When do you start calling yourself “a poet?”, as in, “Sister, I’m a poet.”
• When you write your first poem?
• When you first read a poem out loud?
• When you first submit a poem for publication?
• When your poem is first accepted for publication?
• When you first get asked to do a reading?
• When you win a slam?
• When you get accepted into a writing program?
• When you earn a spot on a slam team?
• When you finish a manuscript?
• When you spend a certain amount of time doing it?
• When you decide it’s what you want to do?
• When you get paid for a feature?
• Upon publication of your first collection?
• Upon release of your first CD?
• And what about “author” and/or “spoken word artist?”
[Riffed off of Nathan Bransford’s You Tell Me: When Does One Become a “Writer?”]