Alongside Brenda Hillman at Studio One Reading Series, Frances Richard, author of The Phonemes, answers questions from Sheila Davies Sumner & Casey McAlduff about her work, imagination, and the conflux of the two on the page:

Sheila Davies Sumner & Casey McAlduff: And lastly, how do you enact imagination on the page? (We’re thinking of Stevens & Creeley here, and the poem as an enactment of the mind.)

Frances Richard: Layout and negative page-space—lexical/visual analogues of silence, rest, being-at-a-loss, reverie, bodily experience—are important. And: Make things up! If you need a word or word-like device that isn’t to hand, mock it up on the spot. But this is another long essay, and I’ve already said so/too much. For now, otherwise, perhaps: See below on real fall from pretend cliff and abstaining from A.B.C. language.

Read the full conversation at Studio One Reading Series.