Valerie Wetlaufer

Call Me by My Other Name is the second complete collection of poetry from Valerie Wetlaufer. Wetlaufer is a poet, editor, and educator. She earned her Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Utah and her MFA in Poetry from Florida State University Wetlaufer also earned a BA in French and an MA in Teaching from Bennington College. Her first full-length collection, Mysterious Acts by My People was published in March 2014 by Sibling Rivalry Press and won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry.

Inspiration comes from many places. Sometimes inspiration comes from obscure places. Wetlaufer took her inspiration from a January 18th, 1894 story in The Badger State Banner, published in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. Frank Blunt was arrested for stealing $175. His wife Gertrude Field paid for his defense and openly mourned his conviction. It was only after sentencing, that it was discovered that Blunt was actually Anna Morris. Morris lived the past fifteen years as a man. This may be the first recording of a lesbian marriage in America.

Call Me by My Other Name makes use of this article to create a fictionalized story of Anna and Gertrude. Wetlaufer manages to capture the historical setting and context of the period as well as the couple’s love. What is exceptionally brilliant is that a reader who is unaware of the background story could quite possibly read large parts of this collection and not fully realize Frank’s real identity. Although there are references throughout the collection, they do not scream out for attention; they are more like gentle reminders. We live in a society that loves to hyphenate nationality and race. We also have marriage and gay marriage suggesting there is a difference in types love. Call Me by My Other Name manages to remove that barrier. Is there really any difference in love between two people that must be qualified? Does it really matter or should it really matter to anyone, except Gertrude, who Frank really is? The reader will undoubtedly come to the conclusion, that no, it doesn’t matter.

The writing is well done and really pulls the reader into the period. Again, the unaware reader may think that this was a first-hand account written over a century ago in a small town on the prairie. There also is the feeling of reading a diary and glimpsing into someone’s personal thoughts. Of course, it is written in verse, but its message is as strong as the writing and the reader may forget he or she is reading poetry. The story and the verse mesh perfectly. Wetlaufer also inserts her contemporary thoughts and words throughout the collection distinguished from the other text by italics. Some of her thoughts are inside other poems but are mostly stand-alone poems.

Wetlaufer first collection Mysterious Acts by My People tended to be graphic and hard hitting. Call Me by My Other Name seems to be tender and personal. It wants to show the universality not of love but of all emotion. “Epidemic: Diphtheria”, for example, shows extreme sadness at the loss of a loved one. My background isn’t literature; it is political science and history. Perhaps, my assessment is not the poet’s intention, but I did feel the connection to humanity and human emotion. There is a commonality we all share as human beings and many times it is hard to express to those who believe differently. Call Me by My Other Name is a collection that exposes that commonality by examining those who many would call different and verifying the contrary.
… (mais)

Mysterious Acts by My People written by Valerie Wetlaufer is a collection of nine years of work. Wetlaufer holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Utah. Her MFA is from Florida State University. Wetlaufer also holds degrees from Bennington College -- a BA in French and an MA in teaching. She is also the author of three chapbooks.

Wetlaufer has an impressive educational resume, and things like that sometimes intimidate me as a reviewer with a small college resume and an MA in political science. I have no educational background in poetry, and only in the last year developed an interest poetry beyond a few well known names. Poetry has since become my favorite reading, and I only use Goodreads Giveaways for poetry. Going through the list of offerings I came across: "Mysterious Acts by My People is a fearless exploration of love, grief, violence, and humor." So I entered and won. The book arrived promptly. It was signed and included a bookmark and the author’s business card. The note in the book said I hope you enjoy the poems. I thought this is nice; it should be right up my alley.

However, I found myself in that “outside your comfort zone” place in reading. There is violence, and humor. The love is something that hit me as a very surprised, “Wow.” The grief is soul wrenching. The poem “Twins” and the “The Fourth Miscarriage” will rip your heart out. “City of Salt” and “Your Body will Haunt Mine” are powerful and very moving poems of the loss of a loved one. “Anger Endures” continues the sense of extreme loss.

There is humor in the collection too. One line is burned into my brain is from "Instruction Piece": “I live in the belly of a wail, swimming the ocean.” The play on words is near perfection.

The violence and sex are graphic, perhaps a bit more than I expected. I had read poetry from the LGBT community before and enjoyed it. Feelings are the same no matter who you love. Wetlaufer, however, left me feeling a bit different, not offended, but maybe a bit embarrassed reading it. But that too is not quite correct. At times, I would get caught up in the poetry and come back and think, "Did she really say what I think she said?" Other times I caught what she said, but the words softened the bluntness. There is power in what is being written, immense power, enough to knock you over, but Wetlaufer’s use of words makes everything seem as it should. She made this former Marine blush, yet at the same time see the raw beauty in her words.

I will admit I was not fully prepared for the subject matter in this collection. Perhaps the elk on the cover distracted me. Perhaps, only reading the opening lines of the introduction made me think of something else. Contemporary poetry is, in my experience, a few hits and many misses. Mysterious Acts by My People is a hit. After reading this collection, despite most of it being outside my personal experience, my first thoughts were, “My God, this woman can write.” The poems in this book will stay in my mind for some time to come. Wetlaufer does something that is both difficult and rare. She is able to take someone with completely different experiences and have them feel like they are part of her experiences. She has the ability not just to tell you what she felt, but to have you experience what she felt. Absolutely amazing collection.… (mais)