I’m a Nervous Wreck When I Write Prose
I am yet another poet writing a novel. Which is to say, I find myself in hell.

Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative
Hazlitt
complicationParis Review
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Am
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And when it’s finished, maybe I’ll call myself a novelist—even if I’m the same nervous wreck I’ve always been.
Ben Purkert is the author of the forthcoming novel The Men Can't Be Saved (Overlook, 2023). His poetry collection For the Love of Endings (Four Way Books, 2018) was named one of Adroit's Best Poetry Books of the Year. His writing appears in The New Yorker, Poetry, The Nation, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. The founding editor of Guernica's Back Draft interview series, he teaches at Rutgers. You can read more of his work at benpurkert.com or on Twitter (@BenPurkert).
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