For the most part, we’re supposed to write what we know, but does it matter how we know it? As a rule, I think most writers stick closer to experience and supplement it with research. I most often write from a memory or an interesting observation. Research less so, and I think I could use it more.

Poets seem to pull from their cannon more than prose writers. We write about Icarus and Lot’s wife and the like so much it feels like a rite of passage. Louise Glück’s Averno and James Wright’s “Saint Judas” come through this kind of research. That’s right kids, allusions fall into this category, too. But let’s not hate on Eliot again. Read more »