Poets Go Pop: An Interview with Dustin Brookshire & Julie E. Bloemeke of Let Me Say This—a Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology
Think you know Dolly? Dip into this incredible new anthology of pop-culture icon-inspired poems and you'll surprise and delight yourself, Little Pigeon River-style.
What can’t Dolly Parton do?
She’s a singer-songwriter, of course, well-known to fans across the world. She’s won 11 Grammys. She’s appeared on the silver screen in film classics like 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias. She’s a philanthropist who partially funded the Moderna COVID vaccine and runs the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, an organization that sends free books monthly to families with children… for the length of their entire childhood.
She’s an icon. She’s also the subject of a new and ravishing anthology of poetry from Madville Publishing, edited by Dustin Brookshire and Julie E. Bloemeke.
I had a chance to interview Dustin & Julie about Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology, and it comes as no surprise that these poets’ connections to Parton are deep and deeply personal. That’s the kind of devotion that Dolly inspires in her fans.
Dolly has often been the subject of misogyny and misguided understanding of her image and her worth. To a girl growing growing up in the 1990s like me, Dolly was a punchline—all boobs and no brains. That reductive, misogynist caricature of the talented singer and actress seems so far removed from that of the award-winning philanthropist and businesswoman we know today, but it’s an important part of the story, as is her rise from her self-described “dirt poor” upbringing in rural Tennessee to superstardom in Nashville and beyond. Dolly set out to become famous and succeeded to a degree that feels almost unbelievable. Her belief in herself and in her artform has proven to be inspirational for Brookshire and Bloemeke, and for the anthology’s contributors.
In a 1994 interview with journalist Joel McNally, Dolly said:
“Let’s put it this way… I’d just as soon never be in [the tabloids], but I am in ’em, and it doesn’t bother me. Like I say, I kinda like bein’ the queen of pretty much anything. But I am one of those white trash kind of people. I’m fun to write about. So I leave myself kinda open for that particular kind of reader.”
As it turns out, Dolly is also open to other kinds of readers and to writers—the 54 poets who contributed to the anthology among them.
Turn on some Dolly for mood music, then check out our interview here:
You can purchase Let Me Say This from Madville Publishing, Indiebound, or at other online book retailers. As the editors note in our interview, all royalties from the sales of the anthology will be donated to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.
You can also listen to Dustin & Julie’s wonderful companion playlist for the book on Spotify:
Don’t forget that PopPoetry paid subscribers also get access to a companion playlist for the newsletter!
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