Diane DiBiase

Managing Editor, Poisoned Pen Press--An Imprint of Sourcebooks

I began writing poetry at the age of nine, and won my first writing contest that same year. Aside from that brief,  heady brush with fame (ha!), I am virtually unpublished and unknown. My poem Didactic was chosen for publication in the Smith College Grecourt Review 1993, and I received two separate scholastic awards for my sonnet Emptying the Junk Drawer around that same time.  I have never written poetry with the aim of being published.

Poetry is my therapy. I use meter and rhyme and agonizing over word choice as a way to work through whatever emotion is consuming me. Also, toying with language is endlessly amusing to me, and I tend to go for a lot of alliteration, especially in my humorous poems. It makes me smile to read a clever play of sounds (think of Warren Zevon's song Werewolves of London; try to sing the line, "Little old lady got mutilated late last night" without smiling--I dare you! It's impossible).