Jump to navigation Skip to content

Craft Capsules

In our weekly series of craft essays, some of the best and brightest minds in contemporary literature explore their craft in compact form, articulating their thoughts about creative obsessions and curiosities in a working notebook of lessons about the art of writing.

Craft Capsule: Why You Need an Authenticity Editor

by

Anjali Enjeti

7.26.21

Close-up of the cover of Anjali Enjeti's Southbound. An intricate line drawing of a flower surrounded by leaves and stems in bright blue and green ink.

The author of Southbound and The Parted Earth writes about how authenticity editors have helped enrich her work in all genres.

Tags:

South Asian writers | community | literary community | culture | editors | editing | authenticity editing

Craft Capsule: The Multi-Genre Mindset

by

Anjali Enjeti

7.19.21

Pins of various colors cast long shadows on the Middle East and Southeast Asia section of a world map.

The author of Southbound and The Parted Earth shares her approach to balancing projects in multiple genres.

Tags:

South Asian writers | multi-genre | cross-genre | research | drafting | revision | writing process | creativity | inspiration

Craft Capsule: The “Routine” of Writing With Chronic Pain

by

Anjali Enjeti

7.12.21

Medical drawings of bone structures. A white sheet of paper with a drawing of a human spine lies on top of wax transfers of a skull and a foot.

The author of Southbound and The Parted Earth shares how chronic pain has forced her to challenge traditional notions of writing productivity.

Tags:

South Asian writers | writing routine | writing process | deadlines | time | seasons | illness | pain

Craft Capsule: Becoming Strange Again

by

Alex Dimitrov

6.28.21

A view of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park in New York City. The water is covered in a thin layer of fresh ice. A fountain spouts in the background.

The author of Love and Other Poems offers advice on how to avoid being stuck.

Tags:

writer’s block | running | swimming | inspiration | beauty | aesthetics | writing process

Craft Capsule: Poem Written in a Cab

by

Alex Dimitrov

6.21.21

A solitary yellow taxicab crosses over the Brooklyn Bridge on a clear, bright day. Skyscrapers in downtown Manhattan are visible in the background.

The author of Love and Other Poems steals time to write poetry during cab rides across New York City.

Tags:

time | taxicab | driving | New York City | travel

Poem Written in a Cab

by

Alex Dimitrov

6.21.21

At night in New York City, the backside of a yellow taxicab is illuminated by headlights.

From Love and Other Poems, published by Copper Canyon Press in February 2021.

Craft Capsule: A Poem Called Love

by

Alex Dimitrov

6.14.21

Edited photo of the upper half of the Empire State Building. Everything is in pink tones. A small white square with the handwritten words “MUCH LOVE XO” is pasted on top of the photo, on the face of the building.

The author of Love and Other Poems offers an antidote to the usual despair and hysteria on Twitter by writing an endless poem about love.

Tags:

love | joy | pleasure | social media | Twitter | Internet | public art

Craft Capsule: Night Call

by

Alex Dimitrov

6.7.21

Film photo of a bedroom. A floor lamp illuminates striped pillows on a bedspread, while the rest of the room remains mostly dark.

The author of Love and Other Poems describes a special project in which he read his poetry to strangers in their bedrooms.

Tags:

New York City | intimacy | reading | strangers | imagination

Craft Capsule: Technically It’s a Ravioli

by

Kristen Arnett

5.17.21

Flour plump homemade ravioli sit on the kitchen table. They are lightly dusted with flour, waiting to be cooked. Toward the back is a small glass bowl with an egg mixture and a mound of white flour.

The author of With Teeth celebrates absurdist humor.

Tags:

absurdist humor | absurdism | humor | social media

Craft Capsule: On Copycats and Reply Guys

by

Kristen Arnett

5.10.21

The wall behind a bar is illuminated by a red-and-yellow neon light. Bottles of liquor and wine are perched on shelving units. Several out-of-focus figures are standing in front of the bar.

The author of With Teeth writes about the pleasure of riffing off a good joke.

Tags:

imitation | humor | collaboration | social media

Craft Capsule: Self-Deprecating Humor

by

Kristen Arnett

5.3.21

A deconstructed lego person is spread out on a light green surface.

The author of With Teeth writes that her affinity for self-deprecating humor is inextricable from her queerness.

Tags:

self-deprecating humor | humor | queerness | Identity

Craft Capsule: What’s So Funny?

by

Kristen Arnett

4.26.21

Close-up of a blue-and-yellow macaw with its face turned to the side, beak ajar and tucked into its neck.

The author of With Teeth examines how a single joke can be successfully repackaged and retold over time.

Tags:

humor | retelling | family | memory | reader experience | writing process

Craft Capsule: Writing With Limitations

by

Susan Stinson

4.12.21

A canopy of orange leaves. The image becomes blurred in a circular pattern toward the outer edges of the image, creating an effect that makes the viewer feel as if they are spinning.

The author of Martha Moody finds new strategies to sustain her creative life after suffering a head injury.

Tags:

limitations | illness | injury | disability culture | coronavirus | writing process | audiobooks

Craft Capsule: Freedom

by

Susan Stinson

4.5.21

The cover of Susan Stinson’s chapbook, Belly Songs: In Celebration of Fat Women, which features a charcoal drawing of the author wearing a slip.

The author of Martha Moody celebrates the creative freedom of small-scale indie publishing.

Tags:

publishing | micro press | small press | feminist | queerness | fatness | readership

Craft Capsule: In Praise of Italics

by

Susan Stinson

3.29.21

Close-up of the first page of the prologue from Susan Stinson’s novel Venus of Chalk. The visible body text is set in italics.

The author of Martha Moody writes about the intimacy and queerness of italics.

Tags:

italics | style | epigraph | dedication | queerness | intimacy

Craft Capsule: Body in the Mirror

by

Susan Stinson

3.22.21

A circular mirror lies flat on the grass. In the reflection, a hand reaches toward the viewer.

The author of Martha Moody recalls the challenge of finding language to describe her body.

Tags:

fatness | embodiment | exploration | writing prompts | writing process

Craft Capsule: Junk Drawer

by

Peter Kispert

3.8.21

Discarded household items—including a CRT TV, tires, chairs, a mini-fridge, and other detritus—are piled up in the desert. Everything is cast in warm, late-afternoon light.

The author of I Know You Know Who I Am writes about stashing his surplus sentences and character sketches in an electronic “junk drawer.”

Tags:

drafting | ephemera | experimentation | expectations | play | writing process

Craft Capsule: Braided Narratives

by

Peter Kispert

3.1.21

An hourglass sand timer is illuminated by red light.

The author of I Know You Know Who I Am recalls his first attempt at writing a braided narrative.

Tags:

time | structure | history | character | short fiction | writing process

Craft Capsule: The Short Short Story

by

Peter Kispert

2.22.21

A white swan dozes on calm waters. Concentric ripples emanate from its resting place.

The author of I Know You Know Who I Am praises the unique resonance of short short stories.

Tags:

short fiction | short forms | flash fiction | short short stories | restriction | reverberation

Craft Capsule: Queer Characters Who Behave Badly

by

Peter Kispert

2.15.21

A small twig with several leaves is pressed flat on a white surface by a piece of shattered glass.

The author of I Know You Know Who I Am seeks to approach his characters without judgment.

Tags:

queerness | LGBTQ | character | short stories | truth | complexity | self-betrayal

Craft Capsule: Poets’ Prose

by

Khadijah Queen

2.1.21

Inside a woodworker's studio, saws, files, mallets, and hammers are stored in various wall units.

The author of Anodyne takes a poetic approach to prose writing.

Tags:

cross-genre | hybrid text | prose poetry | writing groups | connection | writing process

Craft Capsule: The Arc of Understanding

by

Khadijah Queen

1.25.21

A view of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. The top half of the stainless steel monument is visible, while the bottom half is obscured by a large wall.

The author of Anodyne shares her methodology for determining the order of poems in a collection.

Tags:

order | sequence | structure | love | understanding | accessibility | inclusivity | revision | writing process

Craft Capsule: Rethinking Theory and Poetics

by

Khadijah Queen

1.11.21

An open book appears to levitate, unsupported, in the middle of the photo. Around the book are stacks of more books, arranged to form a circular frame.

The author of Anodyne prioritizes joy in her poetics.

Tags:

PhD programs | academia | theory | literary criticism | analysis | racism | Black writers

Craft Capsule: Creating a Seasonal Writing Practice

by

Khadijah Queen

1.4.21

Red-orange leaves, illuminated by evening light, float toward the ground.

The author of Anodyne envisions a new writing practice inspired by the natural world.

Tags:

weather | climate | seasons | deadlines | writing routine | writing practices | drafting | writing process

Craft Capsule: Who Cares?

by

Jordan Kisner

12.21.20

A person, arms raised, balances on a tightrope far above the ground in Smith Rock State Park in Oregon.

The author of Thin Places urges writers to consider the reader.

Tags:

personal essay | inner life | the self | teaching | readership | writing process

Pages