How did you first come to writing poetry? What is it about the form that resonates?
I was always a reader, but never a writer, until a friend in high school introduced me to the idea of writing poetry, and I’ve never stopped. It was a great way to have a voice when you don't really have a voice in the world. The form: I was always terrible at writing narrative, always thought if I wanted reality I could just go outside, although certainly fiction and other prose writers often have a view that others don't see, and that it interesting and important, as is psychological probing and analysis, but that's not where my kind of mind goes. My ADD daydreamy mind fits well with collage form poetry, but I'm interested in starting to write collage paragraphs.
How does a poem begin?
With an idea in a project form, usually. I think in projects more than in individual poems. I always think I should change that, but I can't seem to do it.
You’ve published multiple chapbooks
and full-length poetry collections. Do you see your writing as a single, extened project,
or a series of self-contained units?
I always see them as different units, but
others have told me that my work always seem to be in a very distinctive voice.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
Since I started teaching, my schedule in general is very difficult to manage. It is nice to have a writing group that forces me to make time though! I just force something through haphazardly.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
Talking about Strawberries All of the Time! I honestly have trouble finding ones that fit my genre and place in the world, which is not very young anymore, but not well established either!
Who are some of the writers you are reading lately that most excite you?
Noah Ross, Violet Spurlock, S*an D. Henry-Smith, Don
Mee Choi, Anna Arov, and always Lyn Hejinian and Leslie Scalapino.
Photo credit: Sarah Rosenthal