Jericho in the Air

Prairie Schooner has a podcast called Air Schooner, and yesterday I listened to an interview (called "Spiritual Experience") with Jericho Brown, in which he discussed among other things, line breaks:

"...line breaks have everything to do with doubt. That's why poetry is different from prose, because it is infused with doubt. At the moment of a line break, even if it's for a millisecond, you are thrust into doubt. You are thrust into a place where you are not certain what just happened or what is going to happen. Only faith that the next line will land us on solid ground is what keeps up breathing."


Birthdays today (10/26): Hillary Clinton and Mahalia Jackson.

Tomorrow (10/27): Sylvia Plath and Dylan Thomas. How about that? Also Erasmus! And Isaac Singer, Maxine Hong Kinsgston, and Roy Lichtenstein.

Characteristics of an Exceptional Writer

Marianne Kunkel, managing editor of Prairie Schooner, is interviewed over at the LitBridge blog about "Characteristics of an Exceptional Writer." Guess what's (explicitly) not on the list? Perfection. Guess what is? Risk-taking and surprise. Am I surprised? I am not: a few weeks (months?) ago I said that the poems I valued most surprised me and that I was going to try and put more surprises in my poems. Am I now even more challenged to do this? I am.

Other admirable traits mentions: nerve, humor, and imagination. Read the whole (brief and worth-your-while) interview.

(More articles at LitBridge here, including "How to Receive Criticism" by Traci Brimhall, "How to Put Together a Book Tour" by Keith Montesano, "How to Write Collaborative Poetry" by Wendy Xu and Nick Sturm, "Quick Tips for Publishing Flash Fiction" by Glenn Shaheen, "How to Balance A Full-Time Job and Being a Writer" by Nina Corwin, "Being a Reading Series Coordinator" by Vladislav Frederick, and so many more practical topics.)