Editor’s Note: Louise Glück was a longtime friend and supporter of the press from the days her son Noah was still swinging on her shoulder, and we were fortunate to publish three novels by her late husband John Dranow.
Louise once told me during a conversation in a library in Vermont where she had just given a reading that all the poems she wrote that were about to become the book The Wild Iris came through her in one summer and were barely revised. She said that was the summer when the last thing she wanted to do was write poems. She said she would rather make a meal or take a walk, or laundry, even, than write a poem. She said she wrote the poems that became The Wild Iris so that they would leave her alone and she could get back to her everyday routine, which didn’t include writing poems.
Michael Klein is the author of Happiness Ruined Everything (Galileo Press), and the author of six books of poetry and a five-time finalist and two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award. He’s also the author of two books of autobiography and his work has appeared in Poetry, Paris Review, American Poetry Review, Tin House, Bennington Review, FENCE, and many other publications.
