Wherever I am, I lift.I write.I pay attention to the world around me. Not to hit a number or track a goal,not to impress,but to stay inside my body.To stay awake. Alert. Alive. It’s how I work.I don’t wait for inspiration.I move. I go forward with or without it.Sometimes with a pen,sometimes just by walking…
On the Way to Somewhere Else
I nearly dropped Sherwin Bitsui’s poetry class before it even started. I was in my final semester, and I figured, why start something new at the very end? I didn’t plan on writing poetry. Ever. It seemed like another world—an easier world—than the kind of writing I do, the kind of writing I did. But…
The Locked Door: My Unlikely Path to an MFA in Creative Writing
About seven years ago, I stood on a sidewalk in Iowa City staring at the front door of the Dey House—the home of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Not walking in, just staring. I had moved from Arizona after watching a video about the Workshop and reading an article about one of my writing heroes, Kent…