Happy belated two year anniversary to this Substack. Thank you to all of you who subscribe and read my posts. Special thanks to my paid subscribers, whose generosity, faith and interest in my writing have made a difference to me during these past months.
I took a month hiatus to focus on a six-week intensive writing workshop and to devote time to a long essay, which I’ve just finished. Spring and Fall are often very busy times for me due to where I work. Between writing the essay, attending the workshop and my 8-5 job, I have been feeling overstretched. Enough so that I’ve been dreaming about being able to work part-time or take a sabbatical, which won’t happen for a very, very long time.
I am now coming up for a bit of air here to celebrate National Poetry Month with you all and to let you know what’s coming up in the next month. If you know where I stole the name for this essay, drop me a comment.
For those interested in the conversations around creativity, art and writing, I’m excited to announce that in early May, I’ll have a video interview with Christine Palamidessi, an artist turned writer turned artist. I published Christine’s work on the cover of Interim several years ago. She’s someone I’ve known my entire life, as she was friends with my mother when they lived in a hippy/artist commune together in Pittsburgh, PA back in the 1970s. I’m really excited to have this conversation because Christine is someone who has managed to make art and writing throughout her entire life. We’ll chat about how she did this, how her career shifted through different mediums and what she’s currently working on.
If you missed the previous conversations I’ve had with other inspiring writers, get caught up with these interviews below:
waxes on her book Kill the Rich and her ideas on writing and publishing.
Rachel Tucker - screenwriter and novelist - discusses her career in Hollywood and navigating the uncertainty of that industry.
Joe Milan, Jr. talks about his book The All-American, publishing and his creative writing process.
Since it’s National Poetry Month…
I love when movies use poems in a way that seizes something within the poem and makes it into something new. Often, horror films do this because they sense the existential anxiety underlying many poems, especially those written during certain eras. It Follows is one of best horror films in recent years. There’s so much to talk about in how it uses the poem in this scene to create a sense of dread. I love this sequence:
The professor is reading a selection from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot, in case you aren’t familiar with this fantastic poem.
Is there a poem that’s been quoted or used in another medium that you find memorable?
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back next week with more poems and an update on the novelette I’ve been working on.