Welcome back, poets! This will be my final post as a columnist for DIY MFA. This is a bittersweet departure for me, but I’m excited to begin another chapter of my life! It’s truly been an honor writing for you all and I thought I’d leave you with some of the lessons I’ve learned from… Read more »
Welcome back, poets! Today I thought I’d do something different and talk about one of my favorite things—book cover design! If you’re planning on traditionally publishing a full-length poetry collection or chapbook, you will typically work with a designer and the publisher to come up with a book cover design you’re all happy with. While… Read more »
“I like that clean cloth. I like that fog that came in. I think the fog must have come in sometime a long time before I did and never went out. I like that blue thing feeling. In life I’ve loved sun and field and pumpkin and have claimed in distress to hate blue things and have then been afraid it was a dark sin.”
from “Blue Thing Feeling”
Welcome back, poets! For me, revision has always been the hardest part of writing poetry. Should I cut lines out or add them in? Is the final line strong enough, or would the poem be served better by ending earlier? Is my title doing enough work? And how in the world do I know when… Read more »
Welcome back, poets! In my last post, I talked about confessional poetry—a brief history, defining characteristics, and a couple exercises to get you started writing some confessional poetry of your own. Today, I’d like to talk about poetry of witness, a mode that I’d argue is a close cousin of the confessional (with some key… Read more »
Welcome back, poets! Today, I’m excited to talk about confessional poetry: a brief history, some defining characteristics, and a couple of exercises to help you get started writing confessional-style poetry of your own. A (Very) Brief History of Confessional Poetry In 1959, Robert Lowell’s Life Studies was published, a collection that would later be described… Read more »
Welcome back, poets! I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting as 2021 comes to a close and I head into my final (yay!) semester of grad school. As I read through some of the poetry I wrote at the start of my studies, I’m amazed by how much I’ve learned about the craft of poetry,… Read more »
Welcome back, poets! In my last article, I talked about some of the techniques I use to generate ideas and inspiration for poems, especially when on a deadline. Today, I want to take things a step further and talk about what to do after you’ve written and revised a bunch of poems, and are ready… Read more »
Hi, writers! I am so excited to debut my new column focusing on the craft of poetry. Let’s dive right in! Line breaks were one of the biggest challenges I faced when I first started writing poetry—knowing when to break a line, when to use short lines vs. long lines, and, perhaps most importantly, the… Read more »
Happy New Year, writers! Over the past few months, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about ways to build and grow an author brand–primarily focusing on you (your website, your social media presence, ways to make sure you’re being as authentic as possible, etc.)–but today I want to talk about an aspect of your… Read more »
