Ten Questions for Anne Waldman

“I like the idea of action writing, putting text on the floor and playing with arrangement like abstract expressionist painting.” —Anne Waldman, author of Mesopotopia
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“I like the idea of action writing, putting text on the floor and playing with arrangement like abstract expressionist painting.” —Anne Waldman, author of Mesopotopia
The author of Restitution (Regal House Publishing, September 2025) recommends writers refine their research and examine which details actually serve their characters and plots.
The author of Scream / Queen (Acre Books, 2025) recommends poets expand their research beyond their typical interests.
A novelist describes her exposure to a multitude of scientific disciplines as the writer-in-residence at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and shares how exploring something completely new has lent fresh energy to her work.
“I was playing, trying to make something I liked, something no one else had already made for me.” —Rachel Trousdale, author of Five-Paragraph Essay on the Body-Mind Problem
When you venture to inhabit identities and communities beyond your experience, seek people and places to ground your work. A journalist and novelist explains how research skills help fortify one’s imagined realities.
“Take your time. And indulge in the messiness, the privacy, the anxieties of the writing process.” —Aria Aber, author of Good Girl
“I studied with Gordon Lish and he once said: ‘Never explain, never complain.’” —Lily Tuck, author of The Rest Is Memory
“Do a lot of people feel this monogamous guilt in their writing lives?”—Sharon Wahl, author of Everything Flirts: Philosophical Romances