I write to keep mortality in check. I write because all the poets before us wrote and lent us their genius and showed us ways to write with abandon. Because making up something whether it be the shape of a poem or content there in amazes. I write because there's nothing better to do. And I mean nothing. Because writing renders one unselfconscious, a state to prefer, to be lost in writing's miraculous ways. Because it's preferable to be lost in writing.
Originally posted in Dustin's former blog under her former name, Dara Wier, on 1/29/08.
Curator Note: It is fitting that Dara Wier was the first writer to participate in the series because she inspired "Why I Write." I was a participant in a Key West Literary Seminar poetry workshop with her in 2008, and she asked us why we write. After reflecting on that workshop, I knew I had to create a series where I asked writers the same question.