We recently connected with John Yamrus and have shared our conversation below.
John , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?
I’ve been publishing now for 54 years, which I think officially qualifies me as being older than dirt. My first book came out in 1970 and while the vast majority of my 39 books have been volumes of poetry, it still gives me the creeps when people call me a poet. First off, I don’t think I deserve the term yet…as far as I’m concerned, I’m still a work in progress…and (second) there’s just way too many self-proclaimed poets out there that I don’t wanna throw my hat into that ring. Besides, it’s too limiting. If you want to call me anything, call me a writer. I’m happy with that.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Like I said, I’ve been publishing for 54 years now…and when I talk in schools or in front of writing classes or whatever, the most common question I’m asked is how I got started, and if I’m gonna tell the truth, I gotta say that I lied my way into a “career”. The short version of the story is this: back in 1970, my friend Rick and I (we were both aspiring writers) would get together on Saturday nights and drink vodka and b*tch about how we couldn’t catch a break because every time we submitted stuff anywhere we always heard the same thing…”where have you been published and what awards have you won?”…and the answer was always nowhere and nothing. So, one night about 2 in the morning, we were walking back to his place, and I remember it like it was yesterday…we were standing on the corner of Oliver and Wakefield Streets and he took the last hit from the bottle and looked up at the street signs and looked at me and said: “Here, I hereby award you The Wakefield Prize”! And he gave me the bottle and walked on home. And I swear to god this is true…the very next morning I sent a batch of poems off to a pretty big poetry magazine, saying I’d recently been awarded the prestigious Wakefield Prize and would they consider publishing my poems. Two weeks later I get this letter in the mail…it’s from the editor of that magazine and he says to me “I heard about you winning The Wakefield Prize…congratulations! We’d very much like to publish your work.” And that’s the honest to god truth.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I think one of the things I’m proudest of is that I’ve published over 3,000 poems in books, magazines and anthologies. When I’m speaking in front of a group and they’re introducing me, that fact always gets a gasp or a wow…and that’s cool and everything, but that number hides the real truth. The real truth is the consistency it takes to get to that point. I mean, 3,000 poems IS a lot of published poems…but it didn’t happen over-night. It happened one poem…one submission at a time. And that’s what I’m proud of. The consistency. If you do the math…if you divide 3,000 (it’s actually something like 3,127, but I’d have to look it up, and I don’t feel like it right now)…if you divide 3,000 by 54 (years) and then again by 52 weeks, that works out to only about one published poem a week…a very attainable number. I mean, any writer who stays busy and works hard can write and send out one poem a week. BUT (and here’s the part that hides the real truth…the part that makes me proud) to hit that number…to reach that goal…you gotta stay consistent. Week in and week out you gotta stay busy. I’ve always said that rejection is put in our way to weed out the unwilling. I’m proud to say I’ve always been willing.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I like coming up with stuff. I like being able to look inside myself and find new things. I like being able to every now and then think outside the box. And the phrase “artist or creative” is misleading…it gives the impression that being a writer or painter or dancer or musician is the only way to be an artist or creative and that’s wrong and it’s limiting…I look at carpenters and electricians and painters and plumbers and they’re always being asked to be creative, to think outside the box every day of their lives. They’re always being asked to solve a problem or come up with something new or different…and they get paid pretty well, too. There are days when I think if I was given a choice between being a writer and knowing how to snake a toilet, I’d have to sit down and give it some thought.
Contact Info:
- Facebook: John Yamrus
- Youtube: John Yamrus