Kristina Marie Darling is the author of several chapbooks, most recently Night Music (BlazeVox Books,2008) and Strange Machine (Gold Wake Press, 2009). A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, her writing appears or is forthcoming in The Gettysburg Review, The Colorado Review, Shenandoah, New Letters, and other periodicals. Awards include residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and the Prairie Center for the Arts, as well as a scholarship to attend the Squaw Valley Community of Writers' annual poetry conference.

R&T:  Selfishly, I'll start with a question about Rose & Thorn Journal. Since you were once an editor with R&T, what do you think of "her" new look?

Darling:  I love the new look! It's elegant and sophisticated, much like the writing you guys publish. And I think it's great that the blog is being used to supplement the journal's content and to accommodate literary contributions in other media. I was definitely excited to see podcasts of favorites like Chris Crittenden and M. Frost.

R&T:  Would you tell readers a bit about your journey thus far as a writer?

Darling:  I started writing when I was in high school. With that said, you've probably guessed that I wore all black outfits every day and made melancholy observations about the emptiness of life. Like so many young people, I was eager to express myself, felt I had to act like a writer (or the way people imagine writers) in order to do so.

As I got older, I started to realize that being a writer isn't about acting a certain way, dressing the part, or even getting published. For me, it's about being part of a community. As a younger writer, I had the chance to participate in programs like the Squaw Valley Community of Writers' Poetry Conference, the Ropewalk Writers Retreat, and the literary workshops at Washington University. Experiences like these helped me to see that writing poetry means joining a conversation with other writers and artists, and listening to what they have to say. I feel like many of the accomplishments I'm really proud of – like publication in The Gettyburg Review, The Boston Review, and Shenandoah – would have never been possible if I wasn't learning all that I could from other people's work.

R&T:  What writing project or accomplishment are you most proud of?

Darling:  Although I'm excited to be going to the Vermont Studio Center this upcoming summer, I'm very proud of having been a volunteer editor and a book reviewer for nearly as many years as I've been writing. The creative process is definitely fulfilling, but it's also exciting to help bring someone else's writing into the literary world or help an overlooked book get the attention it deserves.

With that said, I've had the opportunity to work with great publications like  Rose & Thorn, The Cordite Poetry Review, Stirring, Pleiades, and The Colorado Review. My most recent editing project is an anthology, narrative (dis)continuities: prose experiments by younger american writers, which features hybrid prose by writers under the age of forty. It's forthcoming from Recycled Karma Press and includes new work from Kate Durbin, Kathleen Rooney, William Allegrezza, Adam Fieled, Kim Gek Lin Short, Brandi Homan, and many others.

R&T:  Do you think an MFA and/or Masters credentials are essential to having work accepted?

Darling:  I've always thought of an M.F.A. or M.A. in creative writing as a shortcut to good writing, literary connections, and community. While a degree program makes these things more easily available to students, it's always possible to find them on your own with a little hard work and ingenuity. And, although graduate programs do offer opportunities to network and improve one's writing, these things don't necessarily guarantee publication. As with degrees in law or business, some graduates go on to have distinguished careers while others never achieve their goals. With that in mind, it's definitely unwise to enter a program with the expectation of getting published. But it's perfectly reasonable to expect other things – like becoming part of a community of writers, learning how to read other poet's work with care, and becoming a better writer.

R&T:  Which do you prefer, poetry or prose, for both personal reading pleasure and writing?

Darling:  As a reader and writer, I've always preferred poetry. Sure, I also enjoy working on essays, reviews, and short stories, but I feel like I still approach these other genres as a poet. And I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, since there's plenty to be learned from verse that's relevant for a prose writer –economy, rhythm, musicality, narrative structure, lyricism, and, well, you get the idea.

R&T:  What are you working on now?

Darling:  I've been working on a full-length collection of prose poems, which invoke a range of literary traditions – everything from the love lyric to the pastoral. Although it's certainly a diverse project, almost all of the individual works depict classical music in some way. I'm especially interested in the ways music can function as a point of entry to broader questions about the creative process – like the representation of our own experience within a larger tradition and the effect an audience has on how we see our artistic endeavors. I'm excited about it, although the manuscript is definitely a work in progress.

My other big project is an essay about my experiences residing at artist colonies. Highlights include drunken cowboys, hippie sculptors, and a former graveyard worker turned plein air painter.

R&T:  Can you share your writing process with our readers, including something you've never discussed before?

Darling:  I'd have to say that ninety percent of my writing process is actually reading. When I say this, people usually think that I mean only things that are being published today. And it's definitely important to keep up with literary journals and recent books by new and emerging writers. But it's also important to read things that would never be found on the syllabus of a poetry workshop:  history, philosophy, music, art history,science, you name it. Some of the most exciting poems I've read in recent years look beyond both autobiography and the literary world. This is definitely something that I aspire to in my own work. Likewise, I've found that my interest in history and philosophy has broadened my horizons as a poet and taken my writing places that I never would have anticipated.

R&T:  Tell us something funny, maddening or unusual that has happened to you along the writing path.

Darling:  Before I got my first publication, I got over eighty rejection slips. This was definitely maddening. But later on, I was really thankful that this happened. Sending my work out to so many places, albeit unsuccessfully, helped me learn the literary marketplace. In other words, it was a great way to figure out who publishes the type of writing I work on and who doesn't. Now I'm definitely better off for having investigated so many different publications and don't struggle as much to find venues for my writing. But it was certainly frustrating at the time. Although it was a good learning experience and all, I wouldn't wish that ordeal on anyone!

R&T:  Anything I didn't ask that you'd like to say?

Darling:  Thank you for the thought-provoking questions! You've addressed everything I wanted to talk about. Congrats on The Rose & Thorn's continued success and its fabulous new look!