6: "Los Angeles Review of Books" interview, sam sax and Emily Sernaker, 2018.

6: "Los Angeles Review of Books" interview, sam sax and Emily Sernaker, 2018.

This interview was conducted in November 2018, just a few weeks after a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue. sam sax discusses his Jewish heritage as well as death, grief, and the role poetry can have in responding to tragedy. In the words of Emily Sernaker, the interviewer, “We also discussed how Judaism informs his responses to inherited trauma and his desire to trace lineage through language.” This theme of language and lineage is at the heart of sax’s poem “Lisp,” so the insight into his process and perspective in this interview is a great resource for deepening the reader’s understanding of the poem.
 
Suggested Activity: Read sax’s responses to two of Sernaker's questions.
 
In the first question, Sernaker asks sax whether he explores the Jewish history of exile in his work. sax’s response reveals a fascination with estrangement rather than exile, an investigation of what is strange and queer about being Jewish. What does “Lisp” have to say about Jewish queerness and estrangement? What meanings do you find in the line “my swishiness is hebraic” (sax, line 15)? What is sax referring to in the interview when he mentions the "violent settler colonial nation-state?" How does sax see his queer/diasporic identity in relation to Israel and Zionism?
 
In the second question, Sernaker inquires about the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, and what role sax believes poetry plays in times of tragedy. sax responds by saying poetry helps articulate and share grief. He also posits that poetry can contextualize grief, and invite readers into a communal experience of processing and grieving together. Lastly, he suggests that poetry serves to locate a tragic event in its historical context. Does “Lisp” seem like a poem of grief? What tragedy, or series of tragedies, might it be gesturing toward? Does it offer any historical context for these tragedies?

Source: sam sax, interviewed by Emily Sernaker, "Grief, Ritual, and Estrangement: An Interview with sam sax," Los Angeles Review of Books, January 23, 2019.