Creation in Isolation: Adrian Ernesto Cepeda

Viva La Poesia: A Modern Bell Jar 

By The Editors

Adrian Ernesto Cepeda is a Los Angeles based poet who has previously published three poetry collections: So Many Flowers, So Little Time, Flashes & Verses... Becoming Attraction, and Between the Spine. 

This year was expected to be Cepeda's best year yet as a poet. CLASH Books, a personal favorite publisher of ours, is publishing La Belle Ajar, his collection of cento poems inspired by Sylvia Plath's 1963 novel The Bell Jar. While currently set to arrive in May, many of the book launches and readings Cepeda scheduled were postponed or cancelled due to the pandemic. While Luna Luna Magazine named La Belle Ajar as one of five books to watch out for in 2020, it seems that much of the praises the collection received were overshadowed by a new global threat. 

We talked with Cepeda about his new collection (available for pre-order now), about poetry in general, and how he's handling COVID-19. 
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What inspired you to create a collection based off of Plath's The Bell Jar?

In 2019 I was not only promoting my first poetry book, Flashes & Verses…Becoming Attractions but while I was working on my second collection Between the Spine, with Picture Show Press in Los Angeles, I was dealing with the emotions of mi Mami’s passing. She died right before my first book(s) were published. It was so hard for me, emotionally, mi Mami was a champion of my work for years and not having her here to see my books in print was so difficult. Not only that but I was also having to fly back and forth to San Antonio, trying to promote my work while mourning her loss. And the stress of all these elements that include her estate, it was causing a toll. I was sick for two years straight which led into a dark depression. 

I remember one day, after returning from one of my long flights, feeling sick sitting in my chair, in my office, in our two-bedroom apartment I turned to our bookshelf and a copy of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar was staring back at me. Wanting to distract myself and channeling my energies into something creative, I turned to Chapter 1 and I started taking out individual words, trying to craft a poem of the words that I was finding. And three hours later, drenched in sweat, I finished the first poem. Although I was still sick, it felt magical, like I was somehow communing with Sylvia Plath. So for the next nineteen days, I repeated the process. And each poem, took hours. After I reached midway into this Plath project I shared my poetic experiments with my wife. Since she is the Plath scholar of our family, she would tell me if these poems were any good. Encouraged by her enthusiastic response, I continued until the end. 

After I finished, I shared the results of my Plath Project manuscript with some poets that I know. I realized that I needed a Poets Preface, explaining the intention and how La Belle Ajar was created. I tried submitting my manuscript to some publishers, they all were rejected. One Sunday night, I specifically remember advising a poet I was mentoring to submit her manuscript to CLASH Books. I asked myself, why don’t you submit La Belle Ajar to CLASH Books? I am glad I listened to that little voice. Six days later I heard back from Leza Cantoral at CLASH Books, I signed the contract and the rest is history. 

Let me first stress, the reason La Belle Ajar is alive today is because the strict word choices that Sylvia Plath made in her book. Of all the biographies and books I’ve read about my favorite American Poet, what I amazed is that Plath carefully choose every word in her poems and prose. She would sit with the dictionary open, selecting each word specifically for her works. This is the same work ethic I used for La Belle Ajar. I specifically never used two words that were side by side to each other. This passion project lives because of Sylvia Plath and I am eternally grateful for her help, guidance and inspiration for saving me during one of the darkest times of my life.   

​What are some of your favorite poems that you or someone else has written? 

Not only am I poet, but I love reading poetry. The poets who I love and admire, many are my friends, inspire me in so many ways with their kindness, work ethic, their word choices and craft.

What makes these poems some of my favorite are the way the challenge me, to be brave on the page and just the way their poems mesmerize me, almost instantly, inspires me to write more poetry. That’s what the best poems, verses, chapbooks, collection and books, spark you to craft your own poetry. 

Here are some of my favorites:
Iliana Rocha’s “Mexican American Sonnet”
Tiana Clark's “My Therapist Wants to Know about My Relationship to Work By”
Shannon Phillips' “Everyone knows a poem about sex is also a poem about death”
Leila Chatti’s “After Reading DJ Khaled Will Not Perform Oral Sex On His Wife Despite Demanding That She Must, I Consider My Relationships”
Ada Limón’s “The Wild Divine”

How has COVID-19 affected your career and your personal life? 

My book launch, readings, I had plans to read and have book event at bookstores and festivals, and now they are on hold. I have this book La Belle Ajar that sold out at AWP 2020 in San Antonio and I am looking forward to not only sharing my book with the world, but introducing the world by having some young and up and coming poets read their work at my events. I am hoping that I can get back out there and promote my book, Sylvia Plath, CLASH Books and other poets that I love and inspire me every day in my calling and career as a published poet. 

Why is it important for people to support the arts, even during times of uncertainty? 

Umberto Eco once said ““To survive, you must [write poems and] tell stories.”” And for me writing poetry has healed me, made mess of the madness, the pain and struggle in my life. Poetry and poets that I know, their work in their collections, are what gives me hope in these dark times. I write and I read poetry during these troubled days because as Elizabeth Alexander wrote: “The poem is a force field against despair.” Poetry is the antidote to despair. Poetry is the medicine we must ingest today! 

What are your other book recommendations for those who are looking for material to read during mass quarantines? (In addition to your own, of course!)

Gris Munoz: Coatlicue Girl from Flowersong Books. 
Kim Vodicka: The Elvis Machine from CLASH Books
Leila Chatti-: DELUGE from Copper Canyon Press
Greg Mania: Born to be Public from CLASH BOOKS
Jose Hernandez Diaz: The Fire Eater from Texas Review Books
Rosebud Ben-Oni: Turn Around, Brxght XYXS from Get Fresh Books

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