New York is one of those places people tend to derive a sense of identity from - as if, were to you to remove them from the City, they'd turn limp and colorless.

The cool thing about having a book is that it takes on its own life. Once it's in the world, you can't follow it. You'd have to have a pretty fantastic surveillance system to track its migration.

New York is one of those places people tend to derive a sense of identity from - as if, were to you to remove them from the City, they'd turn limp and colorless.

I place a lot of emphasis on process and revision because I believe that all of my students can become better writers through hard work.

I have no precise idea of who makes up my readership. I'm surprised when I discover people have read my poems at all.

When fiction writers like my poems I feel like I've hit the jackpot.

I love teaching poetry writing. Students come into the class thinking poetry has to be one way, then leave having created pieces that are wholly original, that have - quite literally - never been made before.