Ever wonder how a poet’s mind works? With Little Wonder dark for january (we’re resting our tired editing fingers), I took the opportunity to corner and interview rising star of the scene Taylor Johnson. We talked about how they write, what they think poetry is and how they try to achieve what they do. The result was one of the most thoughtful, profound and useful discussions of writing I’ve ever experienced. Perhaps the strongest thing I can say about it is that as a definitely-not-a-poet it made me want to try writing poetry. But don’t take my word for it. You can listen to the whole interview below.

Taylor Johnson is from DC. Their poems appear in The Baffler, Four Way Review, Indiana Review, and Scalawag, among other publications. They’ve received fellowships from Cave Canem, Callaloo, Yaddo, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and the Vermont Studio Center, among other organizations. 

Links for poems:

Pennsylvania ave SE

Go-go ode

The Black proletarianization of the bourgeois form isn’t Kanye West’s gospel samples

I hope you enjoyed the interview. You can find out all about Taylor’s work at http://www.taylorjohnsonpoems.com/. A few tickets are still left for the city 27 microtheatre in English (including my utterly ridiculous show Nanas are Forever) – check it out if you’re in Paris https://www.billetreduc.com/228691/evt.htm. There will be a new writing article up on the site soon, and Little Wonder Radio Plays kick off in February with political thriller “The Candidate” and supernatural mystery “No New Messages.” Thanks for listening!

Well, this is exciting. For the next four Saturdays (Jan 19th, 27th, Feb 2nd and 9th) (more if they sell out), City 27 are showing an evening of micro-theatre – four 27 minute shows in 27 metres squared for an audience of only 27 people. Pretty exclusive stuff! City 27 is in the 11th, right next to Metro Voltaire, and the limited tickets are available now on Billet Reduc.

Which feels terribly grown up! Check out the poster, and come and see some plays. I promise you will laughs or you can come and abuse me on this very website!

Our last play of the year is Non-Figurative Sculpture by  Lisa Pasold.  In this article I’ll talk a little about the play, the way in which it subsumes structure within character and why I think it is such an effective piece of writing (hint:  it’s about dialogue and how to write expert level dialogue).  Before that, however, make sure you click below and listen to the play!  Spoilers await below the marker.

Non-Figurative Sculpture

About Writing and the Atlantis Short Story Competition have some history together – back in 2015 Raffael, founder of the competition, gave me some of the most useful advice I’d had on how to write a short story and every year he continues to provide quality advice to authors.  Now, this year, they’ve gone into print!  Not only has Raffael taken the time to write a little bit about it for us, but for a short time readers of the blog can get a discount on this excellent collection of stories.  I’ll let Raffael take over!