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petrathepoet's review against another edition
2.0
If you are neurotypical and an MFA is an actual feasibility for you, then I don’t know why you need the ‘self-help’ part of this book. It reads a lot like, ‘well, me and all of my friends are rich, so in order to be rich, I guess you have to start off rich’. That, plus the same half worship, half distaste for mentally ill poets that I keep running into in the poetry community at large, at the same time that several of the tips are ways to become ‘just crazy enough’ to be artistic, (eg. liminal headspace, hyper focus, obsessive), and then add on that someone this in love with language can’t use the term ‘schizophrenia’ correctly, and I am left filled with enough rage to write my own damn anthology, which will never be published because of this kind of gatekeeping.
I write poetry because I love to read poetry, and when I read it, I nearly always get an urge I can’t resist to write something down. I wanted some accessible ideas on how to hone a skill I can’t stop myself from practicing, and it was the term ‘Moderately’ in the title that made this book seem accessible. It very much was not. I can’t get an MFA, and I already spend most of my life in an uncontrollable, obsessive, hyper focused, liminal space. So, thanks for nothing.
The only reason this is more than one star is I think the author ought to just write a damn PI novel, a noir satire. Not a lofty, artistic pursuit, perhaps, but it would be extremely entertaining, because those were the best parts of this book.
I write poetry because I love to read poetry, and when I read it, I nearly always get an urge I can’t resist to write something down. I wanted some accessible ideas on how to hone a skill I can’t stop myself from practicing, and it was the term ‘Moderately’ in the title that made this book seem accessible. It very much was not. I can’t get an MFA, and I already spend most of my life in an uncontrollable, obsessive, hyper focused, liminal space. So, thanks for nothing.
The only reason this is more than one star is I think the author ought to just write a damn PI novel, a noir satire. Not a lofty, artistic pursuit, perhaps, but it would be extremely entertaining, because those were the best parts of this book.
grayjay's review against another edition
4.0
This was fantastic. It is an honest and realistic book about the work and business of writing poetry as well as practices conducive to writing poetry from a poet and professor. It is also told with so much humour as not to seem like a text book or work book; filled with personal anecdotes so it comes off more like a memoir.
sunnycurt's review against another edition
3.0
Basically, a how-to book for poets written by a wry "moderately successful poet" and former private investigator. He's not as funny as he thinks he is, but there is some good stuff about the slippery and shiny path of poetry writing.
hopeevey's review against another edition
3.0
This is my book for the 2019 Read Harder challenge task 9 - A book published prior to January 1, 2019, with fewer than 100 reviews on Goodreads
natet's review
4.0
A fun, breezy, irreverent take on a life in poetry. Skinner reminds me of my favorite writing professor, who would share what wisdom he had but never pretended to have all the answers. There are digressions and asides that are fun if you take them for what they are.
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