Poet Spotlight: Jeremy Proehl [he/him]

Artist Biography: Jeremy Proehl’s poems have appeared in several anthologies: Walloon Writers Review, Bear River Review, My Voice is Victory, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Otherwise Engaged, The Grind Stone, Kent State’s Edith Chase Symposium, Hessler Street Fair, #ThisIsCle Poetry, Poetry is Life, and others. He has also been published both in print and online in the following journals: Headline Poetry & Press, Ink Sweat & Tears, Poetry Pea, Muleskinner Journal, The Westchester Review, Panoply, The Milk House Journal, MockingHeart Review, and others. He was nominated for The Pushcart Prize in 2022 and had two poems shortlisted for Best 2022 Poem by The Milk House Journal. Dan Chiasson mentioned him in an article published in the August 2019 issue of The New Yorker.

He participated in the Cleveland poetry scene for almost 20 years, but relocated to Alpena, MI where he lives with his wife in the woods. The surrounding nature influences much of his work.

He enjoys attending the biennial Dodge Poetry Festival which has exposed him to many amazing poets over the years. He has attended many workshops over the years: Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences, Sewanee, Napa Valley Writers’ Conferences, Kenyon Review Residential Writers Workshops, Catamaran Writing Conference, the Lost Lake Writers Retreat, Lake Eden, Bear River, Interlochen, and others.

He is a founding member of the online publication Muleskinner Journal where he currently works as an advisor but hopes to return as an editor in 2026.

LinkedIn: Jeremy Proehl

Facebook: jp.armstrong.104

Bluesky: @jpwrites.bsky.social

Instagram/Threads: pj1480

X: @JPWriter12

Spotlight Transcript

Co-Executive Director and Program Facilitator, Dom Witten, interviews today's Poet Spotlight, Jeremy Proehl.

Dom: How would you describe your creative process?

Jeremy: Haphazard at best. A lot of poets/writers have a daily writing routine, that’s not me, I’m not that structured. I don’t like to write in the same spot either. This past summer I climbed a tree and sat on a branch and wrote.

I’m constantly jotting down thoughts that I’d like to write about. I keep a file of them, returning to them if I have a dry spell. Most of my poems start as a thought that percolates for days, sometimes weeks before I start writing. I have a nasty habit of editing as I write. I’ve gotten better about embracing a good free write mind dump, but old habits are hard to break.

I really enjoy the editing process. The American poet Patrick Phillips showed me the joy in editing. He pushed north/south and east/west editing, meaning, see how many lines you can cut (north/south) and how short you can make the lines (east/west) without losing the poem. Editing has become a game of succinctness for me.

Dom: In your writing style, content or relationship with poetry, what has remained constant and what has changed?

Jeremy: My father loved to recite Robert Service poems. As a little boy I was drawn to the rhyming and narration of poems like The Cremation of Sam McGee. I enjoyed the singsong of rhymes, but that is not something that stuck with me. I rarely use rhymes, especially hard rhymes in my poetry. What I do love is a good narrative poem. Hands down my favorite poem is Looking for The Gulf Motel by Richard Blanco. A constant in my poetry is narration, and the personal experience as found in the Blanco poem.

Dom: How does being in community with other poets and writers influence the work you're writing?

Jeremy: 2012 was a pivotal year for me and my writing. I’d been writing poetry for a few years, wasn’t doing any revisions despite being in a monthly workshop. I wasn’t even reading poetry at the time when I heard an advertisement for the biennial Dodge Poetry Festival held in Newark, NJ.

At the Dodge, I was exposed to poets I had never heard of, listening to them read their amazing poems. One of those poets was the Ghanaian poet Kwame Dawes. I bought his book and asked him to sign it. He asked if I was a poet and said, “I was trying.” He asked who I was reading, I replied “no one.” He sat the book down, smiled and looked me in the eyes and said, “Jeremy, you can’t write good poetry unless you read poetry.” That stuck with me; I’ve been reading poetry ever since.

I feel that reading poetry is the first step to being in community with other poets. It’s helped me find my own voice and style and made me realize that a poem is so much more than just words.

Being physically in community with other poets has helped me grow as a writer. Early on, I attended a local workshop in Cleveland where I learned about receiving and giving feedback. I’m still friends with that core group of poets.

I’ve been blessed over the years to attend workshops led by some of my poetry heroes. Each of them has gifted me something, whether teaching me a technique I didn’t know or causing me to look at things in a different way. Over the summer I attended a workshop led by the American poet Paul Tran. They took our group deep into the technical side of poetry which was really exciting. During those seven days, I wrote things I didn’t know I could, using techniques on purpose instead of happenstance. Under Paul’s tutelage, I wrote a poem from the perspective of a crow which ended up having a much deeper meaning than what I originally intended. Without the community of other poets, I would have never thought to do that.

Building my poetry community has been a huge part of my growth as a writer and always will be.

Dom: What are you excited about in your work lately?

Jeremy: I’ve been receiving a lot of encouragement to publish my first chapbook and I’m excited to say that I’m working on the manuscript.

Jeremy Proehl will be featuring in Alpena, MI for 2 FREE events on September 20th at 6:30pm for an Open-Mic at PIF Cider (no registration required) and September 21st from 11-12:30pm at the Granum Theatre at Alpena Community College (registration required).

Registration link: https://www.tpoeticslab.com/event-details/prominent-poet-series-formal-reading-and-q-a

Interview Published: 09/07/2025

Follow us at tPoeticsLab on Instagram or The Poetics Lab on Facebook for more information about our Poet Spotlight series.