How to Make a Living as a Poet

In How to Make a Living as a Poet, leading slam poet Gary Mex Glazner shows how to turn poetic passion into a paying profession, revealing how he and other writers have become full-time poets, actually listing their life's passion on their tax forms. Glazner should know. He has worked as a poet-in-residence at a hotel, secured sponsorship for 100 poets on an 8,000-mile tour of the U.S., and traveled the world with a poet's eye and budget, performing everywhere from Katmandu to Bangkok to Paris. From the story of his own project using poetry to help Alzheimer's patients to an interview about the world's only Poetry Diner, Glazner details how creativity off the page can energize audiences and spark new approaches to writing. The book offers marketing ideas for how to break out of the poetry ghetto, explains the economic impact of slam festivals, and shows how to not just survive but thrive financially off one's art. Included are interviews with Sherman Alexie, Mary Karr, Naomi Shihab Nye, James Kass, Beau Sia, Janine Pommy Vega, and other poets.