and then I will play with the form after I transfer it into a word document on my computer. Do I want to use slashes in this poem or do I want to have more standard line breaks? I kind of just figure out what works for the topic. Some poems lend themselves to certain forms, like a love poem being in couplets because that is traditional. But sometimes you want to subvert that in different ways.
Was there a form you found most exciting or challenging for you?
I’ve written a couple of abecedarian poems, and I find them very hard to write well. I have written several and there’s only one or two I really like. It seems like it would be easy because there is no other restriction (at least not any I follow), but even finding the right word to start the line on was a lot harder than I expected. It is such a fun form to play with and is one I will turn to if I am stuck. Even if you are just rambling, you get those creative juices flowing. I have found form poems to be good for writing about topics that are hard or scary because it gives you parameters to stay in which makes it feel less overwhelming. Pantoums can be fun, but also difficult. A lot of poems that have repetition are so impressive when done well because repetition can become so obvious. It feels successful in its form when that isn’t the case.
I enjoyed reading the history of Riot in Your Throat and was curious if you could pinpoint one event, emotion, or moment that was the final push to move forward with the press?
I think it was a couple of things. When I started formulating the idea, I sat down and talked with a couple of friends who happen to work for other local presses. I picked their brains a little bit and realized that the idea was becoming more and more appealing. It was something I really wanted to do. I wanted to be able to publish these voices that I like to read and feel others need and want to read, too. My friend and I have a tradition of hitting the trails with our dogs every Sunday. I had been talking to her about it, and after a couple of weeks of discussions and sketching out plans she asked me, “So, are you going to do it?” And I said yes. I’m going to do it. I want to do it. Then it came down to figuring out exactly how I was going to do it. And it’s been fantastic.
What inspired the name?
There were four or five ideas I was playing with in a list on my phone, but I just kept coming back to Riot in Your Throat. I felt it fit with what I wanted to do and the poems I wanted to see—how as women we are forced in so many situations to not say what we are thinking or feeling or desire. At some point, it is just going to come out like a riot, an explosion. I also had a vision for what I wanted the logo to look like. I am not an artist by any means, so I literally just sketched out a human head with some hair and then wrote across the throat. Then, I found this amazing artist from Canada who worked with me and got it to be perfect. It reflects everything I wanted it to be. I love the name and I think it fits so well with what we’ve published so far.
Is there a specific achievement or progress made with the press you’d want to share?
We’ve had three open submission calls so far, and having people mention poets we’ve published that they love in their cover letter or comment that a poet recommended our press is really such a high level of praise and flattery. It is a huge win that the poets I’m publishing are saying good things about me and about the press. It lets me know I’m doing something right. I want to keep growing, see what keeps coming, and hopefully it keeps getting bigger and bigger.
Now that sticky juice/ of knowledge ran freely down my chin/ I wanted to hold her hand and discover/ all I didn’t yet know. – “Autobiography of Eve”
What advice do you have for potential submitters and women writers in general?
1. Keep writing and keep submitting! Rejection is part of the process. Stephen King, a famous author outspoken about rejection, is known to have said, “Until you have 100 rejections, you haven’t started submitting.” I think it is so important to just keep submitting.
2. When I read manuscripts for the press, I have found work that is close but not quite there, that maybe needs another round of editing. In my response I will tell that writer that I’d love to see another version of their work. So many women don’t submit again because they question whether that is real or authentic, and it is 100% real. When an editor says that to you, they mean it. When they say these poems don’t quite fit this theme or this month, but we’d like to see more of your work, they mean it. They mean submit again. When I send these responses, I truly hope to see an updated version of that manuscript, because it is so close. I want it out in the world. I want women to keep writing and keep submitting because our voices are especially valuable right now.
3. Keep reading and request books from your local library. I think some people feel like if they can’t buy the book, they can’t be helpful or supportive of the writing community. But requesting books or leaving a review for them on Amazon or Goodreads are some helpful and cost-free ways to support poets and presses, particularly small independent presses. We get lost in the noise sometimes.
Earlier this year, Courtney was awarded the Jack McCarthy Book Prize. Her third full length poetry collection will be available through Write Bloody next March. She is hopeful for a book tour next spring to celebrate this forthcoming collection along with the previous two that debuted during the pandemic. You can follow her on Twitter @wordperv or at courtneyleblanc.com for updates on her writing. You can keep up with new collections, reading events, and submission calls from her press at riotinyourthroat.com and on Twitter @riotthroat.
Melissa Nunez is a Latin@ writer and homeschooling mother of three from the Rio Grande Valley. Her essays have appeared in magazines like Variant Lit and the winnow. She has work forthcoming in The Nasiona, Scrawl Place, and Honey Literary. She is also a staff writer for Alebrijes Review. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook @MelissaKNunez.
*****
Yellow Arrow recently revamped and restructured its Yellow Arrow Journal subscription plan to include two levels. Do you think you are an Avid Reader or a Literary Lover? Find out more about the discounts and goodies involved at yellowarrowpublishing.com/store/yellow-arrow-journal-subscription. Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts.
You can support us as we AWAKEN in a variety of ways: purchase one of our publications from the Yellow Arrow bookstore, join our newsletter, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter or subscribe to our YouTube channel. Donations are appreciated via PayPal (staff@yellowarrowpublishing.com), Venmo (@yellowarrowpublishing), or US mail (PO Box 102, Glen Arm, MD 21057). More than anything, messages of support through any one of our channels are greatly appreciated.