Perseverance, Professors, and Poetry: A Writer's Journey

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Jeff Alessandrelli interviews Trey Moody.

Trey Moody is the author of the poetry collection Autoblivion, which is out now from Conduit Books, and Thought That Nature (Sarabande Books, 2014). He's been the recipient of numerous awards including the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry, and his poems have appeared in The Atlantic, The Believer, and New England Review.

Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of several books, including the poetry collection Fur Not Light. His novel And Yet  is being reissued this year by Future Tense Books. He is also the director and co-editor of the small presses Fonograf Editions and Bunny Presse.

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- growing up in San Antonio

-- early moments that led to writing

-- getting into guitar  

-- early creative writing experiences

-- overcoming 19 MFA app rejections

-- formative mentors and editing a journal

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- the decision to get a PhD

-- moving to Nebraska

-- the path to Trey's first book Thought That Nature

-- poetic interests early on vs. now

-- the optimistic nihilist 

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PART THREE, topics include:

--  life in the nine years between books

-- the new book Autoblivion

-- a thin line between speaker/author 

-- putting a book together while not a student

-- publishing and stubbornness

-- writing about a daughter

-- writing about life in the Anthropocene

-- time and Agnes Martin

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Podcast theme music  by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex and Culdesac. Here's his music project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.

Episode and show artwork by Amy Wheaton.