Morrow Dowdle’s debut full length collection, Heartsick Requiem, is now available for per-order! We interviewed Morrow so you can get to know them a little bit better!
How long did it take you to write Heartsick Requiem? What was your process for pulling it together?
The poems in this collection were primarily written between 2018 and 2024, with a few added in from 2025 during the revision process. In the fall of 2024, I had just completed the manuscript for my first chapbook, and I felt that it was finally time to put together my first full-length collection, particularly as I was planning to begin my MFA in January 2025 and knew I probably wouldn’t have time to devote to a manuscript project for most of the program’s duration.
The process for putting it together was its own delightful puzzle. I had self-published a chapbook in 2018, so I wanted to begin with poems that had been written after that collection was put together. I went through my files for each subsequent year and pulled out the poems I thought were best (particularly ones that had been previously published in literary journals) and allowed the theme for the manuscript to take shape during the process. Once I had the poems I wanted, I arranged them in general categories (childhood, marriage, etc.) then laid them all out on my living room floor in a crazy quilt. With this holistic view, I used both logic and intuition to shape their order.
What’s a favorite poem from the collection? Why?
I loved the poem “Thanksgiving” when I wrote it in 2023, and my affection for it hasn’t waned. Having lived in traumatic situations for the majority of my life, gratitude was a hard-won feeling. I spent a lot of time in a state of resentment and self-pity, often unable to parse out the good from the bad. At the moment I wrote “Thanksgiving” I was getting out of a career I didn’t love, which opened up the opportunity to write more, as well as spend more time with my two beloved children. My beautiful sister-in-law had just died of colon cancer at age 38. It was a ripe time for deep appreciation, to understand that some of the losses in my life had actually been gifts. I also loved that the poem went in such a funny direction. I don’t pull off humor in my poems as often as I would like.
What’s your writing routine look like?
After dropping my children off at school in the morning, I return home and immediately get to my desk. I typically try to spend two to three hours on weekdays working on new poems or revisions. I generally have an overabundance of ideas, which I jot down in a notebook as they strike me, so it’s rare that I don’t have something to write about. I’ve also started a wonderful new practice this year of keeping a voice recorder app handy on my phone so that if a piece of a poem comes to me in a spot where I can’t write, I can dictate this. I tend to get seized by inspiration when I am on a certain trail in a forest near my home, and I can speak it out as I walk along.
Who are your favorite poets?
That’s always an exceedingly difficult question, and I’m sure I’ll leave a few out. I tend to gravitate towards skillful “confessional” poetry or poetry that is highly lyrical and adept with metaphor. I’ll name drop Sharon Olds, Li-Young Lee, Eduardo C. Corral, Brian Teare, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Kim Addonizio, and Chen Chen.
What are you reading right now?
I am in the research semester of my MFA program and have been delving into “speculative poetry,” which focuses on science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Much of it is not received well by the mainstream writing community, which still insists on separating “literary” from “genre” work. I’ve discovered several wonderful books through this pursuit, including The Gravity of Existence by Christina Sng, Songs of Enough: An Inferno All My Own by Maxwell I. Gold, Can You Sign My Tentacle? by Brandon O’Brien, Field Guide to the End of the World by Jeannine Hall Gailey. I’m also rereading Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein because that’s pretty much how I’m feeling in my life right now.
What’s your favorite non-writing activity?
At the moment, life is pretty crazy, so it’s sitting on my porch and having a drink and a cigarette with my boyfriend, being still for a moment, honest to god. Playing with my kids, walking in the woods, goth dance parties, and learning how to swordfight are also pretty awesome.
Heartsick Requiem is available for pre-order, books will ship late October!