LAURA E. DAVIS: AN INTERVIEW by Bri Scala

How has online literary journals affected your reading of poetry?

If there has been any effect, it has only been positive. Online literary journals have this benefit of bridging you to others. A reader can be immediately connected to a writer, to other literary journals. Poems can be shared more easily. For me, online literary journals reveal new writers and create the sense of a larger literary community.

Describe your writing process.

I see myself as someone who connects things and then tries to organize them. I spend a lot of time thinking about the world. When I sit down to write a poem, it's because I just made an interesting connection, and later I'm trying to see that connection through--sort it out--capture it so it can be examined. My process is both creative inspiration and examination.

What are the five books you recommend most often?

I usually recommend whatever I'm currently reading, which, right now, is pretty nerdy: Problem Solving 101 by Ken Watanabe. After that it's Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kinsolver, Quilting by Lucille Clifton, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt and Walking On Water by Derrick Jensen.

What was your most played album of your high school years?

Under The Table and Dreaming by Dave Matthews.

Which artists have helped shape your creative life?

Dara Wier, Naomi Shihab Nye, Lucille Clifton, Brigit Pegeen Kelly, bellhooks. Also artist-mentors I know personally, like Mary Biddinger, Sheryl St. Germain, Michael Simms, and Heather McNaugher.







Laura E. Davis is a poet, editor, and teacher from Pittsburgh, PA. She is currently an M.F.A. candidate in poetry and nonfiction at Chatham University and is the founding editor of Weave Magazine. Her poetry is forthcoming in Pear Noir!, dotdotdash, OVS Magazine, Rougarou, and Coal Hill Review. Laura loves consuming food and popular culture.