poetry mini interviews

How important is music to your poetry? I grew up in transit which meant long trips filled with country music and books-on-tape. One of my ea...

How did you first engage with poetry? I went to visit my family in Africa and found all of my cousins’ dog-eared school books from the seven...

How does a poem begin? My poems begin with obsessions, unanswerable questions, and phrases that I can’t get out of my head. For my last book...

What other poetry books have you been reading lately? I’m always nosing around in multiple collections at a time. Here’re the ones slung ove...

How do you know when a poem is finished? It sounds right with my eye. I can see its wholeness. It resounds, all of it. It’s a feeling, a don...

Why is poetry important? I’ve been lucky to hear poet Martín Espada read in person twice. The first time I was in Freeport and he said to a ...

Andrew McSorley is the author of What Spirits Return (Kelsay Books, 2019). A graduate of the MFA program in creative writing at Southern I...