My crisis of writing and publishing stems from writing the darkest and most horrific parts of my life, without having processed them, publishing in soon-defunct literary magazines with little to no audience, and getting eight likes on social media as payment. Is this what I should turn myself inside out for?
We eloped. The pandemic helped me justify the wedding I wanted.
I’m uncomfortable with how Appalachian identity works in the media and in academia, both because I think it’s a problematic identity that I hold too dearly and because I think I’m faking it.
Scientists can talk to me about lumens and refractions, about reflections and lightwaves, and I won’t understand any of it, no matter how much you try, but I think I can say something about the night sky, if you give me a chance. Shouldn’t a poet do it?
The Quarantine Poems is a series of poetry written durning the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, available in text and in audio.
The second instalment, ‘from heaven’, is authored by Emily Blair.