Joseph Millar’s
first collection of poems, Overtime, was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. His work has won fellowships from the NEA, and received a 2008 Pushcart Prize, and has appeared in many journals. Millar teaches at Pacific University’s Low Residency MFA program.
Writing and Knowing
What another would have done as well, do not do it. What another would have said as well or written as well, do not say or write it. Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself. — André Gide
There is a world inside each of us that we know better than anything else, and a world outside of us that calls for our attention. Our subject matter is always right with us. The trick is to find out what we know, challenge what we know, own what we know, and then give it away in language.