"I believe there’s a real, important space for uplifting literature and art. And I want to be really clear here, “uplifting” doesn’t mean that pieces can’t be nuanced or complicated. I’m actually drawn to the complex pieces that tip-toe the line between darkness and light before ultimately leaning into the light."

“My mother endowed me and my sister with not just our love of literature but also an instinct to seek justice. I grew up learning about the struggles of women, religious and ethnic minorities, and other marginalized communities in Bangladesh from her, and her advocacy for those who are deprived of their voice deeply informed my own thinking on such matters. I don’t think a good writer can be selfish. Or, a selfish person cannot be a good writer. Writing demands empathy.”

“When writing about something as complex as war, I want to rid the poem of well-worn rants in order for human truths to step forward. In ‘War Wears Two Faces’, the first drafts read like a protest sign; I needed the final draft to feel like a mirror.”

“My first and second drafts are usually full of partially developed ideas, themes that appear and disappear in the same paragraph, characters who won't assert themselves, and pretty shoddy writing. Draft after draft the weakest themes die out, the boring characters get cut, and all the leftover fragments with good ideas start to attract each other, mini-thoughts get more complex and thorough, and after the fourth or fifth draft the story isn't so crappy anymore.”

“There is a whisper of intimacy in jazz music that leads naturally to a higher level of understanding. In this poem, I seek to ease into what I am hearing in the music to engage with it as though the music itself were a person, and we together are rising. I’m speaking to and acknowledging the jazz I hear and giving back a cascade of imagery and suppositions.”

“Originally, ‘Ladybug’ was two different poems. The first poem focused on the ladybug itself in my bedroom window as well as my mom’s ying and yang tattoo of a ladybug. I used the idea of conflicting counterparts – yin and yang, black dots versus red elytra – to propel my beginning concept of distance into something foundational.”

“Only poetry can go deeply into a person, relieve that person of the burdens of sorrow and anguish, and give meaning to what one really feels.”

“I think the best poetry transforms the mundane into something more, and then back into its original shape, just slightly changed.”

“I think my first language is poetry - I think of it as a dive, an immersion, into image, place, emotion. In longer prose it is more like distance swimming, you have to find a pace that can sustain a story and that means using lanuage differently, extending instead of condensing.”

“You don’t have to go out looking for winter or suffering. If you are alive, they will find you in one form or another. But beauty requires our witness, to leave the comfort of a warm house and go looking for life in the aftermath of an ice storm. We cannot defeat the fear and negativity in our culture by fighting it, but we can practice opening ourselves to joy so that it fills more and more moments in our lives.”

“Even in my reading—in poems and stories—I am drawn to the common life, how people navigate their way in family relationships and on the job. A challenge I set out for myself is to find words—an image, a metaphor—that will put a shine on something old and familiar so it can be viewed in a new way.”

“I think of the smaller spaces between words as short pauses and the wider spaces between lines or stanzas as longer intervals, like rest symbols in a music score. By spreading out the words and lines I want to create a certain rhythm, leaving room for silence. In ‘Fireflower,’ the sun and the light are silent, though the explosion of brightness and color may be ‘stormwind wild.’”

“As time passes maybe one finds it easier to recollect in tranquillity, allowing perspective to distance oneself from what was ‘too present.’ There is a definite relationship for me between the emotional and physical elements which shape and influence imagination.”

“I’ve come to believe that life is a series of surprising inevitabilities. In retrospect, there was some sort of plan for every chapter of my life, but the plot wasn’t mine. I’m not that inventive! Likewise, I don’t know what a poem wants to say until it tells me. When I try to force meaning or direction or form, the poem doesn’t work.”

“No matter what city or town I’m in, I always ask about museums with photo galleries or exhibits.”

“I start with a base idea. Some small drawing that can be laid underneath what I’m actually creating with an idea of what color I want to fill it in with, and I keep the idea of that color broad. If I want blue, for example, I’m not looking for a specific shade of blue but many. I want each area to stand out. I want to celebrate the basic idea with colors that will make it pop the most rather than letting one figure blend into the next.”

“I really do believe that turning your thoughts into physical, observable words is an exercise in not only confrontation, but articulation. By deliberating over a memory’s wording, syntax, imagery, etc., you are able to clarify what is important about it, what you want to keep and what you want to leave behind.”

“It’s not so much that the physical world resonates with me. It’s more the creative process—that an artist can look at the physical world and create a world of enchantment from it. I tend to take the physical world and portray it through the lens of magical realism. I like artwork that tells a story.”

“Photographs preserve an instant in time but as the poet C.D. Wright suggests, ‘Photography is by definition mute.’ As a poet I am offered the awesome opportunity to go from ‘writing with light’ to writing with words. Sometimes, it is the reverse. I work with an image in a poem and then suddenly I see it presented to me in nature. Click!”

“As an African American woman poet, I have learned that my survival is intertwined with the lives of other women like me who need my contribution to the canon of African American literature.”

“My process usually involves a feeling or thought I am wrestling with and then some real-life event happens that offers itself as a metaphor, my life-teacher, that says—here is your answer, here is a way to process this thing you’re dealing with.”

"Certain photographs convey their story differently in black and white compared to color. To me, black-and-white photography has a unique sense of honesty, drama, and timelessness, as it relies more on lighting, shadows, and contrast. When I edit, it often feels like I’m asking the image what story it wants to tell."

"Death, regret and childhood are the oracles in all our lives, and often the demons. Creating situations that pit characters against these forces begets moments of truth, like sparks borne of contact between two unyielding surfaces."

"I’m always on the alert for “trigger” moments, which happen when you’ve disciplined yourself to them…I prefer poems that explode on some level on the page."

"I think my cultural identity is probably the water my writing swims in. My worldview is deeply shaped by my parents' immigrant experiences and the value they placed on their children retaining their familial language in spite of assimilating into American culture."

“I sit with the end of my poems for a long time, and for ‘Shasta,’ I wanted to show that the speaker, even in their loneliness, has the ability to empathize, to care—for something, someone. Of course, that is my interpretation and the reader has to make their own.”

"If I’m fortunate, if the coffee was good and I find an audience, they might be introduced to something new or surprising. That’s what drives me—that the people I write about are worthy of inviting to dinner, that they have something to say." 

"Things from my life that were difficult to live, are easier to process in third person. I have often given characters things from my own past to see how they handle it."

“Movement is vitally important to me as a writer, and as a performer of poetry. To me, dance and poetry are linked in a primal way. Poetry is a kind of movement with words.”

"I also hope to impart a sense of agency and urgency, a memento mori, or an acute awareness of our small but significant place in the cosmos. Not only is poetry the language of the sublime, but it also serves as an everyday portal to wakefulness and wonder for all the beauty this world holds."

"To be honest, this type of structure is typical for my poems, regular stanzas combined with irregular line and stanza breaks with a voice that tends to push against the structure."

“I try whenever possible to use concrete imagery in poetry—the more specific the better. However, at times, things need to be said about abstract concepts like deception or grace. But I wonder if a writer must earn forays into abstraction by arriving there on pathways paved with specificity.”

"Teaching a scientific writing course for literally decades has been the proverbial double-edged sword. In that type of communication, being concise and clear is paramount. I can edit my work to nubbins if needed. As a creative writer, though, I have to shut down that editor so my writing can sprawl and be messy while I’m in the genesis phase."

“As humans we are so intricately connected to nature and I like exploring that.”

“They are deceptively simple and have hundreds of years of history, philosophy, and art. I have only begun to scratch the surface. Haikus demand extreme concision and effective, multi-layered imagery. This makes haiku a great teacher for poetry in general, as well.”

"I keep that in mind in developing a character. I ask myself, 'Would Pete actually say (or do) that in this situation?' I’m not so much creating Pete as trying to remember him. I’m not so much writing a short story as trying to remember a story that already exists out there somewhere."

“When I write a poem, it seems to take its own form, its own direction. It may come to me in couplets, or a single short or long piece, or something in between. It is almost as I don't govern the poem, it governs itself. “

“As a visual artist as well, I definitely associate color, texture, light, and other art terms in my writing. I think this helps to create a more vivid, richer image or description.”

“The words always start handwritten on the page, but I move to a computer pretty quickly when it comes time to play with line work and to really build the shape of the poem.  If the page gives me freedom, the computer screen helps me find the constraint I need to craft purposefully.” 

"Titles, for me, represent approximately fifty percent of the energy required to write a poem. I’ve never found a formula each poem has its own unique need. Much like a recipe, you want to entice someone to try a taste, take a bigger bite."

"Hope-filled stories have always been therapeutic for me. Whether they are acts of kindness shared in the lunchroom or interwoven narratives from a full-length novel, these are the stories I want to create."

“I strive to teach my students how to become not better students, but better humans. Part of that commitment includes teaching them how to think and advocate for themselves. This can also be bittersweet as they must necessarily surrender some of their innocence.”

“I try to make it as easy as possible for readers to pick a speaker up and put them on for themselves, riding on an emotional journey. I grew up listening to a lot of hip-hop, rap, and R&B, so rhythm is crucial for me.”

“Over the years, I’ve created pieces where the poetry and art are side by side, each one enhancing the other. In some ways, the impact of pairing words with imagery creates a deeper, more immersive experience—both for me in the process and, hopefully, for the viewer.”

“Instinctively, I’m drawn to patterns in currents of water. I love how you can see so many invisible elements of a body of water enacted on the surface. Currents reflect the movement of time and they signify the life force to me.”