“[I]nstead of having two separate language versions of the poem, I ended up with one, which brings the languages together… This, I think, reflects how the brain of a bilingual/multilingual person works”
Category: Poems
Muskaan Razdan: How I Wrote ‘Duplex’
“I love how agile and stripped back it is as a form. It doesn’t allow you to dwell, chewing away unnecessary information and only leaving the reader with the heart of the idea”
Content warning: mentions/implications of domestic or intimate partner abuse
Rachel Carney: How I Wrote ‘Unremarkable’
“The poem is an attempt to look back as well as forward, to acknowledge the creativity of women past, present and future”
Our Pushcart Prize 2023 Nominees
Read the poems we’ve nominated for the Pushcart Prize
Anthony Wade: How I Wrote ‘A Lost Voice’
“It is in the editing-amending-polishing phases of the original thought-story-memory that I listen to the rhythms of the language, to the unfolding of the scenes, if more than one, and sense when there is what I think of as a key change, almost as though it is music”
Stuart McPherson: How I Wrote ‘In Time I’ll Fade Away’
“The more men that can look inside themselves and be comfortable with this the better. It enables us to be better humans, to take better care, both of ourselves and others”
Meredi Ortega: How I Wrote ‘Solo’
“I like to gather together all manner of things to see me through the making of a poem… I don’t know what to expect so I take everything, just in case.”
Rachael Clyne: How I Wrote ‘White/Other?’
“I’ve always been an issue based writer and one who draws from personal experience, but just ranting doesn’t cut it”
Christina Hennemann: How I Wrote ‘The Grim Reaper and the Empress’
“A lot of my images and phrases are the result of letting my subconscious lead the way and just go with it”