Carl Phillips has brilliantly answered all of your questions! Rae Armantrout & Mark Doty recently answered questions too. New PQA Poet soon...

Poet(s) currently taking questions: None.

Archives:

Adrienne Rich Dies

 
Baltimore native Adrienne Rich, an award-winning poet whose socially conscious work influenced a generation of feminist, gay rights and anti-war activists, has died at 82. She died Tuesday at her ... [ read more ]

Herrera Appointed California Poet Laureate

Juan Felipe Herrera was appointed California Poet Laureate by Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday. Herrera, 63 and son of Mexican migrant workers, will be the first Hispanic writer to serve in the post. ... [ read more ]

Lucy Biederman, Smartish Pace Reading

Lucy Biederman reading for Smartish Pace at the Issue 16 Release Party at Cyclops, Baltimore, on May 15, 2009. This was a joint party with the DC lit magazine, Barrelhouse. Intro by Stephen Reichert of Smartish Pace. Intro/Outro music by Pree.

Interview with Aaron Poochigian

Traci O’Dea (Associate Editor, Smartish Pace): How has translating Sappho affected your own poetry?

Aaron Poochigian: I had always wanted each line of my poetry to be songlike and ravishing. Now, after having lived with Sappho for about two years, I have a better sense of what that means. But I should be more specific about her influence. Many of Sappho’s poems give the reader the impression that he or she is eavesdropping on a private conversation, as in the following fragment:As you are dear to me go find a youngerBed as your due.I can’t stand being the old one any longer,Living with you.I now readily slip into the conversational mode in my own work. Sappho, in fact, is credited with pioneering the “personal” in poetry, partly because she gives the reader this window into the intimate. She also makes frequent use of what I call “choral” expression—that is, the speaker as a first person plural “we” representing a group of people. I now often write poems in “group voices.” Perhaps the poem “The Marriage of Peleus and Thetis” is the best evidence of her influence on my work.     The Marriage ... [ read more ]

Consolation Miracle

Remember that scene from The Jerk where Steve Martin's character is bankrupt and forced to leave his plush California estate? He says something like, "I don't need anything...well, except this paddle-game." But then he comes across another small object, like a pen. He admits he needs this pen, too. Then his favorite thermos, then a chair, a lamp, until we see this sensitive man misunderstood and rejected by the world (a poet?) standing ... [ read more ]