CYNTHIA MORRIS is an author, artist, and writer’s coach in Denver. She leads writing programs online and in Paris. ■

University of Pittsburgh Press (Cave Canem Prize) the opposite of flying is death the opposite of falling is death the opposite of death is a skinned knee and only a skinned knee —from “gumbo ya ya” HOW IT BEGAN: In the early stages of Gumbo Ya Ya, I

SINCE EARLY 2020 we’ve all been carrying more burdens—some with heavier loads than others no doubt, but every one of us has had to bear more anxieties, more uncertainties, more demands on our time. Too often these burdens can lead to burnout; we’re d

I’m a zip-lock bag knitter, which means I knit things that fit in zip-lock bags, like hats and fingerless mitts. Small, portable things that I can take wherever I go. I learned to knit almost twenty years ago after my five-year-old daughter Grace die

Copper Canyon Press Like a stranger in a long lost photograph, I stand the correct distance from the present. —from “Almost Hour” HOW IT BEGAN: I didn’t have the idea of a “book” in mind. There were scattered words, and I tried to collect them. I thi

While South Central Los Angeles has long had a vibrant poetry community, local writers lacked a dedicated venue to write, read, and listen to the work of poets—until this past summer, when poet and educator Hiram Sims opened the Sims Library of Poetr

Yale University Press (Yale Younger Poets Prize) my goddess is the wave unsheathing strung through my name the conch’s contralto —from “Chant for the Waters and Dirt and Blade (Slight Return)” HOW IT BEGAN: What Noise Against the Cane came out of the

I like to encourage writers to think of low stakes, or “small starts,” in their writing. … Of course there are difficult days when I don’t feel like drafting a poem or the start of an essay. So think smaller: brick by brick. One line. One anecdote. M

Milkweed Editions (National Poetry Series) The neighbor is eating locusts again, as if a plague were just another point of view, sitting out back of his caved two-story, squinting skyward, a cast iron in hand, a mouthful of wings ground to dust. —fro

Coffee House Press Concrete rubble to Lake Ontario / wear me down to my girders / the lake / the half-naked lake / slipping off its jersey / started in with its cats’ tongue —“From jots at probably Tommy Thompson Park, Toronto when this all started”

Graywolf Press (Academy of American Poets First Book Award) The first hope was no bigger than an eyelash, was born in the middle of war, where we were told prayer can change the fate of anything. Even dirt. —from “Operation Restoring Hope” HOW IT BEG

YesYes Books Fierísima cacerola, let your mangled face be remembered as we fight off the tug to return to this violent place we call normalcy. Thrum through lull, play us—insistent and enraged. —from “Ode to the cacerola combativa” HOW IT BEGAN: If I

For over five years Lambda Literary—a national organization that champions lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) books and authors—has been changing the lives of students across New York City through its free Writers in Schools progr

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Beacon Press (National Poetry Series) Ghost fish, tail flapping like a translucent scrap of linen in the wind, flag of surrender with a spine inside, eyes riding on slow light through the deep ocean’s darkness: Do you know what my mother was looking

Autumn House Press (Rising Writer Prize) A heart is too found to run through. Arrive— The blizzard mourns fully and gently over you. —from “75°30’S 107°0’W” HOW IT BEGAN: What I love about writing poetry is that I never set off to do anything. The pr