How does your work first enter the world? Do you have a social group or writers group that you work ideas and poems with?
That process has changed over the years. I distinctly remember early internet poetry chat groups on Prodigy as one of my first experiences with the internet! Then eventually I joined online poetry workshops like the Alsop Review’s Gazebo. I definitely used those voices to help me cut my teeth. But eventually I became more comfortable with my own process, and the voices I let in winnowed, so now it’s often that a poem feels right and done and I send it away when I encounter a publication that has a platform I love (that might mean a place that offers audio, or some sort of mini-interview or launch or social engagement--some way to be in less abstract contact with a world of readers). That said, I have had the deep pleasure of working with a few writers (like Hannah Craig, Steve Mueske [who many years ago published my first out-in-the world poem!], Jiordan Castle) who have always been immensely generous and open to telling me what they hear when I’m not yet comfortable with a piece or collection. Because even the best reader inevitably sees through their own lens, I’m always looking for new readers, new groups, and as I get older, new generations to put eyes on my poems and find new problems, new revelations.
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