Interview with Dana Yost, author of "Free Fall," conducted by Grace Kobriger
What interested you to get into writing? Especially poetry?
I started reading when I was very, very young and writing when I was quite young. I’ve always been fascinated by the written word, by stories and the insights writing can give us. I was a creative writing/literature major in college and started writing poems then. I then spent almost 30 years in newspapers, writing a lot and reading other peoples’ work a lot. Then I got back into poetry. There are some similarities between newspaper writing and poetry — saying something in a condensed, precise way. But I love the creativity there is in poetry, as well as it being an outlet for emotions and experiences.
Your poems in "Free Fall" are mainly associated with mental health and the struggles of depression and grief, why did you choose that route for your work?
They are subjects I know very well. I also know many others struggle with those issues and I hoped to speak for others as well as for me. They are also subjects that carry a lot of emotional weight and, if handled well, can make for good poetry.
What were the most challenging and the easiest parts or sections to write?
The most challenging were the poems ‘’For Sara’’ and ‘’Hands,’’ because they are difficult, sensistive poems about people I know. I wanted to convey the truths about their experiences but do so in a fair, decent, humane way. A difficult task to balance. The easiest was ‘’Night Light for the Harvest,’’ and a couple of other short poems similar to it — they were fun to write, delightful in the end. Not as heavy of topics, so they were easier on me, emotionally, to write.
How do you handle writer's block?
In a couple of ways. One way is that I try to be productive around the house — doing laundry or the dishes, cleaning, dusting. It’s a way to still feel productive, like I’m accomplishing something. But probably more importantly is that I still write and read every day, write something — even if it’s a bunch of fragments, or if it’s a poem that’s completely worthless. Read poems by other poets, hoping that someone else’s poem might trigger something in my own work. The same philosophy applies — at least I’ve done something. I find that if you keep writing and writing, I eventually break through the block.
What important advise would you give to a first-time writer and author?
The most important is to read the work of other writers. Don’t read it to be entertained but to learn about the craft — why do they start a story like they do, why does a character speak like he or she does, what works within a poem — the sound, the rhythm, images. Read much more than you write. But, also, develop a discipline for your own writing — every day, maybe even at a set time during the day. Keep writing, even if you throw away a lot of it. Examine your work to see what is succeeding and why. The more you write, the more your own voice will emerge.