What poets changed the way you thought about writing?
In high school, I was invited to attend the Young Authors’ Conference at a satellite campus of Ohio University. There, I heard English professor Peter Desy (now retired) speak about poetry and share some of his work. That moment had a huge impact on how I understood poetry and how I wrote poetry. Desy gave the attendees of his session a packet of poetry, which included one of my all-time favorite poems, “My Father’s Picture on the Cover of a Buffalo Bison’s Hockey Program for 1934”. Since that transformative moment in 1987, the 90s introduced me to Jim Carroll, John Trudell and Def Poetry Jam, all of which expanded my understanding of what poetry was and could be. In recent years, I’ve come to appreciate the genius of my hometown, Columbus, Ohio. We have such fantastic, nationally known poets like, Rachel Wiley, Scott Woods, Maggie Smith, Ruth Awad, and Hanif Abdurraqib, to name only five. These folks and so many other poets in this city keep our scene humming; keep all of the poetry nights, workshops, and literary events happening continuously, year-round. I am a very small fish in this pond, but it is such a privilege to be able to talk to these folks and learn from them.
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