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 usually draft my poems by doing fifteen to thirty minutes of timed, nonstop writing. Then I pare them back until I think to myself, Oh, there’s the thing that’s cool. Then I take a screenshot and send four separate messages to a total of five people: My mom (who usually says something like, Oh wow, I love it), my dad (who recently told me that, You have to be able to think like a child in order to understand your poetry), my partner Ruby (who is herself a skilled poet and whose thoughts constantly expand the world(s) of my work and the world in which I live), and finally a groupchat with my dear friends and sometimes-collaborators, Ben Niespodziany and Evan Nicholls (who hype me up with expertly chosen gifs and fire emojis (and precise feedback, usually on pacing)). I’ll often exchange large chunks of poems with Reuben Gelley Newman, who has an ear for music and the musicality of language unlike any I’ve known. These folks see the entirety of my projects well before I send them anywhere, and are integral to my writing and personal lives alike. I feel quite lucky.
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