LatinosUSA

• Juan Re Crivello: Do you think poetry is back in fashion?

Luanne Castle: The internet has given new life to poetry. Poetry published by online journals means that readers have access to poetry by a wider range of poets. This also encourages readers to write their own poetry. So, yes, poetry is definitely back in fashion.

• Juan Re Crivello: Is your poetry created daily, or do you wait to be inspired to write it?

Luanne Castle: I used to wait for inspiration, but now I write to prompts and calls for submissions, as well as daily inspiration.

• Juan Re Crivello: What is your next publishing project? Could you tell us how it came about?

Luanne Castle: I was introduced to the surreal art of Remedios Varo by Lorette Luzajic, the EIC of both The Ekphrastic Review and The Mackinaw. It was love at first sight for me. Her paintings form a triumvirate of influences for me with Sylvia Plath and Shirley Jackson. These women were all crafting their art in the same mid-century period and had many of the same interests and perspectives. I have been writing poems and flash fiction inspired by her work ever since. I plan to put these two genres together into one book or chapbook.

• Juan Re Crivello: What city do you live in, and can you describe your favorite bar or café? 

Luanne Castle: I live in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. I like to hang out at 32 Shea with writer friends. There are seats indoors and outdoors, the vibe is casual, and they make a great breakfast, the New Mexico Burrito.

The Dream was a Warning Not to Bike Down Westnedge at Night by Luanne Castle
 
The city of my childhood
insists what I can and cannot do
argues me into holding tight to my phone
threatens which neighborhoods are dark
under leafy camouflage
which wolves I haven’t seen in twenty years
can’t be trusted
This city is layered not like a chocolate cake
but in the way that a chalkboard never washed
keeps some even after erasure
This city lives on in July’s
lake surface sparkles and sand-tanned feet
in afternoons with the wind
whipping through my thin jacket 
frozen toes numb
Sometimes when my mother cries
I fly to the city
I could pass right over it
a chimney swift in the gray sky
But I follow the roadside sow thistle
and horsenettle
the greasy smell coming from
the same old chicken restaurant
looking for the girl running
from the wolf

Author Biography

Luanne Castle’s Pushcart, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfictions, and Best of the Net-nominated poetry and prose have appeared in Copper Nickel, Verse Daily, Saranac Review, Pleiades, American Journal of Poetry, Bending Genres, The Ekphrastic Review, Thimble, MacQueen’s Quinterly, MasticadoresUSA, One Art, Lothlorien, South 85, Roi Fainéant, River Teeth, Flash Boulevard, Your Impossible Voice, Storyteller Poetry Journal, and many other journals and anthologies. She has published four award-winning poetry collections. Her hybrid memoir-in-flash will be published by ELJ Editions in 2026. Luanne lives with four cats in Arizona along a wash that wildlife use as a thoroughfare.

Paperback