Chapter One for

August 2022

Steve Fellner: “On Murderers, Anorexia, and the Concept of the Soul”

“Plan B: A Poet’s Survivors Manual is a wonderful book, an important book, a book aspiring writers of fiction and poetry should read.” –David Lehman, Editor, The Oxford Book of American Poetry. Series Editor, The Best American Poetry

How Are You Going to Survive If You Can’t Get a Teaching Job?

In Plan B: A Poet’s Survivors Manual, McIntosh offers the answer: You need a Plan B if you want to put food on the table, wear shoes without holes in the soles, and stop living with roommates before you turn sixty. Taking us on a witty, fascinating, no-holds barred romp through his own experiences in the world of commercial writing and publishing, McIntosh reassures us that it is possible to have a successful career as a poet while holding down day jobs that make us better writers.

“[On Becoming a Poet] is just smashingly good, and I’m so impressed with the density and breadth and solidity of these pieces. In the old days, it would have been one of those books that an entire generation of young poets eagerly snatched for their shelf– I so hope it can still do that now, in these more fractured times. It deserves to be there.” —Jane Hirshfield