The Bottom Line
- How to Make a Living As a Poet shows how you, too, can support yourself with your art.
- Glazner proposes creative, ballsy solutions to a perennial problem of how to be a working artist.
- Sample successful proposals, press releases, and cover letters are all included.
- Interviews with working poets introduce a range of models for different personalities.
- Glazner shows that the skills learned through writing can be applied to supporting oneself.
- Though Glazner does address poets exclusively, the lessons will apply across the board.
Description
- Use your art to not only finance your life, but to improve your community.
- From "poetry diners" to "poets plazas," Galzner has collected a wealth of creative examples.
- Take writers such as Sherman Alexie, Naomi Shihab Nye, Mary Karr, and Bob Holman as role models.
- Look beyond traditional or academic methods of supporting yourself as a writer.
- Enrich your life, manage your career, and market your work.
Guide Review - How to Make a Living As a Poet
As it turns out, Gary Mex Glazner was the perfect recommendation, since he's literally made a career out of projects like my friend's. In How to Make a Living As a Poet he shares his experiences and advice, and then provides interviews with other poets who have eschewed the 9-to-5 existence for a life tied to art. The interviews not only back up Glazner's assertions but they also present alternative points of view, from people with a range of personalities.
For me, this range was key. After all, I'm the sort of person who discusses her friends' projects, not her own, at book parties. Naomi Shihab Nye, for instance, provided a quieter model of Glazner's message in action. And it's important that I -- that all of us -- find a way to take this message to heart. We can't be afraid to get out from behind the computer to promote ourselves, to take a chance on becoming a working artist, and Glazner does a good job of showing us how.
