“You have to sit with your voice, learn what it’s saying, study and practice your craft, and then share it with others.“ –Amanda Johnston
Amanda Johnston is a writer, visual artist, and the 2024 Texas Poet Laureate. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine. She is the author of two chapbooks, GUAP and Lock & Key, and the full-length collection Another Way to Say Enter. Her work has appeared in numerous online and print publications, among them, Callaloo, Poetry Magazine, The Moth Radio Hour, Bill Moyers, Poetry Magazine, The Rumpus, and the anthologies, Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry and Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism. She has received fellowships, grants, and awards from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, Tasajillo, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, The Watermill Center, American Short Fiction, and the Academy of American Poets. She is a former Board President of Cave Canem Foundation, a member of the Affrilachian Poets, cofounder of Black Poets Speak Out, and Founder/Executive Director of Torch Literary Arts.
On Wednesday, April 2, Amanda Johnston is teaching a class for the WLT called Breath & Bite: The Art of Prose Poetry. In this class, participants will examine different types of prose poems, the unique elements that make them successful, and how to apply these elements to their work, creating their own impactful prose poems.
Here’s what Amanda had to share with us:
Scribe: Tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you write? How did you come to writing?
Amanda Johnston: I’m a poet, and I came to writing through reading. My mother read nursery rhyme books to me as an infant and as I learned to read, those books became some of my prized possessions. Later she gave me Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic and I was hooked! Poetry never left me. I began writing seriously in my twenties as a member of the Affrilachian Poets and as a Cave Canem fellow.
Scribe: In your own work, how do you approach overcoming the challenges that come with writing, be it writer’s block or craft or business-related challenges?
AJ: I read. I read works by writers I enjoy and attend readings and literary events to stay connected to joy and the literary community. For me, community is a huge part of my literary life and I could not imagine being a poet without a strong community of poets and writers.
Scribe: Has there been a moment of epiphany in terms of your work, when you thought, “This is it! Now I know what I’m doing!” How long did that feeling last?
AJ: I never really feel like I know what I’m doing. I give myself grace and trust in my creative process. It gets messy, but then a form emerges, the work speaks back to me, and a light guides me forward.
Scribe: What piece of advice do you find yourself giving to writers again and again?
AJ: Don’t quit. Writers have to first write for themselves before they have an audience. You have to sit with your voice, learn what it’s saying, study and practice your craft, and then share it with others. Take your time and find your people.
Scribe: What is one thing that people will take away from this class?
AJ: Participants will learn new ways to add depth and surprise to their prose poetry.
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Thanks, Amanda!
Click here to learn more about Amanda’s upcoming class.
