A Conversation with Ace Boggess
Ace Boggess is author of six books of poetry, most recently Escape Envy. His writing has appeared in Indiana Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame Review, Hanging Loose, and other journals. An ex-con, he lives in Charleston, West Virginia, where he writes, watches Criterion films, and tries to stay out of trouble. His forthcoming books include poetry collections, My Pandemic/Gratitude List from Mōtus Audāx Press and Tell Us How to Live from Fernwood Press, and his first short-story collection, Always One Mistake from Running Wild Press.
Ace’s poems, “Double Lines” and ‘Do you have any pets?’” can be read in Issue no. 1 of Sabr Tooth Tiger Magazine.
Madeline Blair & Gillian Adkins: Both of your poems in the magazine, “Do you have any pets?” and “Double Lines” reckon with the experience of time in prison, the former more concretely and the latter in metaphorical references. What do you hope readers will gain by the experiences you’ve shared in your creative work?
Ace Boggess: I want them to feel a sort of understanding and empathy without having to live through the things I have lived through. Prison is something that never leaves you. It becomes your life for a while, and then everything you see or do afterward can be related back to it. I’m sharing a reality the readers might have experienced—losing a pet, testing positive for Covid—and connecting it to that darker existence from my past so they will recognize our commonalities, and those of other prisoners they might otherwise not think kindly of. I do this a lot in my poetry. I also try to add some humor so the truth feels less bleak.
Madeline & Gill: What was your relationship to writing like while growing up, and how has it changed over time? Did you do any writing while you were in prison, or have you used it as more of a reflective tool after the fact?
Ace: I never thought of myself as a writer growing up, but I can look back and see many times that I started typing the first chapter of a novel—usually something fantastical like a pirate adventure or action quest—then putting it aside and forgetting about it. I wish I could go back and look at those now, but they are lost in time.
As for my time in prison, yes, that is the writing I’m most known for. I wrote and submitted the poems from my second book, The Prisoners, while incarcerated. I had a lot of success with those poems individually, and I received the acceptance for the book from Brick Road Poetry Press on the day I made it out. It was published in 2014 and still sells better than most of my other books. My newest book, Always One Mistake, just recently released from Running Wild Press, is my first collection of short stories. It also has three or four pieces that were written in prison. It also has stories from rehab, parole, and my life since. I’m quite excited about it. Anyway, I continue to write about prison, and will for the rest of my life. Hopefully, without going back.
Madeline & Gill: “Do you have any pets?” deals with what is lost and missed while serving time, in this case the death of a pet. The cat must have been very special to, as mentioned in the poem, not adopt another once released. Is there anything you may have taken for granted in freedom that you don’t take for granted anymore? What did it feel like for your world to go on without you while you were away?
Ace: Oh. there’s so much I took for granted that I don’t now. The first thing I always say is people don’t appreciate forks enough. Until you’ve had to eat every meal with a rubber spork, you don’t recognize the value of something as basic as silverware. Another thing I say a lot is that the best thing about freedom is that you have so many choices, but the worst thing about freedom is that you have so many choices. It can make you nuts having to decide so much after years where all the decisions were made for you.
Madeline & Gill: Conversely, “Double Lines” describes feeling imprisoned by others’ choices, getting sick with Covid when you’ve tried your best to avoid it. Sabr Tooth Tiger being a magazine that advocates for disability justice and accessibility, and therefore takes airborne precautions seriously at our in-person events, we found this poem particularly relevant to our ethos. That feeling of the world moving on without you while you try to make the right choices to stay safe and encourage others to do so ties in well with the previous poem. How has your sense of safety, control, or agency shifted over time? What do you make of practicing self care? Of practicing community care?
Ace: Covid was a terror for me. I honestly didn’t expect to survive that first year. Luckily, it was toward the end of the second when I finally caught it, so things weren’t that bad for me. I have had severe anxiety all my life, though—what led me to both addiction and poetry—so the pandemic, like my first days in prison, was a time of extreme isolation and panic. I’ve written a lot about that too. One of my new poetry books, My Pandemic / Gratitude List (Motus Audax Press, 2025), has a poem written every day of the lockdown here in West Virginia.
As for self-care, it’s extremely important. How you define that though is up to you. I’m not so great at doing it for my physical self, but I’ve learned all kinds of tricks to keep my brain from going haywire again. The best thing for me, the thing I love most right, is watch Criterion Collection movies in the evening. It lets me numb my anxiety with a TV, my first drug, while also keeping my mind sharp with quality productions.
Madeline & Gill:Can you tell us more about the reference in the line, “tracks for the train in a famous prison song”? What is this song, and what does it evoke for you?
Ace: I’m surprised you don’t know that one. The famous prison song is “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash. The whole song is about a convict obsessed with a train that runs by the prison. There’s also a great rocked-up version by Everlast. It is the prison song. Honestly. I’m not that big of a fan of country music, but this is one that every convict knows.
Madeline & Gill:What plans do you have for your future, be it with poetry or anything else that is meaningful for you?
Ace: Right now, my primary focus is trying to find a way to sell my three new books (the one I didn’t mention already is Tell Us How to Live (Fernwood Press, 2025), which is a collection of question poems much like “Do You Have Any Pets?”). My most recent previous book had come out in 2021, so after a four-year break, I’ve had three books come out in nine months, and I really have no idea how to juggle the marketing of them. So, I’ll be doing readings whenever I can, probably traveling some. And, of course, I’m always working on manuscripts for the next book, and the next, and the one after that. I love writing, and I love sharing my work with others. I love reading to an audience more than anything. I don’t love having to market the book or trying to sell it in a way that always feels like begging. Still, I guess that’s my life now. It’s definitely a better prison than prison.
The debut issue of Sabr Tooth Tiger Magazine. 6×9 paperback, 134 pages.
Poetry by: David Agyei-Yeboah, Maude B., Madeline Blair, Ace Boggess, Ashlee Craft, Zach Crosswait, Zoë Davis, Gavin DuBois, Mal Grace, Erica Hasselbach, Asmi Kartikeya, Daithí Kearney, Maëlle Keita, Ayesha Khan, Emma Lee, Juan Madrigal, Faisal Mohyuddin, Phoebe Nerem, Benjamin Niespodziany, Vaghawan Ojha, Samuel Plauché, Colette Postaer, David Raygoza, Tori Rego, Maddy Rowe, Patricia Russo, Ayden Scott, Brandon Shane, Sameen Shakya, Anca Varvara-Piccozzi, Ethan Viets-VanLear, Rebecca Watson, Jenny Whidden, gray lindsey, Ammara Younas, Zaid Zaheer, Satori
Prose by: B.E. Austin, Johnzee Baptiste, Rohit Karir, Sara Muttar, Sarah R. New, Anna Nguyen, Farhan Nurdiansyah, Eli Sugerman, Dylan Terry
Art by: Fatima B., Bea Bouman, Nathan Doty, Bushra Khan, Zafar Malik, Stefanie Reinhart, mahnoor
Please note that copies are printed-to-order and can take up to one month to be delivered.