How do you get up in the morning? 

Trying to remember my dreams, rather than my to-do list.

 

Do you succumb to nostalgia? 

Now less than ever. Either because moving around so much has made me detached, or because being a poet is a perpetual hedge. What's around the corner could be my next poem. The future is always interesting.

 

Do you write long and cut, or short and backfill? 

This sounds like a question about hair, not poetry. As for my hair, I always go long and cut.

 

How do you feel about your Wikipedia entry?

I'm not sure it's useful or necessary.

 

Lunch with any three people who ever lived; who do you invite? 

Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sir Philip Sidney, and Hilary Mantel.

 

Best piece of advice you ever received? 

"Never read the comments section."

 

Disciplined or hot dog? 

I don't really understand this question, but I'll hazard a guess. Both?

 

Have you ever been defeated by a genre? 

Every time I try to write something in the key of memoir, I'm overcome with mortification. 

 

Which classic author would you like to see kicked out of the pantheon? 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

 

Are you okay with blood? 

Are you asking me if I would be competent in an emergency, or whether I believe in vengeance?

 

Who is your imagined audience? 

I'm grateful for my real audience, so I won't speculate about an imaginary one.

 

What country would you want to be exiled in?

The Egypt of The Alexandria Quartet.

 

What's your favorite negative emotion? 

Fandom.

 

Is your study neat, or, like John Muir's, is your desk and floor covered in "lateral, medial, and terminal moraines"? 

Moraines of books and mailers and coffee cups, coffee filters, an old can of paint, crusted paintbrush, dog bowl...

 

What is your go-to shoe? 

Whatever shoes rhyme with flâneuse.

 

What's your poison?

Fromage.

 

What's your problem? 

Contrariness.

 

Title of the book you're probably never going to write, but would kind of like to get around to? 

...

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