ABC’s of Writing (for Beginners)
B is for Beginnings
The way a poem begins matters more than anything else. If you can’t engage a reader or listener right away, all the other beauty you write will not reach them. Some years ago, at a conference, I heard an editor say that he makes a decision on a poem by the end of the first line, and feels no compunction rejecting it straight from that impression. I’ve been thinking about that a lot. Your first line has to sing or scream or quietly pull the reader in enough that they will continue. Let’s look at some poems that do this well. (I hope you will explore these poems to their conclusions on your own.) The first line of Lynda Hull’s “Jackson Hotel” — “Sometimes...
Read MoreBehind the Words: D.E. Lee
D. E. Lee’s work appeared in the fifth issue of Spry Literary Journal. His short fiction appears or is forthcoming in Little Patuxent Review, Quiddity, Alligator Juniper, The Lindenwood Review, Saw Palm, Broad River Review, and several others. Awards include Pushcart Prize nominee, Finalist in Nimrod’s 2011 Katherine Ann Porter Prize, Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train’s 2014 Fiction Open, and finalist for the 2014 Nelson Algren Award. His novel, The Sky After Rain, won the Brighthorse Books 2015 novel contest and is available in paperback. His website is http://www.deleeauthor.com Emily Densten: Second person can be kind of a controversial technique. What made...
Read MoreBehind the Words: Jon Spayde
Jon Spayde‘s work appeared in the fourth issue of Spry Literary Journal. He is a writer, poet, editor, and solo performer who lives with his wife, Laurie Phillips, and cats Kerfuffle, Yuki, and Kiku in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He studied classical Japanese literature at Harvard University and creative writing at the University of Minnesota. His poetry, translations from Japanese, and fiction have appeared in the Harvard Review, Spindrift, Third Rail, and elsewhere. His autobiographical solo show, Writing the Breakdown Book, premiered onstage in Minneapolis in May and is featured in the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Spayde’s short story, Jazzmen, is a look into...
Read MoreBehind the Words: Alice Lowe
Alice Lowe appeared in the fourth issue of Spry Literary Journal. She reads and writes about food and family, Virginia Woolf, and life. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in a number of literary journals, including Upstreet, Hippocampus, Switchback, Prime Number, Phoebe, and Hobart. She was the 2013 national award winner at City Works Journal and winner of a 2011 essay contest at Writing It Real. A monograph, “Beyond the Icon: Virginia Woolf in Contemporary Fiction” was published by Cecil Woolf Publishers in London. Alice lives in San Diego, California and blogs here. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing talented writer Alice Lowe. I admire...
Read MoreBehind the Words: Resoketswe Manenzhe
Resoketswe Manenzhe appeared in the seventh issue of Spry Literary Journal. She is an engineering graduate. She received her BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town in 2013. Although born in Gauteng, she was raised in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. She is currently in the process of writing her first novel. Her short stories—”Southern Wind” and “Moths and Butterflies” have been published in The Kalahari Review and Review Americana, respectively; her poems—”A Song from Leonard” and “The Old Man at the Sinking Ship Brothel” have both been published in Bunbury Magazine. In the interest of separating the different...
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