Constellations of Connection: Best-of-2014
My second book of poetry, Stowaways, was published by Palimpsest Press this year and so I find myself approaching the year-end Best-of-2014 lists with some trepidation. What if my book doesn't get Best-ed? Does that mean my work isn't worthy? Does it mean I'm not worthy? Instead of following this rage/shame spiral down (down/down/down), I've decided to create my own Best-of-2014 list, but this one will do something a little different, in that it will be composed of the books by writers who prop me up, who support me, who form my diffuse but essential community. I'm a working writer. These are working writers. And we all, I think, write out of community. So this isn't about belonging to a particular school of writing, or living in a particular place: it's about the constellations of connection, the interstitial bits between writers that help make books possible. And I'm proud of all of these writers. So I wanted to talk about them.
