Amanda Stovicek : part one

Amanda Stovicek is a poet from northeast Ohio made of star stuff. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in BARNHOUSE, Gordon Square Review, Nice Cage, and Noble/Gas Qtrly. Her debut microchapbook, SPACE SPECTACULAR, was published by Ghost City Press in their 2018 Summer Series. When she isn’t writing, Stovicek teaches college English. You can find her on Twitter/Instagram @amstovicek, or on her website amstovicek.com

How does a poem begin?

With a word, or a combination of words, that make music. My poetry is all about wrenching sound and lyric. I think about how words play off of each other and how they sound when I say them out loud. Poetry is not meant to be printed words only--it is meant to be read out loud, to be heard. I read all of my poems out loud, it helps me find where they work, where I can play up the music, and where sounds become too much for the ear or the image of the poem. When I read poetry I read it out loud, too. So, it is with sound where a poem begins, with the ear recognizing the music.