IF it were not for my writing group of 20 years, I most likely would not have completed dozens of poems. No one would have been as well equipped to read them carefully and diligently before I considered sending them out into the world of publishing: a competitive and sometimes discouraging place for writers. I might not have completed two nonfiction books nor finished my essays and short stories. Without editorial deadlines for much of my work, I needed a self-imposed deadline, i.e., my group, to keep creating, writing, and revising. I am often a slow writer. I need feedback. The group was invaluable to me.
Writers may create in solitude, but all writers, of poetry or prose, need readers. Almost no first draft is final. Poet Galway Kinnell, a one-time Vermont state poet (1989-1993) who received a Pulitzer Prize and was co-winner of a National Book Award, admitted that he did up to l00 revisions on some of his poems, often a word or a line at a time. Knowing when to finish, deadline or not, is often the most challenging part of the work of creation. Readers can help.
Aside from diaries or journals never meant for publication sharing, everything else you produce is waiting for an audience. We all need readers to make sure our
