In May 2001, the Internet bubble had burst, and the economy looked somewhat like it does now. Tufts alum Melissa Broder had just graduated with a major in English but was struggling to find a job that would incorporate her lifelong passion for writing. With no jobs to be had, Broder decided to enroll in a publishing program in Denver.She embarked on a road trip across the country. Upon completion of the program, Broder drove to San Francisco for a job interview. Though she didn't get the position, she decided to stay, job or no job. Broder's journey to the West — and the two years she spent living there — ultimately fueled many of the poems in her new book, "When You Say One Thing But Mean Your Mother," to be released by Ampersand Books on Feb. 1, 2010.
"When You Say One Thing But Mean Your Mother" is both the title of one of the book's poems and the punch line to the joke, "What is a Freudian slip?" Broder said that she chose the title because she thought it fit the tone of her work.
"I felt like it just really captured the ethos of the book," she said. "It has a sort of Jewish, neurotic vibe, which is definitely present in the book."
Though she said her husband touts the book as an "NC-17 rated spiritual experience," Broder said the characters present in the 90-page book are the main attraction.
"The poems are obsession poems. There are a lot of obsessions about junkies. Somebody is enrolled in a junkie studies program. There's a camp counselor who belongs to the NRA. You get a lot of cult leaders. You get an aging anarchist. You get face tattoos. There's a tall lady who's obsessed with laundry. There's adult-onset acne. There's tripping on Dimatap. There's reincarnation in a deli. There's a nose job that takes on a life on its own … not my nose, though," Broder said.
Daniel Nester, author of "How to be Inappropriate," said of the book, "Melissa Broder's ebullient, essayistic poems pay attention to sounds and sense ... She addresses her poems to a world of non-poetic people who might find themselves in her poems: people with acne, teenage waifs and aging anarchists alike. They are cosmopolitan in a playful kind of way. They're super poems."
Though none of the work in the book dates back to Broder's time as a Jumbo, she said that her academic experience allowed her to significantly improve her writing. At Tufts, Broder took a creative writing class every semester, wrote for the Zamboni and had work published in the now-defunct campus literary magazine Queen's Head & Artichoke.
On the Hill, Broder's development as a writer was most influenced by the creative writing courses she took. She said that some of the best advice she has ever gotten came from one of her creative writing professors.
"[Professor] David Rivard said to me, ‘No one is going to care if you write poetry.' What he meant was that, since poetry is such a blip on the literary radar screen, you have to do it for the love of it, not for anything else."
After graduating, Broder didn't do much creative writing for a few years, though she did write arts reviews for, and intern at, The Guardian. Broder believes that many writers go through phases in which they are supposed to consume, rather than produce, and that her two years in San Francisco represented a consumption phase for her.
"Sometimes there are periods of life where we just take things in, and these things will bear fruit later," Broder said.
While in San Francisco, Broder worked a number of odd jobs, including one job as a grill cook and another as a canvasser for the Sierra Club. These positions didn't require her degree from Tufts, but Broder thinks that the experiences they provided later inspired portions of her new book.
"So much of this first book was really fueled by my experience in San Francisco," Broder said. "It became food for my creative life."
After two years in San Francisco, Broder decided that she was ready to enter the corporate world. She moved back east to New York, got a job in a publishing house and has worked her way up the ladder ever since. Currently, Broder is a Publicity Manager for Penguin Group — living proof that your first job out of college doesn't make or break your career.
These days, Broder is a very busy woman. In addition to her demanding day job at Penguin, Broder is the curator of the Polestar Poetry Series, which features live poetry performances each month at Cake Shop, a bar on the Lower East Side. She is also the Chief Editor of the literary magazine La Petite Zine. Finally, Broder is enrolled in a part-time Masters of Fine Arts program at City College of New York. She also finds time to read and write extensively.
Broder said that she writes on the subway every day. For the most part, however, she is able to do it all because she loves it.
"Writing is a very joyous thing for me," Broder said.
Broder thinks that because the poetry community is small, it's important for poets to go out and meet each other, so that they may create opportunities to share their work.
"Poets have to find people who are passionate about poetry, people who make poetry relevant," Broder said.
Broder's current inspirations range from a live reading by performance poet Jayne Cortez to Matthew Rohrer's book "Rise Up," to an "inebriated African priestess" that she met on the subway.
In an e-mail to the Daily, Broder also gave Jumbos interested in poetry the following advice: "Take as many creative writing classes as you can, and don't stop after you graduate. Go read your work at the Wednesday night open mic at The Cantab on Mass Ave. Spend time at The Grolier poetry bookshop. Get in a car and take spontaneous trips to Walden Pond. Find a community of other people passionate about poetry. If you can't find that community, grow one."
