Last spring, I wrote a piece for this website on the poetry of Maurice Manning, whose work reflects and draws on the rich language, stories and landscape of his native Kentucky.

One of the things I learned from writing that reflection is that place itself is a kind of language. And like any language, it informs our view of the world and gives shape to our thoughts as we try to make sense of the world around us.

I believe that the place we are from is in our blood, whether we like it or not. I believe that the land gets under our skin. And I know that, for all its faults, for all its shallowness and brokenness and glitter that isn’t gold, California is under mine.
Hopeless dreams, a rootless restlessness, and heartbreaking proximity to a neverending sea are … Read More »

{for our Spaces Series, we’re asking writers to reflect on writing, revision, and the creative life, and where exactly that plays out. in this post, poet John James discusses the process and creation. his writing space is featured above. take note–it’s lived in. a place for books and papers. nothing glamorous–the real and rugged space of someone who loves to create. look anything like your house?}

The word that comes to mind when people ask about my writing process is “change.” Nothing stays the same for me, not my space, not my form, not my process or my style. In some senses, this has posed problems throughout my writing career. For one, having so many different kinds of poems has made it difficult to compile a cohesive book manuscript. More immediately, I never know when or how a poem is going to come about—and … Read More »

{for our Spaces Series, we’re asking writers to reflect on writing, revision, and the creative life, and where exactly that plays out. in this post, poet Jae Newman discusses the frustrations and epiphanies of the author-father-creative life. his writing space is featured above. take note–it’s lived in. a place for books, pacifiers, pictures, paper located in his own bedroom. nothing glamorous–the real and rugged space of someone who loves to create. look anything like your house?}

“It must be abstract” – Wallace Stevens

During a summer composition class once, a student asked me why revision was so important.  He hinted at the fact that it was something only English teachers or professors valued.   I wanted to respond with something sharp and pithy, but I refrained.  I knew that kind of response wouldn’t mean anything to him.  Instead, I removed my notebook from my back … Read More »