12 or 20 (second series) questions with Alicia Swain

Alicia Swain is theauthor of  Steel Slides and Yellow Walls,  afeminist poetry collection releasing in August 2025. Her work has been featuredin several online publications, including Vast Chasm and TheVehicle. Swain studied English at Penn State University andEastern Illinois University. She can be found on her website at aliciaswain.com, onBluesky as @aliciamswain.bsky.social, andon Instagram as @aliciamswain.   

1 - How did yourfirst book change your life? How does your most recent work compare toyour previous? How does it feel different? 

While there aremany experiences to come still, the process of working with a publisherwas eye-opening. It showed me my weak spots and what crutches I useto hide them, what words I have a habit of repeating and why, andwhat themes I bury in my work that I don’t always mean toinclude. Since editing Steel Slides and Yellow Walls, I’ve foundmyself exploring different poetic forms and writing far longerpieces than I did before. I think learning about what I didthat worked, and what didn’t, allowed me to feel more confidentand eager to try new things. The newcollection I’ve written, but is not yet published, has acompletely different feel to it.  

2 - How did youcome to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction? 

I’ve beendrawn to poetry since I was in middle school, which is when an Englishteacher really opened my eyes to it (thanks, Mrs. Troop!). Something aboutits concision and abstract nature speaks to me, and writing poetry comes morenaturally than any other form of writing. I can write apoem on any day at any time, from the minute Iwake up to seconds before I fall asleep.  

3 - How long doesit take to start any particular writing project?Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Dofirst drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work comeout of copious notes? 

When it comes topoetry, the ideas come quickly, but the organization comes slowly. The firstdraft will emerge, but when I read my work through for the firsttime, I often find unexpected threads and thematic connections. In a way, Ilike to let the ideas pour out as they arrive and worry about the restlater.  

4 - Where does apoem usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end upcombining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" fromthe very beginning? 

For my debutcollection, Steel Slides and Yellow Walls, itwas a matter of writing short pieces over time and eventually putting them intoa collection. I’m certain I will do that again in the future,but the next collection I am working on is more chronological and waswritten with the intention of being a book from day one.  

5 - Are publicreadings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort ofwriter who enjoys doing readings? 

I enjoy doingreadings, and I am actually seeking more opportunities to dothem these days. One thing I’ve discovered, however, is that Ineed to approach work I intend to read aloud differently than work I intend topublish on paper. I love to play with form and use the placement of text on apage to add meaning, and that doesn’t always translate wellaloud.   

6 - Do you haveany theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions areyou trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the currentquestions are? 

Feminist theorytakes center stage in a lot of my work, in one way oranother. I want to follow the threads that formed thecloth women are forced to wear because I want to find the knot holdingit all together and untie it. It’s my hopethat what I write can answer questions about the present and thefuture: how do we experience the systems in place? What can a womanachieve when she is not burdened by oppressive systems? What would ittake to build a more idyllic world that’s built with equality in itsroots?  

7 – What doyou see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they evenhave one? What do you think the role of the writer should be? 

Ibelieve it’s the job of writers and artists to take risksand show the truth about our world without letting the fear of othersdampen our message. In America, we are seeing a lot of book bansand threats that aim to silence the creative world. Ithink it’s up to writers to criticize loudly, to tell thestories of real people and their experiences, and to craft paths forwardbecause our creativity and our ability to portray new ideas haspower.  

8 - Do you findthe process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)? 

I love workingwith an editor. Like any art form, writing gets interpreted by peoplethat don’t know my mind or my intentions. An outside editor can comein and see where my intentions are getting lost andwhat opportunities I missed. Every opportunity I haveto work with an editor, I emerge with new ideas andfeel inspired. I welcome critique. I know everything Ido won’t be effective the first time around,and that’s okay.  

9 - What isthe best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to youdirectly)? 

When I was incollege, I took a course with Robin Becker. She was tough asnails and asked every poet to take the course as seriously as they wouldtake any other subject. I adored her, and, to thisday, still think about what I learned from her.That advice, to take art seriously and treat it asrespectfully as one would calculus or physics, gave me alaser focus and shaped me moving forward.  

10 - How easy hasit been for you to move between genres (poetry to non-fiction to fiction todrama)? What do you see as the appeal? 

I think writingother genres teaches me to be a better poet, but I also think being a poetshapes my narrative style with prose. I am working on a speculative fictionnovel, and how I choose to approach describing setting or a character’sexperience is often rooted in poetic language. That said, learningto branch out and shift from brevity to a more uninhibited structurerequires some serious mental exercise. I notice that I tend to focus oneither a larger poetry project or my novel, butnever both at once, because it is too challenging to switchmodes. When I return to the other genre, everything feels fresh, andI have a renewed outlook on how to approach the work.  

11 -What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one?How does a typical day (for you) begin? 

I should have moreof a routine than I do. I have a habit of starting poems when I get up andget ready in the morning, so it’s integrated in my regularroutine in a way. I’ll jot down lines in my Notes app and come backto it later in the evening. Saturdays are the only time I get to fullyimmerse myself in writing for as many hours as I would like, andso it’s my favorite day of the week.  

12 - When yourwriting gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a betterword) inspiration? 

For better or forworse, when I feel stuck on a piece, I start something new. A new project isalways invigorating. This sometimes means, as in the case with my novel,that a project doesn’t get finished for some time, but when Ireturn to it, I have a new perspective and fresh eyes.  

13 - What wasyour last Hallowe'en costume? 

I’ll behonest, I haven’t dressed up in several years! COVID definitelychanged that for me. I did buy all the needed pieces toembody Galadriel for an evening a couple years back,so it’s high time I broke that out.  

14 - David W.McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any otherforms that influence your work, whether nature,music, science or visual art? 

Nature and visualart inspire a lot of my work. I have an ekphrastic chapbooksearching for its home as we speak, so I have a lot of love forwriting inspired by art. As for nature, I draw connections between ourlives as humans and the ways of nature very regularly, including in Steel Slides and Yellow Walls. It’s mygoal to find myself back in a mountainous, rural area to soak in the naturalbeauty and let it guide my hand.  

15 -What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply yourlife outside of your work? 

For many years, Iread only speculative fiction and poetry for pleasure. At this point in mylife, however, I find nonfiction important for my work becauseit allows me to immerse myself in subjects that align with what I am currentlywriting about. Since difficult topics like sexual violence andhomophobia are very present in what I’m writingnow, I’ve been reading works like Is Rape a Crime? byMichelle Bowdler, The Stonewall Reader by the New York PublicLibrary, and, currently, Missoula by Jon Krakauer.  

16 -What would you like to do that you haven't yet done? 

I am determined tofind an agent for my speculative fiction novel. I love poetryand frequently abandon prose projects to satisfy my curiosity aboutnew poetry ideas, but I really want to see through finishing andpublishing a novel traditionally.  

17 - If you couldpick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or,alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you notbeen a writer? 

A piece of mewishes I pursued law school. I love tearing apart the language of a documentand finding its weak points, pondering the art of persuasion, and fightingfor what I believe in. Whenever I read about or watch a movie about a lawyerthat uses their knowledge and skill set to improve people’s lives, I feel soinspired and wish I could do the same. The justice system is flawed, andlawyers are essential for helping people navigate itscomplexities.  

18 -What made you write, as opposed to doing something else? 

While it’s notall I do for a living, writing is my passion and has always been. Putting wordsto paper comes more naturally to me than any other means of expression or anyother subject. When I went to college, I tried to fight that at first. Ithought I might be a psychologist or an engineer, but I knew, deep in myheart, that writing and literature were what I loved and wanted to spend mylife surrounded with.  

19 - What wasthe last great book you read? What was the lastgreat film? 

This is toughbecause I’ve been reading a lot of stellar books lately. I wouldsay The 272 by Rachel L. Swarns and, like so manypeople are talking about right now, James by PercivalEverett are two that have really stuck with me. As for film,I haven’t been watching many movieslately because I’ve been watching a lot ofseries at home. I finally got my husband to watch Breaking Bad recently, which was fun to revisit.  

20 - What areyou currently working on? 

I am currentlysending out a poetry collection about endometriosis and an ekphrastic chapbookto publishers to find a home for them. Steel Slides and Yellow Walls andsome of my volunteer work has been taking a lot of my free time lately,but I am trying to return to my novel to get a full round of editing completedand get it one step closer to query-ready.  

12or 20 (second series) questions;