Writing Down All Your Sh*t w. YESENIA MONTILLA

Episode 9

Yesenia Montilla is a New York City poet with Afro-Caribbean roots; she is the author of The Pink Box, released in 2015 by Willow Books, and her work has appeared in literary journals such as Adanna and The Wide Shore. A 2014 CantoMundo Fellow, she received her MFA from Drew University in Poetry and Poetry in Translation.

Discussed In This Episode

Being a baby poet. Poetry as a puzzle. Low-residency MFAs. Discovering your grandmother was a secret poet. Writing and dreaming in Spanish. "There is something about wanting to be other, and usually that is wanting to be whiter." Being exoticized as an "other poet." Writing about Sappho and about your father smoking crack. "That's what makes us, struggle and joy and beauty." Writing in your dream state. Dead white poets. Carrying your two-week notice in your pocket. The terror of public readings. Trauma is inherited. "Write down all your shit." Reading is the antidote to writer's block.

Writing Down All Your Sh*t w. YESENIA MONTILLA

Episode 9

Discussed In This Episode

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