July 10, 2021

Something I thought about:

• A couple of weeks ago, I listened to the VS podcast interview that Danez Smith and Franny Choi did with Carmen Giménez Smith, and I’ve been thinking about composition and revision in a new way. From Franny Choi’s overview of their conversation:

And she talked about revision and the editing process as a process of amplifying the gifts of the writer, rather than, like, stripping away what’s not working. Just like, making what is working sing louder and making the poem the best version of the poem that it can be.

I’ve been thinking about this in my own writing — what am I good at? How do I highlight and make the most of that? It’s been a really interesting exercise, and I’m looking forward to incorporating this approach into teaching and workshop in the fall.

Something I did:

• Worked on my diss.
• Worked on a creative project.

Something I read:

• Finally finished Queer Phenomenology by Sara Ahmed
• Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo