12 or 20 (second series) questions with Ashley D. Escobar
Ashley D. Escobar is a literary angel fromSan Francisco, residing in New York City. Eileen Myles selected her debutpoetry collection
GLIB
(2025) as the Changes Book Prize winner. She is a highschool dropout who graduated from Bennington College and holds an MFA in fictionfrom Columbia University. She is a proud outpatient at the teenage art ward.1 - How did your first bookor chapbook change your life? How does your most recent work compare to yourprevious? How does it feel different?
My first chapbook SOMETIMES guided methrough the pandemic. My long-distance friend Kendall and I wanted to trywriting a poem a day for a month and it was October and I drove my mom’s creamMini Cooper in circles trying to decipher if this would ever come to an end. Itwas a period of unrequited longing. California ennui. It’s influenced a lot byBaudelaire and Cortázar and long pensive walks alone by the beach. I don’t havethat same privilege of long days spent looking out onto the ocean, but I try toaccess that inner meditative state despite the chaos of New York. It’s strangebecause I was younger, yet one of the poems, “Beachcomber,” that made it intomy debut collection GLIB has been remarked as more “mature.”
2 - How did you come topoetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or non-fiction?
I think poetry just comes naturally to everyone,especially as a child learning to string words together. I never stoppedplayfully stringing words together. Fiction requires more focus and sittingdown to finish a single scene, whereas in poetry, you can leap into infiniteworlds in a few stanzas, even between a few words. I love the liminality andopen endlessness that poetry offers.
3 - How long does it taketo start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially comequickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to theirfinal shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
Regarding poetry, I never knew SOMETIMES orGLIB were necessarily going to become a manuscript. The poems werecollected throughout a certain period of my life. My writing usually comesquickly, and the initial drafts usually are quite similar to the final shape,give or take a few word changes or removing scaffolding. It was interestingreshaping a few poems in GLIB that I would have never thought about ifit weren’t for my editor Kyle Dacuyan. I think the words are usually alreadythere but playing with form can sometimes transform the poem into somethingelse.
4 - Where does a poemusually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combininginto a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the verybeginning?
I usually think of a line and go from there. Icollect a lot of my poems in an ongoing document, and I came to a naturalstopping point with GLIB where I felt like I had archived enough of aspecific era of my life to turn it into a book.
5 - Are public readingspart of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer whoenjoys doing readings?
I’ve grown to enjoy readings since moving to NewYork City. It’s cool to see what the audience reacts to, especially when it’s anew poem I haven’t shown anyone yet. I’m in awe of my boyfriend Matt Proctorwho always reads something new at every reading. I feel restrained to readingthe “hits” at certain readings, but I’m getting back into writing poems morefrequently. I’d like to create more youth-centered readings intertwined withmusic, which I’ve done through my zine We Are in the Shop, bringingtogether upcoming artists with established ones in cool places such as Billy’s Record Salon. R.I.P. Billy Jones. He helped bring together some of my favoritewriters and musicians into the same room.
6 - Do you have anytheoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are youtrying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questionsare?
With SOMETIMES, I was concerned with thedifference between loneliness and solitude. But with GLIB, I wasn’tnecessarily trying to answer question, but a few ideas were naturally broughtup and answered throughout the collection such as “Walking in New York likescrolling the internet.” GLIB examines the multitudes of a persona andhow we’re basically actors in our everyday life, code switching from person toperson. GLIB examines girlhood in a world where its overly commodifiedonline.
7 – What do you see thecurrent role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? Whatdo you think the role of the writer should be?
I feel like being a writer is only one role toplay alongside being an activist, a lover, a friend. I think of the sign inCity Lights bookstore: “Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angelsin disguise.” Writing is important for not only documenting the culture butshaping it and creating something instead of just reciting what’s fed to us.It’s about making connections within neighborhoods and sparking revolution.
8 - Do you find the processof working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
Like I said before, I worked with Kyle when hewas at Changes, and it offered a lot of perspective on form that I had neverconsidered before. As long as there’s some common ground, I don’t mind theprocess. It gave me a lot to think about. He was the first one to look at someof the poems I later added in, and I was honestly surprised by the generousfeedback and enthusiasm.
9 - What is the best pieceof advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
To not wait forpermission!
10 - How easy has it beenfor you to move between genres (poetry to filmmaking)? What do you see as theappeal?
They’re separate in terms of process but I findpure poetry in moving images. At the New York GLIB launch at AnthologyFilm Archives, my boyfriend Matt and I played our cut-up vlogs during our readings. It wasamazing to be in such a historically rich theater.
11 - What kind of writingroutine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day(for you) begin?
I have more of a writing routine if I’m writingprose or have a deadline. If not, I’ve been working a lot during the afternoonlately and going out at night. I’ve started working on a longer prose project,so I’ll have to find blocks of time to continue the pace I’d like for it.
12 - When your writing getsstalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word)inspiration?
I dig into my archives. Listen to songs I usedto be obsessed with. Old diary entries. Old tweets. Old Rateyourmusic.com posts. Anything that reminds meof me. I start writing things down again even if it’s just a to-do list.It turns into something, usually.
13 - What was your lastHallowe'en costume?
I was a bunny Sonny Angel doll and a vampire. Itwas cute, and I read a few poems at Matt’s Easy Paradise open mic and hung outat Tile Bar after.
14 - David W. McFadden oncesaid that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influenceyour work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
It’s mainly music for me. I’ve actually made a playlist for a song accompanyingevery poem from GLIB based on what I was listening to around the time Iwrote it. I’m a very sonic person, and getting lost in a certain song evokes alot of memories and feelings for me that don’t necessarily come out of othermediums as easily. There are a lot of references to songs and musiciansscattered within GLIB. The Clientele, Felt, Now, Weyes Blood, JackKilmer, Bright Eyes, Housekeeping, Horsegirl, and Dear Nora are a few of theartists who directly influenced GLIB.
15 - What other writers orwritings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Alice Notley has been an important guiding forceas of late. R.I.P. to her as well. I feel lucky to be in conversation withMatt, Eileen Myles, Aristilde Kirby, Edwin Torres, Julien Poirier, and Eddie Berrigan. Zines like Eli Schmitt’s Unresolved are important to me. Oldletters mean a lot. I love reading interviews with indie bands. Julio Cortázarand the Beats, especially Jack Kerouac, haunt me always.
16 - What would you like todo that you haven't yet done?
I would like to direct a feature film. I alreadyhave a screenplay called The Lovers III that is a continuation ofMagritte's painting sequence. It follows a young girl, coping with the recentdeath of her mother and hospitalization, as she runs off to Greece with astranger––an older woman in a baby blue suit. It intertwines the human conditionwith the gaze, desire, and a love of art. I would also love to be in a band,even if it’s a Pastels cover band. I’d love to sing and play tambourine! I canplay guitar, too.
17 - If you could pick anyother occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do youthink you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I would love to open my own restaurant, imaginea tiny bistro in Paris where we play cards in the back room. Or a bookstorecafé that turns into a wine bar at night. I’d love for it to be a place thatmerges gastronomy with literature and music. Without being pretentious. I wouldnot like it to be recommended on TikTok. It would have to be undergroundenough.
If I was not a writer, I would be a fashiondesigner. I love vintage clothing and going thrifting. There’s a reference in GLIBto the “fish pants” I made when I was sixteen. Also be in a jangle-pop bandbut that’s possible. Please reach out. I love K Records.
18 - What made you write,as opposed to doing something else?
It’s something I can do without any budget orplanning. I can turn to my notebook or computer rather than go out and extramaterials or wait around for approval. I love playing cinematographer, artdirector, and the lead role without a film crew. I also can’t help it.
19 - What was the lastgreat book you read? What was the last great film?
Can I speak about the last two records I lovedinstead? Now Does the Trick, the latest from Now, is immaculate glampop. Glimmering music to dance to. Each song is a poem. They hold a specialplace in my heart, especially when I’m away from the fog. Radio DDR bySharp Pins has also been on repeat. Pure pop pleasure. I love Kai’skaleidoscopic world of layers and layers of sound and color, fuzz and janglyguitar. Long live the youth musik revolution.
20 - What are you currentlyworking on?
I’m currently working on an ongoing book-lengthprose poem that I like to call my “one-sentence novel.” It blurs the boundariesbetween genres, grammar, and cultural eras. The poem questions the presence andpurpose of the “I” in writing through recollections, overheard dialogue, andinteractions between memory and art, reality and the imagined. As well as anovella about a girl swept in Christmas.
If anyone wants an irreverent novel set in Berlin about a19-year-old girl who ends up living in her lesbian godmother’s bookshop mixedwith rowdy boys and Joë Bousquet, please email me. I am also pitching around mysemi-autobiographical short story collection Have a Pepsi Disappear.Think Chelsea Girls by Eileen Myles meets Eve Babitz. It’s a love letterto California, underage cocktails, and above all, poetry.
