The life of a poet did not seem like something that would get me anywhere I wanted to go. But nonetheless I seemed to be writing poems. And finally by the time I was post-college, I realized there I was in just a bunch of jobs again. And at work I wrote poems. So I had the revelation one day at work that the poem was real and the job wasn't.

Eileen Myles has written thousands of poems since she gave her first reading at New York City's CBGB in 1974. She's since read to audiences at colleges, performance spaces, and bookstores across America and around the world.

Her books include the poetry collections Sorry, Tree, Skies, on my way, the novels Chelsea Girls, Cool for You, and a collection of essays, The Importance of Being Iceland. She also wrote the libretto for the opera Hell. Myles is professor emeritus of writing and literature at UC San Diego.