Here are seven ways I know of drawing upon words and languages, the tools of our craft, to ignite the spark which inspires the creation of poetry. Three Word Addresses On this map 'what3words', the whole world is divided into some 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares and […]
Not a lot of fuss is made over poem openings today. Sure, we all know that April is the cruelest of the months, and I am sure you secretly (or if you were a truly brave middle schooler, publicly) compared a love interest to a summer's day. But […]
For most of us invested in poetry--as writers, scholars, teachers, students, and readers--close reading is a fundamental practice. In this blog post, I consider what is involved in and produced by close reading, why we do it, when we do it, and its political effects. Close reading is […]
Second Day I just rewrote the poem I started yesterday, updated the TOC in the new manuscript, and yawned. Am I running out of steam? I have decided to start this record of my one month between-teaching assignments that I have dedicated to writing at home. The flow […]
When I first learned about erasure poetry, I was enamored with the form. The idea that a poem could be hidden inside any text was intoxicating--a challenge I insist on pushing to the limit. There are so many variables: your source text, your mood, whether you're working by […]
As a lover and reader of poetry, and as a poet and editor, I'm always thinking about how to connect poems (my favorites, my own, poets I publish) with readers. This is no easy task; it's not as if poems sell by their own weight in worthiness. It […]
An interview with Program Director & Founder, Tyler Tsay, on what The Speakeasy Project brings to the writing world. What is The Speakeasy Project? The Speakeasy Project is an online workshop space for students of all ages. By offering workshops entirely online, we hope to bring the space […]
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 specifically about how do I, as […]
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 specifically about how do I, as […]
The Beatles sang, When I was younger, so much younger than today, I never needed anybody’s help in any way. And, young or old, that's how some poets feel. I wrote in a vacuum for years, scribbling in a spiral notebook and never showing a soul. But now I […]
