A Poetic Arc: The Birth of a Poetry Book

2021-04-19

You may have heard of character arcs, but have you ever considered how poetry books can have arcs? Joy E. Rancatore and Mea Smith discuss this poetic arc through the birth of Mea’s forthcoming debut poetry book, Grief Like a River. They examine how the shift—or arc—in Mea’s personal life and her understanding of the grieving process lead to this overall theme and arc for that theme and how each choice she’s made along the way (the poems chosen, edits made, publication path followed and title accepted)...

You may have heard of character arcs, but have you ever considered how poetry books can have arcs? Joy E. Rancatore and Mea Smith discuss this poetic arc through the birth of Mea’s forthcoming debut poetry book, Grief Like a River. They examine how the shift—or arc—in Mea’s personal life and her understanding of the grieving process lead to this overall theme and arc for that theme and how each choice she’s made along the way (the poems chosen, edits made, publication path followed and title accepted) has brought us this deep book that’s currently in final production.

Check out these important links mentioned in the episode:

Mea’s website where you can subscribe to her newsletter and be the first to know when her poetry book will be available: https://storyswell.net

“Finding Your Creative Medium” QWERTY episode: https://qwertywritinglife.podbean.com/e/finding-your-creative-medium-1617049715/

“Creative Women: Past, Present and Future” QWERTY episode: https://qwertywritinglife.podbean.com/e/creative-women-past-present-future/

National Poetry Month: https://poets.org/national-poetry-month

Stay in the know about episodes, our speaking engagements and what goes on behind the microphones with our monthly QWERTY Writing Life Newsletter. You’ll also get the chance to influence our show’s content and be the first to know about big events! Here’s the link: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/z9f1z5

Intro music created and performed by Brent Smith.

Please share our podcast with your friends! We’d love for them to be our new friends, too! Questions? Comments? You know what to do! Continue this week’s chat with us via email at editorial [at] logosandmythospress [dot] com. For more information about us, the show and our writing craft book series, head over to www.logosandmythospress.com/qwerty-writing-life. Subscribe in your favorite podcast portal. Or, if you’d rather see our grinning faces, ring the bell on our YouTube channel. Can’t get enough of Mea? Head over to her online home at www.measmith.com. Want to know more about Joy? Check out her site, www.joyerancatore.com.

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