Maya Phillips

EROU Four Way Books

Erou born in the county of Kings raised in the lap of Queens sitting on the throne of his mama’s

front stoop.

Isn’t this how an Erou begins? —from “Erou I.”

HOW IT BEGAN: I’ve always been obsessed with mythology, and for years I knew I was, at some point, going to start writing about my relationship with my dad. It was a topic I kind of wrote around for a while, but our relationship, and the complicated ways that my family worked and related to one another, obviously had a deep impact on me. He died in 2014, and in those next few months I started writing about him but knew I needed some help shaping the work and the project, because I had been feeling a bit untethered from my work for a while. I started my MFA program, at Warren Wilson College, in 2015, and I wrote this collection almost wholly in that two-year period.

INSPIRATION: Mythology certainly. In

particular, Greek myths, the epics, but I’ll broaden it and also say any kind of mythology or fairy tale or fanciful story in which there are heroes and villains and gods and quests. I like that sense of scope, of the largeness of humanity, and, beyond that, of some version of god, some kind of agency of fate.

WRITER’S BLOCK REMEDY: I panic a bit, honestly. I’m very hard on myself and struggle a lot with anxiety, so creative blocks are tough. I usually just try to push through, but if that doesn’t work, I try switching to another form of writing—there’s always a new article or review to write. Or I might try an essay or fiction or a play or something. Or I’ll just switch to another poem. I pace a lot when I’m stuck with poems, say the words aloud over and over again and try to let the sounds lead me somewhere new, because sounds and rhythms are really important to my work. I go from one room to another or just change seats to kind of trick myself into getting into a new headspace. A walk is usually my last resort—but sometimes that does the trick.

ADVICE: I’d probably say to be bold. Experiment with your work, and don’t edit out all the fun and the strangeness and the wonder.

AGE: 29. RESIDENCE: Brooklyn, New York.

JOB: Copy editor/ web producer/contributor at the New Yorker and a freelance culture writer. TIME SPENT WRITING THE BOOK: Two to two and a half years. TIME SPENT FINDING A HOME

FOR IT: Three weeks. I know that isn’t typical, and I feel so fortunate that this is how it worked out, but I had a list of publishers I knew I wanted to submit to, and I sent the manuscript to Four Way first and heard back less than a month later. I was pretty floored—and thrilled.