“To be a poet, you have to write more than you know.” Scott Cairns engages with this idea throughout his interview with Image editor and founder Greg Wolfe, as the pair discuss language, meaning-making, and faith. A recipient of Image’s Denise Levertov award who has been published in our pages over and over again, Scott has been a friend of the journal for years. He currently teaches at the University of Missouri, and also serves as the director for the MFA in Creative Writing at Seattle Pacific University. He has published eight collections of poetry, the most recent being Slow Pilgrim: The Collected Poems in 2015. In this episode of our show, you’ll hear him read two of his poems, and explore how learning about language enables a richer, deeper sense of what one writes.

For more on Scott, as well as more information about the the SPU MFA program, please visit spu.edu/mfa. Applications for the Winter 2018 residency close November 15, 2017.