Ten Questions

“Stories that are planned are boring and flat and unlike life, which is messy and has its own logic.” —Craig Thompson, author of Ginseng Roots

“The short story form offers me a way to indulge my obsessions and experiment with various genres and narrative modes.” —Julia Elliott, author of Hellions

“Write one poem at a time and resist knowing where you are going.” —Arthur Sze, author of Into the Hush

“Editing down is something I dread in the abstract because I know I can lose motivation easily. But this book has ingrained the lesson in me fully.” —Dennis E. Staples, author of Passing Through a Prairie Country

“This isn’t writer-stuff, it’s life-stuff that bears on the poems.” —Lesley Wheeler, author of Mycocosmic

“If a story gathers force by what it accrues, this kind of ending is a letting go.” —Corinna Vallianatos, author of Origin Stories

“All you can do is pay attention to the process, the practice, and see what it does to you, what it does to the people around you, what it does to your dear readers.” —Latif Askia Ba, author of The Choreic Period

“Your e-mails are daily writings. Your grocery lists; your text messages; your poetry magnets on the fridge; your annotations in the margins of your books.” —Kayleb Rae Candrilli, author of Winter of Worship

“Describe your inner vision clearly so that the reader can see exactly what you see.” —Juhea Kim, author of City of Night Birds