1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
night mode is my first book! While writing the early draft during my MFA, I challenged myself to look inward—to examine myself in complicated and uncomfortable ways I hadn't before. I was forced to reconcile the person that I thought I was with the person I had really become (/am still becoming). While working on this book, I changed my pronouns and navigated crucial shifts in my life. The collection is just about to enter the world thanks to the wonderful folks at Everybody Press. I'm beginning to celebrate it. Even though it was painful to write, I've always believed in it. I'm confident I'll find relief in the act of letting it go—letting this strange, glitchy book find its way in the world.
Whereas night mode is a book-length serial poem written in five poetic sections, I'm writing shorter, punchier poems these days. I've been revisiting the New York School (especially after the passing of Bernadette Mayer), as well as concrete and visual poetry. In general, I love to play with and utilize negative space on the page, soundwork, enjambment, and all/no caps. As I'm working on my second manuscript, I've also been trying out triple sonnets and crowns.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I began writing poems in middle school after reading Sylvia Plath for the first time. I wanted to emulate her coyness, as well as the music and repetition in her work: "You do not do, you do not do / Any more, black shoe."
In high school, I took creative writing electives every chance that I had. Through these classes, I was exposed to more poets: Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, E. E. Cummings, etc. I also had a Tumblr blog where I uploaded hundreds of poems. Looking back, I suppose the blog was a resource for me to find and build community with other writers because I didn't know many poets in real life.
My senior quote in high school was excerpted from James Wright's poem "A Blessing": "Suddenly I realize / That if I stepped out of my body I would break / Into blossom."
From there, my love for poetry blossomed. Became boundless.
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?
Sometimes in an instant, sometimes over the course of many years. It depends on the project, on the concept, on the poem. My notes app is cluttered with drafts, even if just single lines.
While the poems in night mode underwent many revisions since I first wrote them, many of my newer poems feel nearly finished right at the first draft. It's all about how much attention the poem or project asks for.
As Simone Weil says, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”
Sometimes that generosity is knowing when to step away, when to turn your attention elsewhere.
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?
Similarly to the last question, it depends. Sometimes a poem first appears as a thought bouncing around my head while I'm doing something mundane, like commuting to work on the subway. Other times I'll wake up with a poem caught in my throat from a dream I only half remember.
Regardless, this moment of rapture is one of my favorite things about being a poet: when you become so taken by the poem that you're consumed by it. You give yourself to the poem, and rather than embody it, you let it take control of you.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
Performing is a massive part of my life as a poet. Many of my poems are playful—even theatrical—so performing them aloud helps me activate them. It's as terrifying as it is electrifying.
I love sharing space with other writers. Participating in and attending readings offers the opportunity to make new discoveries, where otherwise perhaps you wouldn't.
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?
night mode could not have been written had I not read A Cyborg Manifesto by Donna Haraway, particularly the connection between gender and the function of the "cyborg" in feminism. Queer theory and identity politics play a heavy role in my work. I'm also interested in digital and comparative media studies, based on my interests outside of poetry: reality television, films, music, fashion, etc. A lot of my work is persona-based, where I allow myself to explore another "me."
As Susan Howe writes in Debths, "What I lack is myself."
I am always seeking myself, which I believe so many of us are...
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?
In a recent NYT article that made the rounds on Twitter, a writer asserted that "poetry is dead." Or, that poetry has been dead for one hundred years. This was news to me. Had I known, I'd have picked out my best dress to wear to the funeral!
I don't know if there is one particular role each writer should aim to fulfill. Rather, I think a realistic goal should be to continue writing, reading, and championing our craft. To explore the archives and the legacies of writers of the past, and to carry forth their legacies while challenging, critiquing, and re-evaluating the systems and structures in which they (and we) live(d).
And instead of seeking to do something "new", we'd be better off spending our time reading other writers to better understand that everything that feels "new" has already been done. That knowing brings with it its own kind of freedom, away from ego.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
Both! It's impossible to see the full shape of your own work and how it's landing, even when you take time and distance away from it. Having another set of eyes is necessary. It's horrifying to make yourself vulnerable and share work with an outside editor, but that fear can be productive, especially when you have the right editor. An editor you can trust.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
This answer is sort of a follow up to my last. My mentor during my MFA, the fabulous poet Laura Elrick, gave me advice ahead of my first critique, where I'd share my poetry with my cohort for the first time. She said, "Over time, you will begin to trust who to turn your ear to. You'll notice who is engaging with your work on the level that you require—who in the room is giving you the feedback you need."
This is a paraphrase of a much longer conversation, but this advice has stuck with me since. It applies to so much more than just a critique in a classroom, as Weil's framing of attention also suggests.
10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to performance)? What do you see as the appeal?
In a poetry class during my senior year of undergrad, my professor, the amazing poet Peter Covino, expressed how performative he found my work to be. I had a deep fear of reading in public, so I always did my best to avoid it.
In order for me to hear the music in my poems, he had me read and re-read the same poem over and over again in front of him, until the cadences started to feel more natural in my mouth, rolling off my tongue. This moment radically changed not only how I understood my own poems; it deepened my respect for the art of performing. How a poem can be activated through performance.
11 - 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 don't have a concrete writing routine. When the idea strikes, I hit my notes app or open up a Pages doc on my computer and begin writing.
As for how a typical day begins for me: 0nce my alarm goes off in the morning, my cat, Salad, meows in my face and we cuddle for a bit. Then I scroll my phone, drink coffee, and proceed with my daily routine: shower, shave, and do my hair if it's wash day (curly haired folks will know the struggle!).
12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Poetry collections and music, mostly. I adore all of Mitski's discography, especially her earlier albums. I've also been returning to the books proxy by r. erica doyle and frank: sonnets by Diane Seuss when I need some inspiration, as I'm working on my current project.
13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
The ocean; the reek of the tide when it's low.
Fresh laundry.
Summer grass.
Fallen autumnal leaves underfoot.
14 - 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?
Absolutely! During the peak of Covid in 2020, I experimented with video-poem performances using clips I shot and distorted on my iPhone. I was inspired by Carolee Schneemann's work, particularly Fuses. I'd like to get back into making these types of videos.
I would also love to explore working with music and sound work as part of my performance practice. I listen to glitchy hyperpop music, and I feel its overlap with my poetry. I can only imagine what it would be like to be on the other end, finally learning Ableton and making music in the genre myself.
15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
A few I've already mentioned, but: Sylvia Plath, Diane Seuss, Bernadette Mayer, Joyelle McSweeney, r. erica doyle, Andrea Abi-Karam, Etel Adnan, Joshua Escobar, imogen xtian smith, Laura Henriksen, Michelle Tea, CAConrad, Lindsey Boldt, Wanda Coleman, danilo machado, Marwa Helal, Chia-Lun Chang, and countless others.
16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
I've hardly traveled, so I'd love to explore more parts of the world. I've always wanted to go to Tokyo, ever since I was a child, so that's on the bucket list.
17 - 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 work in book publishing and publicity, which I enjoy. Alternatively, I could see myself having worked in fashion, most likely as a stylist. I never really gave myself the opportunity to explore it, but I love styling myself, and occasionally even my friends on a night out, when they ask. I have far too much clothing. Really, you should see the state of my room right now...
18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
Sylvia Plath once wrote, "I am a writer... I am a genius of a writer; I have it in me." Encountering this quote for the first time wrecked me. Not the idea of being a "genius", but the notion that writing is something that comes from within. In. I'd never felt so affirmed.
During the beginning of undergrad, I considered a couple of other career paths to explore: film and fashion. But I realized that I didn't need to pursue a career in either industry as long as I found ways to incorporate them in my life in ways that feel organic and still fulfilling. I love thrift shopping, and I love watching movies. Two of my favorite hobbies.
19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
Nevada by Imogen Binnie is so damn good. I'm late to the game, but I thankfully caught wind of it after it was just recently republished. It's fun, fierce, relatable in the best and worst ways. I couldn't put it down, no matter how much I wanted to savor it. I can only imagine what it would have meant for me had I read it when it first came out in 2013.
I'm a horror movie fanatic, and one of my favorite films is Jordan Peele's Nope. I love its contribution to the horror-alien genre (and how it subverts it). That one scene during the Star Lasso Experience rattled me to my core, turning my stomach. It still does, every time I rewatch it.
20 - What are you currently working on?
My second collection of poems, ICONOCLAST, which is scheduled for publication in 2024, also with Everybody Press! It's an ambitious project, and I've been trying to find time to write new work while sifting through old poems to better assess how far along I am in the process. But for me, this is the fun part. Stay tuned!
12 or 20 (second series) questions;
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