dumbfoundry

Acclaimed New York poet, academic and performer Tracie Morris, a guest of the Melbourne Writers Festival, says that you only become a poet when you really don't have any other choice.

'I don't know if anyone wants their daughter to marry a poet,' she says.

'When I quit my job and told my mother I was going to be a poet, all she could say was, 'how are you going to eat?' It was a legitimate question. But it's my real job, it's who I am. As a writer who performs I appreciate both kinds of poetry, if it happened that I had to choose, if it happened that I could never perform again, I'd be kinda sad but it would be OK. But I couldn't live without writing poetry.'

This entry was posted by Ivy on Monday, August 25, 2008 at 5:46 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.