WHAT IS WERK-IN-PROGRESS?
The step-by-step, one poem, one question, one idea at a time, way of living has been liberating, on the page and off, and that’s what Werk-In-Progress is all about. In short, I’m using this newsletter, via two or three posts a week, to share my creative practice in real-time. You’ll receive new poems and essays from me, along with writing prompts and discussion topics inspired by that work. I might share and compare drafts of my work; I might send you a voice note as I think through a project. My dog Caesar will surely make some cameos. Good chaos is coming, y’all. Along the way, I’ll also share new work from poets I admire and interviews with them about their process.
My hope for this newsletter is that it will demystify the poet’s life and inspire you to embrace your own creative potential. At the very least, it will be a hoot, perhaps even a hoot and a half.
WHO AM I?
I’m the author of the memoir HOW WE FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES, winner of the 2019 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction, as well as the poetry collection PRELUDE TO BRUISE, winner of the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry and the 2015 Stonewall Book Award/Barbara Gittings Literature Award. My debut poetry collection was also a finalist for the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and awards from Lambda Literary and the Publishing Triangle in 2015. My next poetry collection, ALIVE AT THE END OF THE WORLD, is forthcoming from Coffee House Press in Fall 2022. If you follow me on Twitter, you will quickly learn that I am chaotic and always right. I live in Columbus, Ohio with my very opinionated dog Caesar.
