Jennifer L. Knox : part thirteen

How does a poem begin?

Differently for different people. For some, it begins in a story. For others, where a story didn’t go. For others, sound. Others, the visual. Others, a feeling. Etc. For me, it’s often in misheard language (sound and sense) or compulsions (transgressive feelings).

Jennifer L. Knox : part twelve

Why is poetry important?

It connects us to each other and to the magic.

Jennifer L. Knox : part eleven

How important is music to your poetry?

Can one exist without the other?

Jennifer L. Knox : part ten

When you require renewal, is there a particular poem or book that you return to? A particular author?

Anything by James Tate and Richard Hugo's What Thou Lovest Well, Remains American.

Jennifer L. Knox : part nine

What other poetry books have you been reading lately?

Olio and the selected Bill Knott.

Jennifer L. Knox : part eight

What poets changed the way you thought about writing?

In the last seven months, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Shane McCrae, Victoria Chang, and Ada Limón

Jennifer L. Knox : part seven

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

These days, endings.

Jennifer L. Knox : part six

What do you feel poetry can accomplish that other forms can’t?

Forms of writing? I think poetry is unique in that it doesn’t need to convey information. It creates a feeling that is the poem, like a little feeling producing machine.

Jennifer L. Knox : part five

How does your work first enter the world? Do you have a social group or writers group that you work ideas and poems with?

I'm extremely grateful to have two poets I share work with. We 100 years ago met in graduate school and know the trajectory of each other's work very well. We each have a different heart-brain-balls ratio. I’m balls first, brains second, heart third. They're the opposites. So their feedback is usually aspects of the poem I never instinctually consider. That's invaluable.

Jennifer L. Knox : part four

Has your consideration of poetry changed since you began?

Absolutely, in almost every way. That may also be a good thing, process-wise.

Jennifer L. Knox : part three

How do you know when a poem is finished?

Endings are the hardest things for me these days, so I don’t, and the older I get, the more unsure I’ve become of when a poem's finished. That may be a good thing, process-wise.

Jennifer L. Knox : part two

How did you first engage with poetry?

I wrote poems to accompany visual art pieces I made.

Jennifer L. Knox : part one

Jennifer L. Knox is the author of four books of poems. Her poetry has appeared four times in the Best American Poetry series as well as in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and American Poetry Review. The New York Times said her most recent book, Days of Shame & Failure, “hits, with deceptive ease, all the poetic marks a reader could want: intellectual curiosity, emotional impact, beautiful language, surprising revelation and arresting imagery.” Her non-fiction writing has recently appeared in The Washington Post and American Poetry Review. She teaches writing at Iowa State University.

What are you working on?

A new book of poems and a culinary memoir.