Sometimes people come to me to ask for advice on how to write a book review. My internal response is "I don't know," and yet, I've written nearly 30 book reviews in the past twelve months. Instead of this unhelpful answer I tell them--remain open, put aside yourself […]
My new book from Two Sylvias Press, PR for Poets, is a guide for beginning to mid-career poets to learn how to build an audience and promote their books. Think of it as a guide to getting read. People have asked me many times while doing talks on […]
If you have been writing poetry for longer than a few months, you may have experienced this anxiety-inducing scenario: you sit down at the desk, look at the blank page, and nothing happens. You write a line and immediately erase it. You cross out titles. You second guess […]
When a local writers group asked me to teach a class on inspiration, I was stopped in my tracks. How could what inspires me inspire this community of prose writers and poets? The more I thought about what might be universally applicable, however, the more excited I got. […]
I'm always answering the question, "Why poetry?" The question assumes different shapes depending on who's asking. A tinder match will say, "But what are you going to do with that degree?" A relative at my grandmother's funeral will roll her eyes when I tell her I'm retiring from […]
The personal is political.--feminist slogan I was raised in a family and culture with "a strong work ethic"--an inflexible ideal. Part of this philosophy is that we should never give in to pain; we must always overcome it. I am a professor, poet, wife, mother to three dogs. […]
Great guest blog post rewind up today from Dick Allen, who I recently learned passed away end of 2017. I’m so grateful for his contributions to poetry and that I had the opportunity to work with him on this post. The 13 ways to support poetry below include […]
LAST WEEK, THE SPALDING MFA Alumni Twitter account tweeted about my small online lit mag: "@slushpilemag is accepting #fiction, #poetry, and #cnf submissions through @submittable & will provide feedback!" it cheerfully announced. The post got a handful of likes and retweets. Then came this: "Do you pay your […]
LAST WEEK, THE SPALDING MFA Alumni Twitter account tweeted about my small online lit mag: "@slushpilemag is accepting #fiction, #poetry, and #cnf submissions through @submittable & will provide feedback!" it cheerfully announced. The post got a handful of likes and retweets. Then came this: "Do you pay your […]
A friend of mine recently asked me to break down my submission process from A to Z. As I typed out a very long email, I realized just how much work I put into submitting on a regular basis. Writing is hard, but in many ways submitting is […]
