Has your consideration of poetry changed since you began?
I used to be very against readings. I never wanted to take part. I’ve been very lucky in the last few years to find a community of writers, all fairly disparate, who appreciate taking big risks and cherishing experience and who channel that energy into their performances. A lot of those people do readings and they make it something interesting, performative, compelling to an audience. They turned me on to readings. There’s an art to reading, I think, and it’s important, for me, to take into consideration. Even just to look up now and then while you’re reading, to speak from a self-assured place, to keep an audience engaged. It’s fine if you want to eyes down read and get out, it’s just not for me. So I’ve warmed up to readings, I like doing them now and am still exploring my own voice in that realm. Maybe I am a boring reader, I don’t know. I’m trying to connect with an audience in different ways, to be more performative. It’s an exploration. I still, often, don’t bring non-writer friends to “reading” readings, though. I think if you’re not invested in the art form it can be a weird experience.
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