Carolyn Kellogg Interviews Newly-Appointed U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera at Jacket Copy

We're still completely thrilled that Juan Felipe Herrera will become the next U.S. Poet Laureate. For Herrera-newcomers, be sure to check out Jacket Copy for a great intro to his poetry and writing practice. From Jacket Copy:

Herrera has a way with words. When we talked to him about his appointment, he shared his ideas on the act of writing, some of his inspirations and the art of poetry.

Here are Herrera's thoughts, in his own words.

On the craft of poetry: The beauty of creating a line, a phrase — the art of it. It’s an artwork. I tell my workshop students, I want you to think of yourselves as artists. Then when you’re writing, you’re painting, you’re crafting, you’re making a design, you’re sculpting, you’re creating choreography, sound, a sound script. You’re composing a choir on the page. Yes, indeed.

On the physical act of writing: A pen is different from the pad, the key, moving your fingers across a screen. I like both. I like to work on sketchbooks, big old white sketch paper. I like how that feels, and I like to put different media on it. Then there’s the phone, smartphone, iPad: It’s the new page, and it’s not the same page anymore. It’s like the typewriter; I remember typewriters. I used to borrow my friend’s Olivetti. The keys were very simple. It was a light, smaller typewriter. I liked the font of the keys, a whole new feel. The feel inspired me to write particular kinds of poetry. Writing with red ink on a yellow paper pad inspires a different kind of poem. I could go on and on.

On being inspired by James Joyce: I remember looking at James Joyce’s journals. It was just amazing — it looked like ants had written on the page. So much writing on one page, every corner of the page was filled. Some of the lines were underlined in yellow or blue or red. A lot of color, intense writing. Of course, the language. I walked away wanting to do very rich poems with a lot of language in them. [...]

Learn more about Juan Felipe Herrera's work at Jacket Copy.