Yes, I was a painfully shy kid, and so I looked for guidance in books.

Flynn lives with her family in Chicago, where she may or may not be hoarding every single original paperback of Sweet Valley High ever. She is also the screenwriter for the film adaptation of Gone Girl. Gillian Flynn is the author of Sharp Objects, Dark Places, and the number-one New York Times bestseller Gone Girl, which has sold more than six million copies worldwide. As you can clearly see behind my head, the last leaves were holding on by their “fingernails.” And you know. Oh, my Gauloises, there is no pretention like that of the nineteen-year-old would-be poet. I was really into rocking “the French inhale” during this period. It was taken on the fire escape of the hippie cooperative house where I lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the fall of 1991. Getting back to vanity, I’m trying so hard to look like I’m living in a subtitled movie in this photo. And the presentation’s craft-project, ersatz-zine aesthetic is pretty cute. She was so unsure and awkward and so hopeful to fit in with those who don’t fit in. I do have affection for this earlier self I must be gentle with her.

Note also the jaunty placement of the poem, which further reflects my artsy instincts. Oh, where to start? I was so proud of this poem that I rubber-cemented it onto purple- purple-card stock, which I carefully decorated with paint splotches and torn paper. I asked my friend Brett if he had a copy of one of my terrible high school poems (he’s a natural archivist, so there was a chance), and he came back with this thing that I’d completely forgotten existed. She has been preparing since the 1980s for a cameo in a Jim Jarmusch film. She is the creative director of Poetry in Voice/Les Voix de la Poésie, a recitation contest for high school students in Canada, and the poetry editor at House of Anansi Press.

Her first book of poetry, Paper Radio, was nominated for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Jenkins heroically tried to keep a positive outlook on my “art” by praising my vocabulary, poetic form, and attention to detail.ĭamian Rogers was born and raised in suburban Detroit and is now based in Toronto, where she occasionally writes lyrics for Canadian troubadours.

David Boring by Daniel Clowes