1 - How did your first book or chapbook change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
I think my first chapbook, Empathy, changed my life because it gave me something concrete to share. It felt packaged and beautiful, and I was so proud to hand it to people. It also helped me realize that I write so I can communicate with people — and if I want people to read my work, I have to do the work of getting the chapbook into their hands. It was amazing to have, but it also added the responsibility of distribution.
Song of Gray is a more complete picture of my poetry. Empathy mostly focused on acting, and Song of Gray is everything.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I think I was attracted to short forms. I naturally don’t write very much, and I love feeling like something is complete. I want to have a complete, totally full thing, to hold and share, and with poems you could do that in a day, in a minute! I’m also interested in presence and moments and I think poetry is a great form for that—it is the closest written language can get to physicality and embodiment.
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?
First drafts usually come quickly and randomly. Once I have a solid first draft of a poem it gets to it’s final form by sitting around for at least 2 weeks and then I come back to it and if I still like it. If I do, I change the things that need to be changed that I couldn’t see 2 weeks ago and add the things that need to be added. Then I send it to my friends and change a few things based on what they say. And if I still like it after that, it is done. The first drafts are often relatively close to their final shape.
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?
A poem usually begins a little randomly. I will write in a certain mood or when I feel kind of dissatisfied. I sometimes feel like I’m not getting much out of my day and I want to have something that makes me feel like something happened and a poem helps with that. Sometimes I write because I read something that frustrated me or excited me and I want to see if I can do something like that or correct what felt wrong in the frustrating piece.
I don’t have a book or larger project in mind from the beginning, but when I look back at individual poems, I sometimes get disappointed in their lack of ambition, and I soothe myself by thinking it might make more sense and be meaningful in a context.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I think public readings are really important and complicated. I am still working towards finding the right way to read my poetry out loud, but I think it is really essential for the audience to be able to hear you and understand you in the moment of the reading.
I think communicating a poem with voice and body is essential to me even if the voice and body aren’t doing much. I haven’t done many readings where I read for more than 5 minutes, but I usually enjoy them, and I often feel like I haven’t done a good job, so I want to figure out how to do them better.
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?
I do. I think about Blackness my biggest question is how do you be Black and engage with the lyric “I”? I see Blackness as existing somewhat separately from humanity, from body, and from “I.” Black gender is also a major question for me.
Performance, seeing, and being seen guide a lot of my work. The chapter of Black Skin, White Masks where Fanon is on the train being seen in three ways—historically, stereotypically, and in the present—is the most important theoretical text for me. It shapes how I think about performance and being seen.
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?
I’ve recently been spending time with musicians who feel more in tune with culture than writers, and I can see that they think of writers as very smart but maybe not essential to everyday life. Music is part of daily life for most people, and it’s easier to admire painters because museums and gallery shows are visible, social events.
Writers are a quieter part of culture. People may not read as much, and there aren’t many famous, living, relatable writers. The “famous” ones often feel disconnected. Still, I think writers can be mirrors and witnesses. The writer’s role should be to reflect a moment and a person as honestly as possible and that’s essential to culture.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I don’t really know something is done until I’ve shown it to someone else and I really trust people. So I like it!
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Feel your feet on the floor
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 do not have a writing routine. I wake up around 6:45 to get to work, and I can usually be out of the door in 15 minutes, but I try to do one ritual in the morning which is usually spinning around.
11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
When I can’t write I try to read more, and to take the pressure off I tell myself I’m not allowed to write and not being allowed to write usually makes me want to write a lot. Dancing and performance often inspire me also.
12 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Tuberose
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?
Acting and children influence my work. I work with kids ages 7–9, and the things they say and the way they act is so interesting. Each one feels like a poem, honest and distilled. I have also been an actor since I was a kid and embodiment and physical language and the dynamics of being on a stage affects the way I write. One of my closest friends is a painter and the way she talks about painting visual art inspires me maybe more than the art itself.
14 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
I think writers from the Black Arts Movement are important to my work, theory is important to my work especially Franz Fanon’s Black Skin White Masks and Selamawit Terrefe’s article “Speaking the Hieroglyph.” Self Portrait in Green by Marie NDiaye is a very important book to me as well. Adrienne Kennedy’s plays, especially The Owl Answers. I am influenced by the novelists and fiction writers Marie Redonet, Barbara Comyns, and Amina Cain. And I am influenced by the poets Robyn Schiff, Margaret Ross, Lucille Clifton, Jorie Graham, Gwendolyn Brooks, Emily Hunt, Catherine Barnett, and Mary Jo Bang.
15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
I would like to go on a world tour with me and my two friends' band, The Test.
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 think I would want to be a painter.
17 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
I want to see myself and the world and I think I might be best at communicating those things through written language. The satisfaction of seeing myself in writing might keep me a poet.
I also found my best friends in high school through poetry and my favorite people and professors in college were poets. So I think I was following my heart, but I also think I’m lured by poets. I think they are geniuses and I want to be like them. Every time I read a good poem I learn something new, I genuinely learn a new thing, and that doesn’t happen with much else I encounter. Poetry feels like an endless well of amazing people and knowledge and I want to stay in the well.
18 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
I just watched Pasolini’s Medusa which was amazing. And the last great book I read was A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch and Creature by Amina Cain. The last amazing book of poetry I read was Information Desk by Robyn Schiff and Saturday by Margaret Ross.
19 - What are you currently working on?
A Study of Children! And more songs for The Test.
12 or 20 (second series) questions;
