When artists feel powerless, like their creativity and poetry is not enough (for themselves or for any real change), it is not the fault of the artist; it is by the design of capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy. In her essay “Poetry Is Not a Luxury,” Audre Lorde tells us, “For within structures defined by profit, by linear power, by institutional dehumanization, our feelings were not meant to survive.” Therefore, in order to decolonize our relationship with writing and publishing, to re-empower ourselves by shifting our focus, and take everyone we can along for the ride, we must look in a different direction than perpetuating the status quo. We can feed multiple birds with one scone by learning a new craft and feeling the joy of bringing people together by giving something back. And so I did.

In honor of the publication of Alex Baskin’s I wake up tangled in pillows and sheets, winner of Fork Apple Press’ The Slice Poetry Chapbook Contest, we interviewed Alex for our readers of The Juice to learn more about his project, influences, and craft.

We envision The Juice as a place to feature the thoughts of writers and readers, both including and beyond the staff of Fork Apple Press. We see these posts as being more interactive than other publishing mediums, and to that end where we encourage our readership to write to us and each other in the comments, and continue the conversation begun in the blog post.