Each day for the 15 days leading up to the WAW Open House (October 7, 2012, 2-5 p.m.), we’re going to feature a current or former participant who’s completed a major project (book, film, album, academic credential). We’ll find out what they learned that helped them with their work.
Kim Dower, Poets At Work
Project: Air Kissing on Mars, a collection of poetry published by Red Hen Press.
[At Writers At Work I learned] how feedback can be so helpful when it’s given in a safe, non-judgmental atmosphere where participants are only concerned with the words on the page, what the poem means to them, what surprises they find. I learned that although comments are all subjective, and you can’t “please” everyone, diverse opinions create a collection and chorus of ideas that helped me gain a clearer understanding of what the poem means to me. Listening at WAW enabled me to get a stronger sense of my own voice and helped me develop and strengthen my poems and put my manuscript together.
Writers At Work 