In My Poets, you write about attending readings, and socializing with writers, and the energy or tension of those face-to-face encounters.

But in interviews, you've also said that you think that it's "a tremendous gift to be lonely in poetry".

Could you talk about that?

I really think this comes down to one's temperament.

Other writers are much more readily sociable creatures.

They feel there's a kind of continuity between their writing life and their social life.

I never experienced things that way at all.

Could you tell us why?

For me, poetry was not a zone about professionalization or networking.

There are many, many different kinds of writerly engagement, but I feel that people should be given permission not to engage.