I think people are sometime reluctant to read outside of their own race. This is heartbreaking.

Fifteen. Sixteen was probably something, but fifteen - fifteen was a place between here and nowhere.

A lot of times, when people send me books to read - new writers mostly - I find that the book is still in a draft stage and that before it can leave the writer's hands and head to a publisher, it needs about five more revisions. Some people don't want to do that.

I'm still afraid. I'm still afraid every day.

As a poet who has the tools for interpreting the poem differently, you can begin to deconstruct it. But the human being who's like, "I know about conversation, I know about language, I know about hard times," will approach the poem differently.

I've learned a lot as a writer about poetry.

I rewrite my books until they're mostly memorized so that's a lot of rewrites, a lot of time spent with my stories.