Agents & Editors Recommend at Poets & Writers

Poets & Writers magazine kindly asked this editor what she recommends to writers, and gave me a little space to respond with abstractions and metaphors and this padded-shoulders rainbow prism photo. Thank you to books that feel like bridges, and writers who wave.

If you can identify elements of your writing as generous, my hunch is that your writing is communicating, not just expressing. To me, writing feels generous when something about it functions as a gift, whether that gift is “You are not the only one who feels this thing no one talks about” or “I am playing with form to help you better understand an experience that isn’t well served by other narrative structures.”

Click here to visit Poets & Writers for the full writeup. Many thanks to Spencer Quong for coordinating, and to Shira Erlichman for inspiration.