Contributor Spotlight: Trent Busch

Headshot of Trent BuschTrent Busch’s poem “The Death of the Wood Rasp” is part of Issue 78 of Bellingham Review. Subscribe or purchase a single issue through our Submittable page here

What would you like to share with our readers about the work you contributed to the Bellingham Review?

I wrote “The Death of the Wood Rasp” just after getting an electric Porter-Cable sander. I love it that the rasp takes on its own identity and exhibits all the loss of desire that comes with the aging process, like a stiff mink with its teeth frozen open.

Tell us about your writing life.

I wrote my first poem in 1959 and have published over four hundred poems in some three hundred journals.

Which non-writing aspects of your life most influence your writing?

Working on wood projects in my shop.

What writing advice has stayed with you?

Hoe to the end of the row.

What is your favorite book (or essay, poem, short story)?

One of my favorite poems is “No Second Troy” by William Butler Yeats.

What are you reading right now?

In Exile by Madison Jones

What project(s) are you working on now, or next?

I’m working on my next book Plumb Level and Square, trying to get it into final form.

Anything else our readers might want to know about you?

My book of poetry, not one bit of this is your fault, was published by Cyberwit.net on March 30, 2019.

My poem “Edges of Roads” was the first place winner of the 2016 Margaret Reid Poetry Prize, published by Winning Writers. To read the poem and see a video of it on Winning Writers go to the following site:

https://winningwriters.com/past-winning-entries/edges-of-roads

In addition, my poem “Bookcase” was published in Poetry Daily on May 20, 2015.

Where can our readers connect with you online?

Directory of Writers


TRENT BUSCH, a native of rural West Virginia, now lives in Georgia where he writes and makes furniture. His recent book of poetry, not one bit of this is your fault, was published by Cyberwit.com earlier this year. His poems have appeared in many journals including The Best American Poetry, Poetry, The Nation, Threepenny Review, North American Review, Chicago Review, Southern Review, Georgia Review, New England Review, Crazyhorse, Prairie Schooner, Northwest Review, Kenyon Review, American Scholar, Shenandoah, and more recently Notre Dame Review, Evansville Review, Agni Online, Boston Review, Natural Bridge, Sou’wester, Poetry Daily, and Hudson Review. Also his poem “Edges of Roads” was the 2016 First-Place winner of the Margaret Reid Poetry Prize, published by Winning Writers.


Featured Image: “Wood” by evcabartakova

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