Rae Armantrout
“In order to start writing, I need to put myself in a receptive state of mind, which isn’t easy when you’re busy: ‘Stop, look, and listen,’ as they used to tell school kids crossing the street. It might just mean sitting in a different place, taking my notebook out into my garden or to a street café. The trick (for me) is to be patiently receptive without turning off my critical faculties. Sometimes I take a more active approach and turn to reading for stimulation. In that case, I tend to prefer certain kinds of nonfiction. Right now I’m reading Life on the Edge: The Coming Age of Quantum Biology (Bantam Press, 2014). Three new poems have begun with something I drew from that book in the last month. I’ll read other poets, too, but generally only when I’m revising.”
—Rae Armantrout, author of Itself (Wesleyan University Press, 2015)