From "The Orchid Interviews" of Jeffrey Snodgrass. Amber Fisk, Interviewer.

AF: What would you say most influenced you as a child?

JLS: That would have to be film, text, and action. My passion for all things Frankenstein reflects this. I first saw the novel in my 5th grade classroom. I asked my teacher if I could borrow the book and she said no, that it was too hard for me. So I got my dad to buy it for me at our local bookstore. My teacher was right--it was hard. But with a college dictionary and a little perseverance, I got through it and, prior to college, read the book cover to cover a whopping twelve times, each time seeing something new.

AF: Who did you relate to from the book?

JLS: Definitely Victor Frankenstein who, really, if you think about it, is the true monster. He brings an abomination into the world but this creature has a blank mind and could use a little help negotiating society. What does Victor do? --He abandons the creature. So while most people consider the creature the monster, it is, in actuality, Victor himself.

AF: So you see yourself as a monster?

JLS: I see in myself the potential to be monstrous, yes. But I see that potential in a great many people, not just me. I know my ugly aspect really came out during my divorce. I was hurt. Only after the divorce was finalized did I allow myself to fully sink into a deep and dark depression. In many ways, my first marriage was an experiment, albeit a failed one.

AF: You didn't answer the question. Do you see yourself as a monster?

JLS: Yes.

AF: On what projects are you currently working?

JLS: I'm reading memoirs that have anything to do with madness (e.g., I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Darkness Visible, The Day the Voices Stopped, Madhouse, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, etc.) and writing a memoir of my own. I've read through all of the memoirs I've bought except for one on Nazi doctors that proved too harrowing. It was a $20 book and I read exactly half of it so I didn't get $10 worth but that's OK--it was giving me nightmares. But back to the issue of creating something: For months now I've been generating all of this text with no clear understanding of why or what it is. Now that I know it's a memoir, I go back through the material and it makes sense. I'm really pleased that I didn't give up on the project at the phase when it seemed pointless, like a waste of time.

AF: How is the serialization of Swimming Pool going?

JLS: Fine. I took a break from it this spring because the editor wanted to do an entire issue devoted to one person, Dipo Kalejaiye, and his poetry. But in many respects the core document of Swimming Pool remains alive as I continue to consider what it means to be mentally ill in America from the late 80s to the present. I personally am trying new things, trying to break out of the mold that my illness has created around me while describing it, the illness, too. With any luck, my memoir will recount my emergence from under the rock that is bipolar disorder type II. I'm fighting it, this sickness in me, that I may be whole and well. My dad says that he thinks our greatest accomplishment in life is to be whole. The older I get, the more I agree.