Interview with Sally Burnette

Describe your work in 25 words or less.

 

What the broom leaves behind.

 

Tell me about your poem “[tension]”.

 

I wrote it as part of a series for a class I took in London: Fictions of Empire.

 

What or who inspires you to write?

 

The South. The City.  The post-colonial, post-Marxist, post-Auschwitz, post-modern post-intellectual.

 

What authors have influenced you as a writer?

 

Flannery O’Connor made me want to write.  But I like to think everything important I’ve read from her on has had an influence.

 

What are you working on right now?

 

Improving my German.

 

Any advice for other writers?

 

Please, please, please, please learn proper grammar.  You cannot manipulate a language you have no control over.