The Author: Sebastián H. Páramo
The Book: Portrait of Us Burning (Curbstone Press, 2023)
The Elevator Pitch: Portrait of Us Burning is a semi-autobiographical family drama focused on crafting a picture-perfect family using ekphrasis and memory.
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The Rumpus: Where did the idea of your book come from?
Sebastián H. Páramo: The idea came gradually over time, but I had some ekphrastic poems based on Mexican art and began to treat them as snapshots of memories from myself growing up. An earlier title was “Where We Split” and because of the drama within the book I wanted to convey that and then thought of the idea of images “burned” into our memory and also the idea of “erasing” or “burning” things we want to forget because we loved them so much. From there, “Portrait of Us Burning” made sense and the structure came when I began to explore that idea.
Rumpus: How long did it take to write the book?
Páramo: The earliest poems date back nearly ten years from when I started my MFA. But early on, the advice I was given was that I shouldn’t rush my book and I decided to become a slower writer, writing poem by poem. It wasn’t until a few years ago, while I was working on my creative dissertation, that I began to seriously consider the shape of the book. I tried a few titles and sequences.
The most recent iteration was submitted between a three or four-year span with different titles. But I could also say it was a lifetime process of knowing and understanding myself to write the book too.
Rumpus: Is this the first book you’ve written? If not, what made it the first to be published?
Páramo: This is my first book that’s been published. I’ve written other books, a story collection, a bad poetry collection, a thesis, and some failed chapbooks. None of those books were shared seriously beyond friends, family, and close readers.
For me, this is the first book published because when I began sending it out, I treated the work more seriously and wanted to prepare myself for the national stage. When I say that, I mean that I was studying first books and presses that might make a good home. I was trying to understand what makes a good first book and I was also trying to understand my process and the voice and arc for the book.
It felt good to be validated by editors and have the book released by passionate editors who helped usher it out into the world too.
Rumpus: In submitting the book, how many no’s did you get before your yes?
Páramo: At a certain point, I’ve lost track / count. But I imagine in the three years since I sent it, I spent at least $1,000 submitting it to contests and probably received more than forty rejections over the years.
Among those prizes, I was a semi-finalist or finalist seven times, so I knew it wasn’t a dud book at least.
Eventually, I heard about some presses with open reading periods and which took queries. I queried two presses before I received a request for more pages and then an offer.
Funnily enough, one of the contests I was a finalist for offered me a book contract as a consolation prize. It was very tough to suddenly have two offers, but I’m glad to have a home for the book.
Rumpus: Which authors/writers buoyed you along the way? How?
Páramo: Over the years as an editor, I’ve met some friends along the way that I was able to commiserate with. I had several friends with whom I would commiserate about the submission process and we’d even trade manuscripts and give each other feedback.
I was fortunate to have good book role models and I very much feel poets like Larry Levis, Eduardo Corral, Ángel García, Sara Borjas, Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, and other books haunted me in good ways.
Rumpus: How did your book change over the course of working on it?
Páramo: I wrote the book poem by poem over many years. When I began to treat my writing process as a craft and ritual, I became more disciplined with considering the shape of the book. Once I had identified the themes and stories within the book, my practice of writing poems could lean into the project.
My project had to become an obsession and once I gave myself permission to continue going further with it, the book became haunted by my obsessions. In my case, I leaned into the questions of the book.
Finishing this book has also helped me understand my process for the next book, for which I’ve written over a hundred pages at least. But I still need to find the shape and corewhich is to say that I’m leaning into the messiness of drafts and I feel validated for my craft with the first book, but there’s still a lot of room for doubt to motivate me.
Rumpus: Before your first book, where has your work been published?
Páramo: My first publication was in my high school literary magazine. I’ve been published in small zines, featured on the radio, and displayed in art galleries.
It’s also appeared in New England Review, North American Review, Southwest Review, Blackbird, Waxwing, and many other favorite literary mags.
Rumpus: What is the best advice someone gave you about publishing?
Páramo: “I’m not writing a book, I’m writing poems” is something that will stay with me. It has taught me that it’s not a race, it’s about the long game. I finished my MFA over ten years ago and I’m still writing, and with time, the book will emerge.
Rumpus: Who’s the reader you’re writing to—or tell us about your target audience and how you cultivated or found it?
Páramo: I always picture the reader as someone like me, who is wiser and more experienced, and I want to impress him. I also imagine my poetry crushes being my readers. But really, I just want to be seen and I believe that’s what most writers want—to share an experience that adds complexity to life and resonates with something someone hasn’t been able to say yet.
Rumpus: What is one completely unexpected thing that surprised you about the process of getting your book published?
Páramo: All of it is both expected and unexpected, especially for someone who has been behind the scenes of publishing for several years. The biggest surprise is how exhausted I’d feel trying to travel and promote the book, especially in such a challenging year. I’m looking forward to resting for the holiday break.
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Author photograph courtesy of Sebastián H. Páramo
