Ask the Author: Judith Kerman
Answered Questions (6)
Judith Kerman
Read everything, but especially work that reveals the complexity of life in interesting ways. Write and find good peers who will point out where in your piece you've succeeded and what still needs attention. If someone, even your parent or spouse, loves something, keep that for when you need encouragement, but look for people who can see your weak spots, too, without crushing your ambition.
Judith Kerman
Reading poetry by other people and doing one of the thousands of good writing prompts are the most dependable ways into the right kind of flow.
Judith Kerman
It's interesting to see what my subconscious comes up with, and pleasurable to shape it into something worth someone else reading (I hope).
Judith Kerman
For me writer's block usually means I haven't created the conditions that lead me to want to write - either participating in a good peer workshop regularly or giving readings. I seem to need a context, audience, community. Or, more rarely, my inner critic gets the upper hand and tells me I have nothing to say, my best work is behind me, yadda yadda. I know that voice is false, and I also know I am not the kind of person who makes a routine of writing every day. At the age of 70, I'm not expecting to change the habit of not being disciplined in that way. (So I use the approach mentioned in my first point.)
Judith Kerman
I've evolved a poem form that pretends to be a dictionary definition. There are several in my forthcoming book, "Aleph, broken: Poems from My Diaspora," which will be out June 1. I'm working on a collection of these, probably about 50. I've written 18 so far... Can't decide whether it's essential to have at least one for each letter of the alphabet, but I will try to do that. Just to be "thorough."
Judith Kerman
I started writing poems about my Jewish experiences some years ago and gradually realized it was becoming a collection. I put a few of the poems into a little handmade chapbook, but the poems kept coming. So the book came together, with many additions, deletions and rearrangements, some edited by friends, both before and after I started sending it out to publishers. Well along in that process, a writer friend pointed out that it's not just a "Jewish book" - it's a book about Diaspora, so it could speak to almost anyone with immigrant ancestry (which is to say, most people, and not only in the US.)
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