I have a new microchap out from Rockwood Press. It’s called minutes between city and forest and it’s my shortest book yet. I say this because I think there is an unhelpful myth out there that poets should graduate from chapbooks to full-length collections; some manuscripts need to be small—and brevity gives poets (and readers) more room for experimentation and risk-taking than they might have in a full-sized collection. As a case in point, this is also my first speculative book (it’s a series...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Beginnings are exciting, but they are also hard to spot. My nephew is learning to crawl this summer. He’s an energetic baby and he gurgles knowingly at my literary references, but he’s finding (as each of us did once) that quadruped-style locomotion is a complex challenge. First, there’s the matter of pressing off his tummy-time blanket and onto hands and knees. Then there’s the issue of coordinating his limbs into forward movement. Recently, he perched excitedly on his hands and toes and...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Writer’s block can be the imagination’s warning system, a red light blinking in the back of the brain, a low battery signal, an indicator that something needs our attention (and likely our action) before we can proceed. Whether it arrives after weeks of white-knuckling through burnout and stress, shows up in the wake of a big emergency, or disrupts a productive writing streak seemingly out of the blue, Block cuts the music and the momentum. It stands with its arms crossed in the middle of the...
3 months ago • 3 min read
I’m trying something new this June. I hope you will too. It can be terrifying to invest time, energy, and money in your own creative growth. I know because it took me 11 months to work up the nerve to purchase the heart-centered online business course that I’m completing this summer. I knew that I wanted to expand my coaching practice—to help more poets develop (or rediscover) their voices and share their work with the world. I was happily pouring time, energy, and care into my clients’...
3 months ago • 1 min read