Michael Kleber-Diggs (MKD), a poet, essayist and literary critic from Minneapolis, visited Winona State University for a series of talks and poetry readings last week, Oct. 19 as part of
The John S. Lucas Great River Reading Series. In 2021 MKD won the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize and his debut collection of poems, “Worldly Things,” was published by Milkweed Editions, much to the astonishment of MKD and his wife.

“I thought this first book would be with a smaller press or with a university press and I was super excited about that idea. The thing I wanted most was a physical artifact…,” MKD said. “To me that was going to be enough, who published it, I was less interested in that, until Milkweed called.”

MKD, 53, debuted his first poetry collection, “Worldly Things,” earlier this year. MKD’s age played a role in informing his perspective. The book has an air of wisdom and worldly knowledge about it, something that other poets took note of. Tracy K. Smith, who won a Pulitzer for her writing and was the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States, wrote, “Worldly Things is so full of an age-old knowing I’m shocked it is Kleber-Diggs’s debut.”

Some of the themes from “Worldly Things” are that of race, family, community, empathy
and resiliency. MKD found himself writing about his family, primarily the death of his father, America in this moment regarding race and polarization (“Worldly Things” was written primarily before the COVID-19 pandemic) and imagining a better world. According to MKD, when writing the book he wasn’t thinking of a book so much as writing poems and thinking of how they fit together to create a book.

Photo contributed from the Oct. 19 event. Michael Kleber-Diggs (MKD), a poet, essayist and literary critic from Minneapolis, visited Winona State University for a series of talks and poetry readings Tuesday, Oct. 19 as part of The John S. Lucas Great River Reading Series. MKD spoke in Science Laboratory Center Lecture Hall in the Science Laboratory Center on campus.

MKD commented that poetry is “a young person’s game.” According to him, younger writers generate a lot of the energy around poetry and work effectively in it while also encouraging people to think about poetry in different ways. MKD commented on what he brings to poetry.

“Part of the message [I bring] may be, go on loving the thing you love and doing that and learning about it, and if you turn 50 and find you want to be doing something else with your life go ahead and do that. It might not be easy but why not?” MDK said.

MKD was born and raised in Kansas; he attended Kansas University for political science before moving to Minneapolis, in 1990 to attend University of Minnesota Law School. MKD originally planned to return to Kansas, but he fell in love with Minnesota.

MKD worked as a lawyer for sometime before realizing he “wasn’t suited for it” and transitioned to working in corporate America.

“For many years when I was working in corporate jobs, I would put tiny little poetry
things in emails I wrote. So, if I could choose a word pattern that amplified similar sounds I would do that, or if I could write an email response in meter I would do that,” MKD said. “No one ever noticed.”

According to MKD, writing, primarily short stories, has always been a part of his life ever since fourth grade. It wasn’t until a breakup at the age of 30 that MKD started really writing poetry.

“At that time I started writing poetry, it’s kind of a cliché but after a breakup, I was working full time and also teaching a little bit and I was very very busy and I felt I could manage the poem in the space of a day,” MKD said. “At the same time I was reigniting a fascination with poetry that traces back to college but that I had kind of gotten away from.”

MKD outlined the different ways for a writer to make a living. These things come down
to teaching, freelance writing, personal projects and grants. MKD described how writers are always looking for ways to “buy time” to work on their personal projects. These different revenue avenues are integral to that.

“The whole challenge is figuring out how you get enough income to meet your expenses without spending so much time that you can’t be home to work on anything else,” MKD said. “A practical way to do that, at least as I see it, is to just really look at what you need and put your foot on the path that will take you to that outcome.”

MKD commented that he is currently planning for next year and what he can do to buy time to work on personal writing projects. The revenue to buy time will primarily come from teaching, freelance work and grant money to minimize the need for those first two things as much as possible.

When MKD quit his day job to focus on writing, his wife was extremely supportive. MKD expressed his appreciation for that and commented how happy he was that her name was on “Worldly Things” as well.