It took me years of attempts and failed drafts before I finally wrote the elegies I needed to write. Download Download Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Rotate quotes attempt draft elegy
A poem I write is not just about me; it is about national identity, not just regional but national, the history of people in relation to other people. I reach for these outward stories to make sense of my own life, and how my story intersects with a larger public history. Natasha Trethewey historyidentityintersect share on social
The experience of poetry could bring my mother back to me. Poetry offers a different kind of solace - here on earth. Natasha Trethewey backbringearth Change image and share on social
'Memory.' 'Race.' 'Murder.' That's what they say about me. I am an elegiac poet. I have some historical questions, and I'm grappling with ways to make sense of history; why it still haunts us in our most intimate relationships with each other, but also in our political decisions. Natasha Trethewey decisionelegiacgrapple share on social
It's funny because you know the novel process: you get the drafts, you get the galley, and then you get the galley proofs. You have opportunities to change things all along. But the further along in the process you go, the more careful you have to be in making those changes, and the smaller the changes have to be. Greg Rucka carefulchangedraft share on social
After all, we are not French and never can be, and any attempt to be so is to deny our inheritance and to try to impose upon ourselves a character that can be nothing but a veneer upon the surface. Edward Hopper attemptcharacterdeny Change image and share on social
The power of elegy, even in the face of an unbounded grief, to provide a containing form is vividly embodied by Anne Carson's 'Nox,' a nocturne with carefully controlled visual and tactile properties. Susan Stewart annecarefullycarson Change image and share on social