Poet, Writer, Instructor
Reflections on the day-to-day experiences of a working writer.
In March, the editors of Eucalyptus Literary Journal interviewed me for their established writer feature. They asked if I had any advice for young writers, a question I get often and one I take seriously. I wanted to share something more relevant than “get yourself in a chair and just write,” or “write a thousand words a… Continue reading Advice for young writers
At the end of December, 2023, I wrote a blog post about some writing goals I’d set for myself: “I’m more interested in what’s to come, not what’s past. When I ask myself what I want to accomplish as a writer in 2024, the answers come back loud and clear. I want to take more risks in… Continue reading Back to Beginner’s Mind
I rarely watch football, but I did watch the Superbowl matchup between the 49ers and the Chiefs. It was truly a spectacle, surreal in its disorienting deluge of ads (Temu! RFK Jr.!), the odd synergy of Usher and Alicia Keys, the constant-instant replays, and cuts to Taylor Swift in bright red lipstick. As viewers witnessed… Continue reading Winners, Losers and Poets
Does this sound familiar? Equipped with a newly minted MFA in creative writing, you head off into the world with absolutely no idea how to make a living as a writer. Even though you’re amazing in workshops, can critique others’ poems and stories until they sing, won a bunch of prizes sponsored by your university,… Continue reading Business Books for Poets
Oregon Coast, Summer 2023 I like this time of year for many reasons. The holidays are over, students are trudging back to the classroom, seed catalogs appear in my mailbox, and if I look hard enough, I can see little green buds on the plants in my yard. And winter has officially started, so we… Continue reading Challenge Yourself in 2024
Today I took some time to ponder the often mysterious process of publishing my work. Over the last five years, the poems in the list below stand out due to the number of rejections they received, from a low of nine to a high of twenty-one. After the Migraine languished under the weight of 9 rejections… Continue reading Statistics for poets, or fun with the spreadsheet
with Help from Bill Knott I’ve been reading I Am Flying Into Myself, Selected Poems 1960-2014 by the “perpetually insolvent” poet Bill Knott. In his introduction, Thomas Lux describes Knott as a “quintessential, almost primal lyric poet, primal in the sense that his poems seem to emerge from his bone marrow as well as his heart and… Continue reading Write More Poems
When I started this blog in 2013, I wasn’t sure what to write about. I flailed around, sharing posts about this and that, wondering if anyone cared what I wrote. From my early stats, not very many people did. After three years, I gave up. Between January 2016 and October 2017, I didn’t post anything. … Continue reading New Direction for the Blog and a Request
What if we approached poetry with a clearer understanding of its challenges for readers? What if we helped widen the audience for poetry by letting readers know that, like most worthwhile activities, reading poetry is best accomplished when the reader is at least somewhat prepared? I collected a few of my thoughts with that premise… Continue reading Machines Made of Words
Back in August of 2022, I wrote the blog post, Browsing the Archive on a Summer Afternoon, in which I talk about my pleasure at revisiting my collection of journals that have published my work over the years. I realize that I neglected to point out something very important: writers should read all of the… Continue reading You Should Read Every Page of Your Contributor’s Copy