June 8, 2018
The Quest for the Enchanted Writing Tip
Many writers spend their whole careers chasing that enchanted writing tip that will make them extraordinary, and there’s certainly no shortage of craft advice. Some authors (I’m looking at you, […]
May 3, 2018
“It’s sexy, filthy, viscous, vicious. It’s religious. It’s archaic”–an interview with Montreux Rotholtz
A mélange of language by turns surreal and objective, with narrative poems intertwined with those more driven by sonics and music, Unmark is Montreux Rotholtz’s first book, and it’s a […]
February 7, 2018
On Writing Naked, Bloody, in Exile
Write naked. That means to write what you would never say. Write in blood. As if ink is so precious you can’t waste it. Write in exile, as if you […]
June 1, 2012
A Craft Note On the Duet (part 4) and On the Elegy (part 2)
Several several weeks ago now, Tarfia Faizullah and I exchanged notes on the elegy in what was billed as the first part of a multi-part craft note on the elegy. […]
May 22, 2012
Craft Note: Duet (Part 3) — Beginning and Ending With A Reader’s Comment
In a comment on our last post, “Craft Note: Duet—Part Two (Ending With A Post By Tarfia Faizullah Ending With A Line By Vallejo),” Judith wrote toward an undeveloped idea […]
April 20, 2012
Craft Note: Duet—Part Two (Ending With A Post By Tarfia Faizullah Ending With A Line By Vallejo)
The poem that begins with a borrowed line begins spending its inheritance right away. It feels free, cavalier, perhaps even prodigal at times. It seems to thrive on its own […]
April 13, 2012
Craft Note: Duet — Part One (Beginning With A Line by Mark Irwin)
What / you’re looking through is the act of giving, writes Mark Irwin in his “Poem Beginning with a Line by Milosz.” I wrote about this poem, briefly, several months […]
March 21, 2012
Craft Note: The Elegy (part one)
[Blogger’s note: This post is part of a series of craft notes that look forward to the work Tarfia Faizullah and I will be doing at the Kenyon Review Writers […]
March 14, 2012
Daylight Savings & The Movable Dawn: A Postscript on the Aubade
About as soon as I posted my dialogue with her on the aubade, Tarfia sent me a link to Kenyon Review Writers Workshop faculty member Carl Phillips’ own “Aubade: Some […]
March 11, 2012
Craft Note: The Aubade: Poem of Beginnings
This is the first in a series of craft notes, developed in a conversation between me and Tarfia Faizullah who will join me at the Kenyon Review Writer’s Workshop (seats […]
March 8, 2012
A Few Notes on Craft — and Games
I remember clearly though it’s more than fifteen years past a graduate-school colleague standing up in the apartment of a friend, several hours of workshop conversation behind us, and declaring […]
March 6, 2012
A Craft Note on The Craft Note
I spent this past weekend at the annual AWP Conference in Chicago, alternately overstimulated by the crowd in the bookfair and by the conversations in and around the panels. I […]