Writing about your childhood and teen years is hard, not just because of the natural tendency to make ourselves the heroes of our stories, which can often lead to being really understanding about why you did dumb shit but not so much about the other people who were (or weren’t) there, and not just because … Continue reading Reclamation Part 6
Some Post-National-Poetry-Month Thoughts
I'm really proud of the selection of poems and poets I was able to gather for The Rumpus project. I got good poems from a wide variety of poets--I discussed that variety here--and had a strong month in terms of reviews and interviews as well, something I hope will carry over into the rest of … Continue reading Some Post-National-Poetry-Month Thoughts
My BookTV Appearance
Back in the fall of 2004, as the Kerry-Bush campaign wound down, Stephen Elliott asked me if I would open for him as a reader at the Stanford bookstore. He was promoting his new book at the time, Looking Forward To It. I had no idea that the C-SPAN cameras would be there until the … Continue reading My BookTV Appearance
Me. Not me.
There are a lot of people named Brian Spears out there, and a few of them are more famous than I am. That's not a high bar to clear, mind you--I'm a poet, for starters, and even the best known poets in the US are barely recognized at literary conferences. I don't even have a … Continue reading Me. Not me.
A New Poetic Home on the Web
I couldn't pass it up. I was hoping to add some different functionality to my main blog, so I set one up to test on, and the name was available. What was I supposed to do?When I started Incertus four years ago, I was planning on making it a blog that dealt with politics and … Continue reading A New Poetic Home on the Web
Another Poem to Love 