Nov. 12, 2008 - Issue #682: Tariq Ali

What it Feels Like for a Girl: Girl Talk

Harper hopes to expand poetry's audience with teenage story

Jennica Harper writes poetry for people who don’t like poetry. Her second book, What It Feels Like for a Girl, chronicles an intense relationship between two teenage girls. The book, a series of short poems telling a longer story, delves into themes of awakening sexuality, pornography, friendship and the icon of all virgins and whores, Madonna. The Vancouver resident, also a screenwriter and story editor, was in Edmonton two weeks ago to promote and launch her new book, published by Anvil Press.

 

Harper’s book is extremely visual and her background as a screenwriter helped her to frame and develop the story, which first beckoned her in 2004. Like many writers involved in diverse areas, Harper worked on the project in fits and starts as she felt the book deserved large chunks of time and concentration.

 

The story wasn’t an easy one for Harper to tell, since it was inspired by a real friendship she had with another girl when she was a teenager, though, as with most things of this ilk, the story contains elements of both truth and fiction.

 

“There are a lot of ways in which things are true and not true, the same way things can be good and not good at the same time,” Harper explains. “Thirteen is both young and old, and pornography is both arousing and scary. I would never write something that was an indictment of porn. I don’t think many things are black and white.” 

 

These grey areas, the complicated bits, are the exact spaces and ideas she finds intriguing.

 

The story developed as a long poem because Harper felt the story had multiple angles, and she wanted to explore a myriad of them while still focusing on a larger plot. She drafted the poem, and then had to rearrange smaller sections to make sure the story moved along. 

 

Promoting a book that is such a personal story is challenging, especially when the narrative dives right into controversial themes and language, which make any writer feel vulnerable when they’re on stage at a microphone. One particular section requires Harper to say both “c” words, but she believes being in an uncomfortable, vulnerable place is part of the experience of creating the book.

 

 “I still feel raw about it, but I needed to be brave about it. It’s a bit of an experiment for me, but I knew I had to try to write about what was dangerous,” she says. “[When performing], I feel like I have to pretend I’m really brave, and then I will come across as not having trouble with it.”

The title was inspired by a Madonna song that appears on the artist’s album Music. As much as it was used to evoke a period and spirit, Harper also hopes that the reference will draw in a wider audience—even people who don’t necessarily like poetry. 

 

“There’s still a legacy of people feeling like poetry is something that needs to be studied in school, but I think my book is very accessible. First of all, it’s dirty,” she says with a laugh. “The meaning is clear and it’s very straight forward.”

She would be pleased if the book grabbed the attention of a larger audience and was even read by teenagers themselves. “It could go there,” she says. “It would thrill me if there were teens that got something out of it, as well as adults who were looking back.” V 
 

What it Feels Like for a Girl
By Jennica Harper
Anvil Press; 128pp; $15

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