An Interview with Matthew Olzmann

An interview with faculty member and alum (poetry, ’09) Matthew Olzmann appears at Panhandler Magazine:

Katherine Masters: How do you begin a poem? Is it a matter of inspiration, is it something you set out to do with a chosen theme, or is it both?

Matthew Olzmann: It’s very rarely a matter of inspiration. I try to write a little every day, and that quickly wipes out your reservoir of backup ideas. Often I sit down, unsure what I’m going to write. I like writing just for the process of writing. I like the way it makes me slow down and think something through. Sometimes it’s just writing out thoughts, writing a scene, writing a sentence, and then if something sparks or seems promising when I return to it, then that’s when the real work often begins: revising and developing the idea. I think C. Dale Young once said that drafting a poem is like an artist gathering materials, but revising a poem is an artist shaping the materials. So the poem truly begins in revision, when I have something that I want to try to expand and develop.

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