When we met Ryo Yamaguchi—the Publisher & Executive Director of Copper Canyon Press, a mission-driven, independent press that has been dedicated to poetry for over fifty years, during residency—Oona and I found ourselves suspended between the quiet and the storm: the uncertainty of the artistic life and the risky crosscurrents of what we are meant to do with our vulnerability once it has found its way onto the page. What becomes of the work after the long months—or years—of devotion? What becomes of us?

Kara Briggs, an extraordinary poet and journalist, graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. We are thrilled that she agreed to be interviewed to discuss her debut poetry collection, Rivers in My Veins, published by Saint Julian Press in Houston. 

Jake Fournier is a poet, scholar, and educator based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, whose work moves with urgency and precision across the intertwined terrains of lyric, history, and political imagination.

“My first dream was to write a book to become an author. But once I figured out that this would be a lot of pages and words, my enthusiasm waned a little. However, I did enjoy writing and engaging in creative writing. Once I started studying screenwriting more seriously, I saw the form, and what it what it could do, I realized that this could become a job.

When making a movie, the screenplay is an integral part of the process. It's not just a blueprint. It's a piece of art that's being interpreted. Also, I think that's when I found my voice. It fit that medium so clearly to me. So, it connected a lot of dots.”

“I remember sitting alongside my director, writing on sticky notes to them if something felt off. I remember I rewrote whole scenes mid-rehearsal. I had the stage manager run downstairs across the street, print out new pages, come back, and she would give the cast new pages.”

Few writers capture the layered realities of Latinidad, migration, and belonging with the grace, precision, and moral clarity of Héctor Tobar. The author of six acclaimed books translated into fifteen languages, Tobar’s work traverses the Americas—both geographically and spiritually—bridging journalism and literature in a voice that is both intimate and global.