Sacramento resident and former restaurateur publishing debut book of poetry
Life isn’t linear. It’s full of twists and drops, peaks and pitfalls. Sometimes paths can only be seen from a certain distance down the road.
K.M. English’s debut book of poetry isn’t particularly linear, either, both physically and emotionally. Set to be published by Tucson-based Kore Press on May 15, “Wave Says” draws from English’s settled life in Sacramento as well as past days in artistic hubs. Words dance and dive across the pages of some poems — English saw the meandering shape of “Nocturne,” which changes throughout each of the poem’s five pages, before landing on its text, for example.
“An artist creates from who they are and where they are in that place and time, both literally and figuratively,” English said. “You’re creating anew, but you’re also creating from materials that you’ve collected and are gestating in you over time, and they come out in language or ways you don’t expect or weren’t looking for necessarily.”
Raised in a household that wasn’t particularly bookish, English connected to poetry through an Introduction to creative writing class as an undergrad at Boston College. She moved between New Orleans and New York throughout her 20s, instructing first through Teach For America then while earning her Master’s in Fine Arts from Brooklyn College.
She moved back to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and met now-husband David, a former city resident in town visiting mutual friends, in 2009. He was then the opening chef at Ella Dining Room & Bar, but not for long.
The two opened The Press Bistro across the street from their shared apartment in 2010, with David running the kitchen and K.M., known in her restaurant and personal life as Kelly, navigating the books. A former restaurant employee in New Orleans and New York, she stopped being present during service when their first son was born but still managed components like the wine list.
Those past lives culminated in the poems of “Wave Says,” English said. “Life Below Sea Level” is an ode to New Orleans. Words dance around the page in poems like “Event, Horizon,” a story of movement partially inspired by the visual artists she befriended in Brooklyn creators circles. English saw the meandering shape of “Nocturne,” which changes throughout each of the poem’s five pages, before landing on its text, she said.
Motherhood also opened up English’s emotional capacity, she said. That’s clear in poems such as “Mother Orca Carries Stillborn Calf Over 17 Days and 1,000 Miles,” an overflow of feelings based on her reaction to a viral 2018 news story. Another powerful reflection, “Falconer,” contrasts a pleasant present-day trip to an Arden Arcade park against the rape and murder of 7-year-old Marcella Davis there in 1984.
“I love this book. It is the most resonant and complete manuscript. It’s beautifully composed, rich with narrative thread, pure poetry. It is so voiced (as opposed to well written and well managed). Every line and shape on the page and in the mouth is a poem of sound and content,” one Kore Press reviewer wrote in a media release. “There is nothing at all random here, or fanciful or simply narratively or rhetorically driven.”
The Press Bistro closed at the end of 2019, ringing in a new chapter of the Englishes’ lives. For K.M., that meant the compilation and publication of her first book, though she’s had pieces of it published individually in years past.
Wave Says is available for preorder at Kore Press’ website for $17.95 until April 30, at which point the price will rise to $20.95. A second poetry manuscript is up next for English, as well as a children’s book for middle school-aged kids.
“For most people who are working at a certain level of the craft, you artistically start to think of a book-length project,” English said. “I’m sure there are some people who do not just write books, they just write individual poems, but there’s also a career trajectory where one writes books, and I certainly had those goals.”