Godshots Wanted: An Interview with Emily Perkovich

Emily Perkovich is from the Chicago-land area. She is an Art Evaluator for Persephone's Daughters, and she spends her free time in the city with her family. Her work strives to erase the stigma surrounding trauma victims and their responses. Her piece This is Performance-Art was a finalist for the 50th New Millennium Writings Award, and she was featured in The Divine Feminist Anthology from Get Fresh Books Publishing. She is previously published with Wide Eyes Publishing, Sunday Mornings at the River, Coffin Bell Journal, and Awakened Voices among others. Her chapbook Expulsion was released in April 2020 with Witches N Pink and her novella Swallow is forthcoming with Pegasus Publishers. You can find more of her work on IG @undermeyou

Can you tell us a bit about the book you just published with Sunday Mornings at the River?

This collection is extremely important to me. I have spent a lot of my adult life being introspective to become more self-aware. I have had a lot of trauma in my life, and I am proud of myself for putting in the work that it takes to deal with things head on. I think too many people are so afraid to deal with their traumas or to communicate them to others or acknowledge them because there is a stigma around experiencing them and how you react to them. It is acceptable to have unhealthy reactions or reactions you are not proud of, and it is acceptable to talk about them. I hope that my writing, this collection in particular, can help people feel like it is normal to have open dialogues and to work on yourself and to be clear about your emotions and boundaries and why you have them in place. 

What inspired you to write this book?

Writing has always been a type of catharsis for me. I use my art and writing to work through my feelings and traumas. This book is full of pieces that deal with situations that I have reached a point of clarity and self-awareness around.

What does the title mean?

A “god shot” is a term in recovery that describes a reason to continue on or start on the recovery path. It is similar to the idea of a sign from a higher power. For me, trauma recovery has been a self-motivated and lifelong journey, and I believe it will continue to be. The title is almost a sarcastic jab at the idea that the healing and growth can come from anywhere but within, but it is simultaneously wishing for that push to keep me going.

Who are some of your literary or artistic crushes? 

This question is always a difficult one for me. I always want to make sure I give credit to all the different types of artists that are special to me, and then have a hard time pinpointing who to mention. For writing right now the authors who really impress me are Sarah Rose Etter, Sarah Gerard, Allison Benis White, Carmen Maria Machado, and Sam Sax. I can’t sing, but I am totally enamoured by the lyrics and voices of Jordan Dreyer, Dan Campbell, Laura Stevenson, and Damien Wong. I did photography professionally for about 8 years, and that was what I initially wanted to study after high school, so that particular medium speaks to me more than others. I will always feel inspired artistically by Gregory Crewdson and Penny Slinger. As far as other types of physical artists, there are too many to narrow down, but I love surrealism and low-brow.

Do your family and "real life" friends read your work? 

Most of my family and friends have read much of my work, but we have different artistic tastes, so I do not expect them to read it all. I feel really grateful that I have people in my life who are willing to read things that they probably don’t love and recognize talent and support it even if it is not their style. My sister Elizabeth probably has the most similar creative style to my own which means she has read the most, but the rest of my siblings, friends, and family have been equally supportive and put in their fair share of reading.

What does "good poetry" mean to you? 

I believe in the idea that art makes you feel or opens up a discussion. “Good” is definitely a matter of opinion and highly subjective. For me, however, what is good is anything intelligent or witty and anything written with purpose. In my opinion, things written for shock factor or with the hopes of fame or to speak to the masses tend to be less “good”.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?  

Write in your own voice! I have so many pieces that I have had to rework because I tamed them to help fit the style that was popular. My chapbook was very important for me because it was an embodiment of  a relationship that I needed to let go of, but I wrote it so long before I published it that by the time it was released, I was no longer writing in that voice any more. It was not “not my voice” but it was not how I would have written it, if I had given myself creative freedom.

What authors did you dislike at first but grew into? 

B. Catling made me so uncomfortable when I began reading his work. His prose is intelligent and creative and occasionally lyrical, but that is not immediately evident because there is a large amount of uncomfortable subject matter that I had to push past.

What’s your favourite under-appreciated novel? 

I have two that I really love. You Remind Me of You by Eirreann Corrigan, and The Book of X by Sarah Rose Etter. The former is a poetic memoir about eating disorders and recovery. The latter is a novel of surrealism that touches on body image and trauma.

How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? 

Oh my goodness. I feel attacked, haha. I have one finished novella that I will probably never publish because it no longer feels necessary to me. Maybe I will rework it so that it feels more relevant, but I doubt it.  I have probably 5 unfinished novels/novellas, 3 barely started pieces of work that I am not sure what they will become, 1 half-finished short story collection, and 3 other poetry collections. I do have a finished novella forthcoming within the next year that I am working on with Pegasus Publishers.

Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones? 

I do read all of my reviews. I also submit a large amount of work to journals, magazine, and publishers, so I get a lot of rejection letters. I try not to let good reviews go to my head because I do not want to become stagnant. My reaction to a bad review is dependent on how it is written. If it is just to be mean, I ignore it (maybe complain to a friend about it), but if it is constructive, I take that criticism into consideration and try to grow from it.

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Godshots Wanted