Hyland is the eponymous co-founder of the international restaurant groups Pizza Loves Emily + Emmy Squared Pizza. She leads poetry & movement retreats across the country & lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico where she writes & teaches at Yogasource, a beloved local studio that she co-owns & directs.
1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
My first book checked the box of achieving the goal. I did this thing I’ve been hoping to do since 7th grade when I first started writing poetry during National Poetry Month for a chapbook unit with Mrs. Berrian. The new book feels different because it’s the next iteration of lived experience being processed—themes from the original book get teased out and more deeply explored in My Wise Little Ghost. This book, and the special voice within, emerged during a consciousness-explanding period for me—this book was quick and unexpected and poured out onto the page.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
See above! I first started writing poetry during National Poetry Month for a chapbook unit with Mrs. Berrian in 7th grade. I still have that chapbook, and she actually came to my first book launch back in 2024. What a gift of a teacher!
3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
I have a fairly generative process. I’m in a bi-weekly writing group, a weekly drop in group with peers, take an array of classes, and go on poetry retreats, so there are always constructive reasons to write. My process is very much meditation/processing-in-action—working through whatever’s in the field through the use of language and creative expression. Typically, I’m drafting in free form, then go back to edit and finesse. Drafts are alive; one of my favorite parts of the process is being in collaborative conversations with friends or editors who help me sculpt and refine my poems over the course of many evolutions.
4 - Where does a poem usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
I’m project oriented. Each poem feels like one piece of the larger whole.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I like doing readings that have a conversation element to them. I like being in dialogue with others and learning from each other in community.
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
Right now, I’m exploring how so many of my behaviors and expressions of emotion stem from old, stale narratives from family of origin. I’m interesting in discovering what plug sockets those old wires are plugged into and then untangling that big mess of wires and updating to a more current operating system. It’s been wild to tease the storylines out from where they originate and then see all the doors that open up into lineage and ancestry.
7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
Writers are deep observers; I think that quality of being a witness and then writing it is a vital check in society. I’m a yoga teacher and practitioner, and the yoga practice also requires contemplative awareness. I do my best to honor what practicing yoga actually means; according to The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: yogash chitta vritti nirodhah, essentially translates as “yoga is the quieting of all the changing states of the mind.” The primary purpose of this practice is to clear the lens to be in a state of heightened clarity at the present moment. What better conditions exist for poems to emerge than from the place of sheer presence?
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
ESSENTIAL. The right set of objective eyes, (or a few of them), is essential to crafting and refining poems when the poems are ready for that stage of work. This is part of the journey is a wonderful opportunity for self-inquiry, because it allows me to explore my relationship with ego, want, and attachment. Why am I clinging to this couplet? What makes this image so damn precious to me? What happens if I let go and allow the space for possibility beyond what I originally imagined?
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Last year, I had the opportunity to study with Ellen Bass on her Truth & Beauty retreat in Santa Cruz with Marie Howe. When I was concerned about about what the poem was uncovering about the person and situation it was based on and feeling guilty about putting all of the mess into the poem, she told me, “Give the poem what it needs.” It was such a declarative moment of wisdom. You can go back after and do all the things to care for the humans who’ve inspired the pieces or think about how the audience will meet the piece, but as the poem is coming to life, don’t hold back. When I head into tough territory around family of origin work, I hear this reminder and charge forward, emboldened and reminded to meet the poem where it is and tend to its needs.
10 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
I’m up early to feed my fur babies, then coffee and clearing the inbox of administrative distraction. On my non-studio days, I strength train and run, then write, read, edit, or work on array of poetry tasks like these interview questions. On yoga days, Friday-Monday, I head to the studio and teach and take classes. Each weekend, I teach through the lens of a poet, and read their work as part of my opening talk, then weave the themes, concepts, and new learning into the way we are thinking about being and breathing in our bodies on the mat. What is the poem that the body is writing today? Where is the old tangled set of wires lurking in the connective tissue that need to be combed through, cleared, and exhaled out?
11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Books. Opening a book and reading is a natural inspiration boost for me. Stall is also part of the ebb and flow, and it’s been important for me to explore patience and ease during times when writing seems less available. I had an extremely generative few years then almost a full year of fallow field. The best way to meet that was to myself rest in the field, trusting the poems would start to sprout when ready.
12 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Palo santo. Grounding and warm.
13 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
I’m starting to spend more time with visual art, and the dimensions of color and story, among other elements, that live in a painting excite my creativity. As I mentioned earlier, the predominant place of inquiry and influence for me is the body. Every experience we have ever had lives in our tissue. The somatic space is its own endless universe of poems waiting to be written. My big toe wrote a poem this past year with a big moment of awareness with an acupuncture needle; just a few weeks ago in yoga class, my hip flexors tuned me to a hard memory I’ve been avoiding for a long time and nudged me to try and write it. Running feels like meditation-in-action as well and my morning runs are spaces where my mind can open up to a quality of thinking while resilience-building in a way that also creates potent conditions for poems to come forth.
14 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Reading Sharon Olds in college was my entry into this world. Mark Doty has been my primary teacher for many years now; he has built a wonderful community of poets and creates the safe, supportive, kind circumstances to grow as a writer in workshop. He shares many students with Ellen Bass and Marie Howe, and both of them are huge influences both as teachers and as poets. I’ve recently studied with Gaby Calvocoressi and Shira Erlichman, and look forward to studying with both of them more. I’m inspired by Ocean Vuong and Ross Gay. I’m in a peer group with emerging poets like myself: Sarah Williams, Lexi Pelle, and KuhuJoshi. These are three powerful poets to be on the lookout for. I’m peers with Kristin Lueke and LO Naylor, two other raw, outstanding new voices I’m lucky to call friends.
15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Run a half marathon. Yikes. Now that I’ve said it I have to do it.
16 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I seem to be someone who does a lot of different things already; I’ve been a restaurateur for over a decade, I co-own and direct a yoga studio in Santa Fe called Yogasource—come take a class if you pass through! I also lead creative expression and resilience skill-building retreats with Mark Doty and other folks wherein we discuss, read, and write poems, and move our bodies as a means to be with the poems as they come to fruition. If I had the time, I would become an esthetician and clean pores all day long.
17 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
As a kid, the page was a space I could trust early on. It was the place I could best relate to my feelings and feel safe to express them. Thank god for that!
18 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
Just watched Bugonia. AMAZING. WOW. I just read Creature in Bloom by Rebekah Hewitt. I met her at AWP this year and we bought each other’s books. Another amazing woman writing about the experience of being a woman in her body and her life. Highly recommend!
19 - What are you currently working on?
I’m working on community building in writing and movement land: my next retreat, Magic in Mexico: Light & Joy in Practice, with a renowned meditation teacher, Erin Doerwald. We’ll be helping folks tune towards the key resilience skills of levity and gratitude. She’ll be teaching gentle movement and meditation practices, and I’ll be holding poetry discussions and teaching somatic movement classes around this important topic. Come with us!
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