Kwoya Fagin Maples Talks About Mend

Frances Donovan interviews Kwoya Fagin Maples about Mend (University Press of Kentucky), "a new poetry collection from Kwoya Fagin Maples, explores the role that enslaved black women played in the development of modern gynecology—specifically in the early experimental surgeries performed by Dr. Marion Sims." From their conversation at The Rumpus:

Rumpus: Docu-poetics is something that a lot of people are doing now. Had you had much exposure to other docu-poetics books prior to starting this project?

Maples: Absolutely. Cornelius Eady’s book Brutal Imagination. That book was the foundation for me writing this one. When I first read it years ago, I didn’t realize it was going to be so pivotal for me as a writer. But I kept reading it over the years and it taught me to write this book.

Rumpus: Let’s talk about “What Yields,” the sonnet corona, or crown of sonnets. What made you want to use that form?

Maples: The only thing I can say, in all honesty, is that it was divinely inspired. I’d been asking, “How can I end this book? What would make this complete?” And one night in my sleep, literally in my sleep, the words “sonnet corona” came into my mind. I had never read a sonnet corona. I didn’t have a clear sense of what it was. A year later I wrote “What Yields.” The sonnet corona is the only time in the book where the women are allowed to directly address the doctor. While writing my biggest concern was accuracy. Even though I was writing imagined memories and scenes, I wanted them to be probable for that time. With that in mind, in most of the poems the women are not portrayed as overtly outspoken individuals aware of their agency. Resistance for these women would have been more subtle. With the sonnet corona, however, Anarcha, the woman who endured the most surgeries, is given a voice that is confident, sure, and at times is a direct representation of my own voice. Some of my own anger is expressed through Anarcha in the poem.

Read the full interview here.