Ten Questions for Bob Hicok
“I’m looking for my honest response when my eyes first fall upon a poem.” —Bob Hicok, author of Breathe
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Read weekly interviews with authors to learn the inside stories of how their books were written, edited, and published; insights into the creative process; the best writing advice they’ve ever heard; and more.
“I’m looking for my honest response when my eyes first fall upon a poem.” —Bob Hicok, author of Breathe
“In truth, I am still writing The Daughter Industry and likely won’t stop.” —Soham Patel, author of The Daughter Industry
“I strive to write very weekday, at least a little bit, though the way I write changes through the years; I try to stay open to those changes.” —Rachel Khong, author of My Dear You
“I’m a constant reviser. My reading copies are marked up with edits and additions.” —Adrian Matejka, author of Be Easy: New and Selected Poems
“Being gentle may not make it better, but it rarely makes it worse.” —Siew Hii, author of Entered Some Aliens
“Don’t rush the writing, and enjoy it for itself.” —Tara Menon, author of Under Water
“When I work in coffee shops, people actually remark on the chaos of my desktop, wondering how I can get any work done.” —Tom Junod, author of In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man
“I am often wildly optimistic about my productivity in the mornings. This feeling lasts no later than noon.” —Jordy Rosenberg, author of Night Night Fawn
“I think that losing the joy of process causes writer’s block.” —Tayari Jones, author of Kin
“Take your time.” —D. S. Waldman, author of Atria
“If someone else could do it better, don’t write it.” —Anne Fadiman, author of Frog: And Other Essays
“Look around, have courage, and learn to say yes to things you are unfamiliar with from time to time.” —April Reynolds, author of The Shape of Dreams
“One day, all that sacrifice will have been worth it.” —Alice Evelyn Yang, author of A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing
“Look up from your own desperation and walk outside. No matter the weather, be outdoors each day. It will help you.” —Andrés Cerpa, author of The Palace
“Advice for poets should be poems.” —Bianca Stone, author of The Near and Distant World
“Many unknown things are possible, many unexpected turns of events will arise.” —Xiaolu Guo, author of Call Me Ishmaelle
Ten authors answer the tenth question in our Ten Questions series: What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?
This week’s installment of Ten Questions features Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida and Alison Entrekin, the author and the translator of Three Stories of Forgetting.
“You have to learn to write when you don’t feel like it.” —Raquel Gutiérrez, author of Southwest Reconstruction
“Art is following your soul’s demand.” —Juhea Kim, author of A Love Story From the End of the World
“It can take days, months, years for me to know when notes pass into the arena of poem or story.” —Devon Walker Figueroa, author of Lazarus Species
“I’ve learned to be most interested in enjoying the process of making something emotionally true and honest.” —Ashani Surya, author of Ravishing
“I think the creative process is unboundaried.” —Sarah Hall, author of Helm
“How can we reach a higher truth in storytelling and art?” —Brandon Hobson, author of The Devil Is a Southpaw
“At a certain point, you just have to make that shift into the difficulty head-on. You have to hit it.” —Emily Wilson, author of Burnt Mountain