I See Something I Can’t Shake: A Conversation with Myronn Hardy
As a poet, I’m constantly trying to make connections and see between and among things.
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Posts by: Janet Rodriguez
Donut Dollies and Maven Matriarchs: A Conversation with Luis Alberto Urrea
If you’ve got that outline already lived, then you have to try to honor it.
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The Poem is Second, Living is First: An Interview with Tim Z. Hernandez
Above everything else, people come first.
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I Freed Myself from Needing to Make Sense: A Conversation with Leila Chatti
I’ve learned by now my mind is smarter than I am, than my conscious self—it’s doing all sorts of things in there, unbeknownst to me. I often tell my students that the poem knows better than I do, and so I shouldn’t be arrogant enough to think I’m in control.
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Strength and Feeling in Motion: A conversation with Henri Cole about Gravity and Center
Horses are a nice metaphor for the sonnet’s strength and feeling in motion. Beauty and violent power come together in an animal form. When I write, I have the feeling of being a rider. As the poem gallops forward, I am knocked about.
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When Craft Becomes an Act of Love: An Interview with Gayle Brandeis
I want to be fully present for whatever I’m doing, whether it’s teaching, or writing, or being with people I love.
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Knowledge alters things forever: A conversation with Anuradha Roy
. . . it was clear in my head that the dog in the book would not die, that he would bring people together, and also function as a kind of barometer for good and evil because, in my experience, that is how dogs are.
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This Is What We Have Inherited: A Conversation with Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu
I think it is imperative to explore the limits of the colonial narrative and its dictates because, whether we like it or not, the world that we have inherited was created by that narrative. If we have any hope of moving past it, we have to understand it fully.
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The Perfect Balance Between Momentum and Stillness: Chris Abani discusses Smoking the Bible
Masculinity isn’t a thing. It is an absence, an excavation. Men are raised in the erase of all that is tender and good and loving until for many of us, all that is left is an unfocused rage.
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Bringing the Exterior into our Private Rooms: A Conversation with Victoria Chang
There’s no reason for cruelty; the joy is in the writing. I always try to remember why I started doing this thing: Because I had to. It’s not a choice for many of us writers to write, but we do have a choice about whether we’re going to be nice or not.
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Hope is the Best Strategy: A Conversation with Sharman Apt Russell
As we start seeing the effects of climate change, of people struggling with drought and struggling with erratic weather patterns and flooding, we have to accept our responsibility.
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Ancient Voices, Language, Cats: Talking with Kaveh Akbar about Pilgrim Bell
To reduce a poem to a purely autobiographical, experiential reading feels limiting to me. To reduce a poem to an “aboutness” seems limiting to me. The poet Allen Grossman said, “A poem is about a thing the way a cat is about a house.”
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The Rumpus Mini Interview Project: Carribean Fragoza
“I always try to locate stories deep inside myself, physically and emotionally.”
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Apples, Sonnet Crowns, and Other Containers of Trauma: Talking with Jeri Frederickson
Jeri Frederickson discusses her debut collection, YOU ARE NOT LOST.
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The Burden of Translation: Talking with Leonora Simonovis
Leonora Simonovis discusses her debut collection, STUDY OF THE RAFT.
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Discovering the Thought: A Conversation with Andrés Cerpa
Andrés Cerpa discusses his new poetry collection, THE VAULT.
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The Lure of the Process: Talking with Chang-rae Lee
Chang-rae Lee discusses his new novel, MY YEAR ABROAD.
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Asking the Right Questions: Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom
Transcendent Kingdom becomes an experiment in itself.
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The Power of the Word: Talking with Roberto Lovato
Roberto Lovato discusses his new memoir, UNFORGETTING.
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Interrogating Grief: A Converstion with Victoria Chang
Victoria Chang discusses her new poetry collection, OBIT.
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Ways to Become Unpinnable: Talking with Natalie Diaz
Natalie Diaz discusses her new collection, POSTCOLONIAL LOVE POEM.
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Otherwordly: Talking with Rosebud Ben-Oni
Rosebud Ben-Oni discusses her new collection, TURN AROUND, BRXGHT XYXS.
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Laying Bare Our Truths: A Conversation with Marika Lindholm
Marika Lindholm discusses WE GOT THIS: SOLO MOM STORIES OF GRIT, HEART, AND HUMOR.
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Putting Pen to Paper: A Conversation with Dorianne Laux
Dorianne Laux discusses her newly released collection, ONLY AS THE DAY IS LONG.
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