Introduction / Lauren Brazeal Garza

In our 10th year of Pub­li­ca­tion The Account: A Jour­nal of Poet­ry, Prose, and Thought is open­ing a new Inter­views sec­tion. Cham­pi­oning this new ven­ture is the bril­liant Lau­ren Brazeal Garza. 

Our inau­gur­al inter­views sec­tion fea­tures Lau­ren in dis­cus­sion with for­mer Account con­trib­u­tors Jen­nifer Givhan (poems in our 2020 issue), and Jen­ny Mol­berg (poems in our 2022 issue).

Lauren’s thought­ful intro­duc­tion below. 

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Lau­ren Brazeal Garza: The Account Mag­a­zine is a jour­nal that has always con­sid­ered the author’s own account of their work along­side their writ­ing, so it was the real­iza­tion of a dream to begin an inter­views fea­ture for this issue. I was for­tu­nate to have con­ver­sa­tions with two for­mer con­trib­u­tors to The Account: Jenn Givhan and Jen­ny Mol­berg, who have both recent­ly released col­lec­tions of poet­ry, Givhan’s Bel­ly to the Bru­tal (Weslyan Poet­ry Series) and Molberg’s The Court of No Record (LSU Press). Over the course of the sum­mer, both poets shared insights into their craft, explor­ing how themes of sur­vived trau­ma and bear­ing wit­ness man­i­fest with­in each collection.

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Jen­nifer Givhan in con­ver­sa­tion with Lau­ren Brazeal Garza

Pur­chas­ing infor­ma­tion on Bel­ly to the Bru­tal, Jen­nifer Givhan 

Jen­ny Mol­berg in con­ver­sa­tion with Lau­ren Brazeal Garza

Pur­chas­ing infor­ma­tion on The Court of No Record, Jen­ny Molberg 

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Lau­ren Brazeal Garza received her M.F.A in poet­ry from Ben­ning­ton Col­lege, and is com­plet­ing her Ph.D. in lit­er­a­ture from UT Dal­las, where she is also a cre­ative writ­ing instruc­tor. She is the author of the full length col­lec­tion Gut­ter (Yes Yes Books, 2018), a mem­oir-in-verse about her home­less­ness as a teenag­er. She has also pub­lished three chap­books of poet­ry, most recent­ly, San­ta Muerte, San­ta Muerte: I Was Here, Release Me (Tram Edi­tions, 2023), a series of fic­tion­al inter­views with ghosts. Her poet­ry, lyric essays, and fic­tion has appeared in Poet­ry North­west, Waxwing, and Verse Dai­ly among many oth­er jour­nals. She can be found haunt­ing her web­site at www.lbrazealgarza.com