I’ve known Amanda Gorman since she was sixteen. When Amanda Gorman was announced as the United States’ first Youth Poet Laureate and invited to read at the Inauguration, I was thrilled and not totally surprised. Amanda is someone I have known since she was 16 in a weekend poetry workshop…
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I just finished reading Nancy Lynee Woo’s book, Bearing the Juice of it All (Finishing Line Press), and I’m in love. Her language is visceral and gripping, her work honest and probing, her structure both sharp and layered. When she agreed to be on The Poetry Saloncast with me and…
This holiday season has been especially strange for several reasons. Not only has COVID taken away my traditional holiday get-togethers with family and friends, but being in Costa Rica makes all of the “usual” holiday happenings impossible. I’ve needed to “get creative” to feel like I have a Christmas happening…
What I Learned from My Interview with Jon Pearson I’ve always been jealous of my cousin, the multi-award-winning-writer, Jon Pearson. His work is always so original and engaging, full of what he himself has termed, “Flights of fancy and depths of emotion.” As a writer myself, I feel like I’m…
What I’ve Learned from a Life of Reading Jon Pearson Always be a poet- even in prose. Charles Baudelaire Usually when people ask me how I became a writer I like to blame it on my cousin Jon, who is now a multi-award-winning writer of short stories. Before…
Welcome to the next in our NaNoWriMo series of reflections on this poet’s experience trying to write a novel. So is there a best time in the day to write? Probably not. If there is, it’s different for everybody, but here’s how I experience it. I like to write. Especially…
The Set Up Yesterday a student told me she was excited about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), but also intimidated by it. Like most of us poets, she is accustomed to writing short pieces, and has never attempted anything as big as a full novel. Feeling overwhelmed is perfectly natural…
We are here to help one another get through ‘this’ whatever ‘this’ is. – Kurt Vonnegut One of the things I find so intriguing about living through this pandemic is how I feel both overwhelmed by all the rapid changes of the world, at the same time I…
Many writing teachers will tell you that if you want to be a serious writer, you need to develop a regular writing routine. Pick a time and a favorite spot in front of a window and write there every single day. When I hear this advice I get a little…
