Quintin Collins
ORP: Do you write or create with an audience in mind? If so, how do you consider the relationship between that audience and your work throughout your creative process?
Quintin Collins: I do not write with an audience in mind. Poems tell me what they need to be and what they need to do, and thinking about an audience as I work through them will only distract me from how the writing needs to manifest. Whether it is a full-length manuscript or single poem, there's always time to think about the marketing after you figure out what the product actually is.
ORP: What does vulnerability mean to you as an artist and/or writer?
QC: Lately, I resist the term "vulnerability" because I feel it functions as shorthand for saying a poem's worth is only because of its directness. I like to say "honesty" and "trust" instead. Whether I'm reading or writing, I like poems that trust their readers to handle the truth without obscuring it in figurative language. The poetics should open a door rather than close it.
ORP: What would you say is your most interesting writing and/or artistic quirk? Do you have any habits that you believe help or hinder your creativity?
QC: I often put emphasis on sound from rhythm all the way down to phoneme patterns. At times, I struggle with toning the music down for a poem that needs more staccato.
ORP: What books have you read many times?
QC: Divine, Divine, Divine and Mausoleum of Flowers by Daniel B. Summerhill; Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah and Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith; The Crown Ain't Worth Much and Go Ahead in the Rain by Hanif Abdurraqib; everything Terrance Hayes; Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong; Domestic Work by Natasha Trethaway; Ghost Like a Place by Iain Haley Pollock; Up Jump the Boogie by John Murillo; everything Laure-Anne Bosselaar; The Choke Artist by David Yoo.
