The night before I interviewed Richard Hugo, he gave a reading at Columbia Basin College, in Pasco, Washington, through the efforts of James McKean and Dennis Pearson, of the English Department. As the lights dimmed, Hugo walked slowly out onto stage, stopping just short of the podium, where he rested his hand. Then, looking out over the hushed audience, he proceeded to recite “Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg.” We were spellbound. That’s a powerful poem, evoking the sadness of the life we pass through, caught between a powerful kiss of the past and a waitress with her red hair lighting up a wall. The poem is a page-and-a-half long, but he never wavered or missed a beat.
The interview was held in a small room on campus. We sat at a table, and I was nervous. He looked out the only window and commented sadly on the bright young girls walking through the May sunshine. I set my tape recorder in the middle of the table. (Bad idea! It made both of us conscious of talking to a machine.) I asked him all the questions I had on my list, and a few more as we went along. At the end we thanked each other, I turned off the recorder, but we didn’t move.
It was then that he told me a story that would have been wonderful on tape. It was about a man who had submitted his best short story to a major Southern publisher and got rejected. What should he do, he asked Hugo. Wait two months and submit it again. The man did just that, and the publisher indicated that the story had improved but should be worked on a bit more. Again the man asked Hugo what to do. Wait two months and submit it again. So the man did just that, and this time the publisher, ecstatic at how improved the story was, accepted it!
I was incredibly fortunate to have interviewed Richard Hugo. He was in poor health when he visited, and he passed away in Seattle that fall. Please follow this link to the interview….