Sustaining the Spark: On Practice and Perseverance

Romalyn Ante in conversation with Will Harris

Five years after our debut collections first came out, I’m delighted to sit down with Will Harris for a conversation about what it means to keep writing after that first wave of excitement. Sustaining the Spark will explore how we continue to grow, stay close to the work, and nurture our creative practice through the quieter seasons that follow a debut. We’ll reflect on the lessons we’ve learned, share readings from our earlier and more recent poems, and think about how poetry — and the life around it — continues to evolve.

Will Harris was born in London. He is the author of the poetry books RENDANG (2020) and Brother Poem (2023), both published by Granta, and the essay Mixed-Race Superman (Peninsula, 2018). He won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and has been shortlisted…