Rachel Joy Watson

“But when it comes to being in a relationship, you should never feel more like an apology than a person.”

Blue Tarp (Finishing Line Press, 2016)

In the interview you did for Paper Mill, you mentioned that you are “eager to put together a second collection” and that it would have more hope. What changes in your life provoked you to hope?

I’ve never stopped hoping. But it’s been a hard couple years. I’ll admit that my hope appears only as a flicker in some of the poems in “Blue Tarp”—and readers will understand those poems in the context of their own experience with loss and grief. That is important. There is a place for that. But this past year has also been full of healing for me—bright spots where I didn’t expect them. Opportunities to write, teach and go back to school. Care packages coming…