Those of you who don’t know poet Doug Manuel must be recent additions to our program, because when he was a student, even if it was in some minute way, he touched damn near everybody. Doug was an almost irreplaceable part of the Writing in the Schools program; when I spoke to the kids last month, they were still quoting him. In his voice. Their impressions were impeccable. Doug was also Managing Editor of Booth, and a big reason why our poetry game stepped it up these past few years. And now he’s enrolled in the Ph.D. creative writing program at the University of Southern California, no doubt entrenched in page upon page of theory and poem alike. Despite this, he was gracious enough to take some time to share with us how he writes. And this is how it goes: Continue reading →