Response to Ramona Ausabel:

Ramona Ausabel struck me as significant in a number of different ways. Her candid nature was very appealing, since it made me realize her life path more clearly. Her funny, lively personality didn't exactly line up with what I imaged her to be like based on her surreal writing and magical realism, but appreciated how she frankly discussed her writing process as the weird inner workings of her own mind. The thing that struck me most was her discussion of the revision process. I thought her way of portraying the revision process as part of the reward is something I could work into my poem about the body as a piece of text. By treating the revision process as a loving reward, I could re-frame revising of the body in my poem in order to alleviate some of the tension between the goal of the poem and the subject matter, while still making it better. I have a hang up about revising, and I thought she had a lot of great things to say about that also. It sounds so devastating to throw something away that you've worked on so hard, but her take on just reframing it as part of the process is something I would like to work on in my revisions. I also just loved hearing her read. It was a delight to be inspired to read her books by her, the writer herself. Her treatment of wealth in the excerpt of the food she read out loud was both sort of melancholy, as well as deliciously extravagant. I look forward to reading more by her.