Renee Emerson

Numbers (a book update)

56 poems, total
the earliest poem was from 2007
the last poem was written last month
37 of the poems were previously published in literary journals
3 poems were written while I was in college
13 while I was in my MFA program
the other 40 were written in the last four years, averaging about 10 from each year
I typically write at least 20 poems a year (to give you an idea of how many of my poems are “keepers”)
Favorite poem in the collection (right now, anyway): “Leah Separates” (it is new)
Poem I’m most nervous about (right now, anyway): “Storm Front” (it is old)
Number of times I sent out this manuscript before I was accepted: either about 12 times (how many times I sent out some form of that manuscript) or once (the current version is pretty different from what I had been sending out)
Real people who end up in my poems: my husband, daughters, sisters, mother, great-grandmother on my mother’s side, both grandmothers, my in-laws. If you are related to me, you are fair game.
The “you” or “we” in a poem more often than not is talking about Bryan (excluding the persona section)
The baby is usually Zu, though June is in there a few times (you’ll know it when you read it)
The settings: Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Boston
The forms: free verse, prose poem, list poem
Topics of interest: God, motherhood, sisters, marriage, relocation
It is all autobiographical, except for when it isn’t.