Young writers find their first audience in little magazines, and experimental writers find their only audience there.

Among the American contemporaries I read with most enjoyment are several North Carolinians. I think the best poetry being written these days is being written by Southerners.

Maybe the example of Southern fiction writing has been so powerful that Southern poets have sort of keyed themselves to that.

Some people swear by writing courses, but whether it really helps American poetry, I have doubts.

With prose you can incorporate more details, develop scenes, sustain the tension in a special way. Prose has its own speed.

Teaching writing over the years intrudes on your own writing in important ways, taking away some of the excitement of poetry.

Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity.