Writing Problems: Pacing and Production

Merton, Glück, Kunitz, Merwin, Smith, Rilke, Beckett, Stafford

Many writers feel both internal and external pressure about pace and production: how much poetry they are producing, and whether they’re producing it quickly enough.

Writers’ worries about pace and productivity are connected to bigger structures. American poetry is part of the American capitalist system—a system that demands almost limitless productivity…