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My master's degree was in English literature.

I graduated with a B.A. from Goddard College in 1991 and then studied poetry for a year in the M.F.A. in Writing Program at Vermont College.

Well, I like to write poetry. I'm a published poet.

I'm a poet, and I spent my life in poetry.

I became a poet in Pittsburgh. When I lived in the South, I was a basketball player and primarily a jock. An English teacher essentially suggested that I send the poems that I'd been writing - really just for him - to a few programs, so that when I wound up in Pittsburgh, it's where I figured out that I could actually be a poet.

I graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with an English literature degree and travelled for a year before going to work.

Well, I still write poetry, but I wouldn't call myself a poet.

I took my first creative writing class when I was 24, then went onto to get a graduate degree in poetry. I've sort of never looked back from there.

I started earning a living as a poet rather early on.

I have an English literature degree. I wanted to be the next great American novelist from a very early age, but I put it aside for a while, because I got very realistic at one point.