We have to read to write. It’s that simple. If you want to write a fiction, read good novels. If you want to write poetry, read good poetry.

Reading serves as a form of mentorship, especially if we read as writers, and read good writing. Reading provides rich fertilizer for your own writing.

Writers need to read what they like, what they find stimulating, what other people find stimulating. This will improve a writers writing.

Reading in our genre, and outside of our genre, will give us an idea of the diverse compositional structures that exist and are available for us to use, and use well. For an ode’s structure, read “Ode to a Grecian Urn,” by Keats. For historical fiction, try Real Estate by Kathryn Holzman (Propertius Press, 2020.) For grief or illness poetry, try Touch My Head Softly (Finishing Line Press, 2021.) For a memoir try, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (Harper, 2016.)

I will be blogging on Thursdays, with announcements, as they come up, on Tuesdays.