Hey, it's Slowdown Producer Micah.

For today's guest episode, we welcome into the host chair, Poet and Editor Leslie Signs.

Don't worry, Major will be back in your feeds on July 1st. I'm Leslie Signs, and this is the slowdown.

I'm Leslie Signs,

and this is the slowdown.

On the first day of my first and last screenwriting workshop in college, the professor

pulled the class about our concentrations within the creative writing major.

Because the institution did not have a screenwriting track,

the room was overwhelmingly comprised of upperclassmen fiction writers,

convinced that their command of narrative would

effortlessly translate into script writing.

Professor Bernstein was less convinced. When she asked if there were any poets in the room, I hesitated before raising a shaky hand.

Nobody joined me.

I felt like the living embodiment of Elizabeth Bishop's cheeky and all-too-true proclamation.

There's nothing more embarrassing than being a poet.

Professor Bernstein smirked.

You, she pointed at me.

You're the one to watch.

All these fiction writers think this will be easy for them,

but screenwriting isn't really about plot or story, it's

about imagery. You, as the poet, have the real advantage here.

I learned a great have the real advantage here.

...