Ten Questions

“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

This week’s installment of Ten Questions features Brynja Hjálmsdóttir and Rachel Britton, the author and translator of A Woman Looks Over Her Shoulder / Kona lítur við.

“Streamline. Outline. Find your center of gravity.” —Mike Fu, author of Masquerade

“You can go with intention, or you can explore where the poem leads you. Where your unconscious leads you.” —Kimiko Hahn, author of The Ghost Forest: New and Selected Poems

“Trust yourself enough to know that you don’t need to do backflips for your readers on the page. Just walk straight ahead.” —Aaron Robertson, author of The Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America

“The orality and intimacy of the lecture bring it closer to some aspects of lyric poetry than the nonfiction essay.” —Srikanth Reddy, author of The Unsignificant

“Now, though, years have passed, and I do have more peace about my past and my process. From afar, I can finally see what I was doing, and why.” —Jay Baron Nicorvo, author of Best Copy Available: A True Crime Memoir