Poetry Shop 5: Timothy Green, author of Poems for Katie

July 2, 2026

Say the name Timothy Green and the literary journal Rattle comes to mind. If you write poetry (and submit it) you've likely received Green’s kind-hearted rejection, and maybe even the thrilling email alerting you that the journal would feature your poem. You might have tuned-in to Green on the weekly Rattlecast, called the Prompt Lines to share a poem, or joined Critique of the Week where Green, Rattle editors, and participants provide MFA level feedback. Over two decades, he has inspired hundreds of thousands of people to write and submit their most intimate and startling revelations. And so, it was a unique pleasure to read a collection of Green’s poems for a change.

Poems for Katie, started as a collection Green compiled as a gift, at the request of his wife (the poet, and creative editor at Rattle Katie Dozier–featured here last week). Spanning from February 2020 - 2026, each prompt poem was drafted alongside Rattlecast listeners. (Bonus: you can find the prompt that inspired each one in the book's index.)

Green writes in the introduction: "This book is a journal of the journey my subconscious mind took as it ushered me into a new life: through the end of a marriage, through meeting Katie, our long-distance love, and the slow work of blending our families. Each poem was a wake-up call from me to myself, a phone ringing and ringing in my ear until finally I answered."

As one might imagine, the poems are exquisite.

We are delighted to have Green join us this week to share some of the poems and poets that first inspired him to write, and those he’s reading now.

Welcome to the Poetry Shop Five, Timothy Green! Tell us about yourself and your new book.

I've been the editor of Rattle magazine since 2004. With a print circulation over 11,000, we're one of the largest literary magazines in the English language, and we consider for publication some 250,000 poems a year. I also spend four hours each week livestreaming the Rattlecast and Critique of the Week on YouTube, and co-hosting The Poetry Space_ with my wife and partner, Katie Dozier. I've been swimming in a sea of poetry for over two decades, and it's possible that I've read more poems than any one person in human history—which sounds bizarre and is wild to think about, but that's the math.

When Katie told me I should put together another book of poetry, I wasn't enthusiastic. I'd grown cynical about literary publishing in the years since my first book, and was content writing and sharing poems on the Rattlecast and social media. But I decided to make a book just for her, and gave it as a Christmas present. I did it old-school, laying it out in landscaped 8.5" x 11" and stapling the spine. There's only one copy.

Compiling the poems, though, I realized I did have a book worth reading. Written entirely from prompts—most of them Katie's—and loyal to the weeks they were composed, the full version of Poems for Katie tells the story of loneliness, divorce, and recovery into new love. The last six years were a tumultuous time in my life, full of sorrows and joys through the twists and turns, and it was all recorded weekly, in the plain sight of the poems I shared on our podcast—much of it symbolically, revealing the truth before I understood it myself. Looking back through the episode archives, it's amazing to me how little I knew at the time, which is a constant reminder of how much there always remains to learn.

Poems for Katie is a record of the journey from loss into love, and a testament to the value of writing your life.

Let's turn to some of the poets who have inspired you over the years. Who was your "gateway poet," the poet whose book or poem made you want to write?

My first job, in the 7th grade, was shoveling the sidewalks of my apartment complex in Western New York. The manager paid me $10 if it was under a foot of snow, $20 if it was over, and it always snowed, so I'd wake up at 5am before school and start digging. My grandmother called me "The Snow Man" and explained the reference, then later gave me a copy of Wallace Stevens' selected poems. I loved the music of those lines and recited them to myself in the cold. "One must have a mind of winter .... scrape ... to regard the frost on the boughs of the pine trees crusted with snow ... scrape ..." Years later, I encountered Robert Pinsky's breakdown of that music in The Sounds of Poetry, but I already knew it by heart.

Which poetry book are you currently reading?

Secretary of the Invisible Thing by Lance Larsen. This week, I'm editing and typesetting Lance's new chapbook, the first of our 2026 Rattle Chapbook Prize winners. A former Rattle Poetry Prize finalist, I've long admired Lance's work for both its humor and depth of insight—he has all the craft tools of a great poet, and puts them all to serious (and sometimes playful) use. I love chapbooks, and our winning chapbooks especially, but this one's a real joy. It'll be released in September.

I also read a new book every week to prep for the next Rattlecast episode. Monday's guest will be Malik Rasaq Gbolahan, so I'm about to pick up his newest book, The Origin of Wounds. We've published several of his emotionally charged poems over the years, and he's one of a number of excellent poets coming out of the vibrant contemporary scene in Nigeria.

Is there a book on the craft of writing that you recommend to poets?

Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel. Though it's technically not a craft book, but rather a book on meditation and archery, I often say it's the best book on writing that I've ever read. Fundamentally, it's a study of what Elizabeth Bishop called the "self-forgetful, perfectly useless concentration"—the flow state of being lost in the creative moment. Here's a quote from the book:

“The right art is purposeless, aimless! The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed in the one, and the further the other will recede. What stands in your way is that you have a much too willful will. You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen.”

Who is a new voice in poetry that we need to check out–someone with a debut book or recent release?

Speaking of Nigerian poets and the Rattlecast, D.M. Aderibigbe was the guest two weeks ago, and I was impressed with his latest book, 82nd Division. It's full of both history and formal variety—two things I always love that often seem in short supply.

Finally, what’s a poetry book that others may not know about but deserves a shout out?

The most exciting area of poetry for me lately has been the growth of the haibun form, and I want to highlight three books: Kat Lehmann's A Beloved Fire Becomes the House, which is about to be released from Red Moon Press; Roberta Beary's Crazy Bitches; and Lew Watts' Eira.

You have to understand haiku to fully appreciate this form—haiku are not 5-7-5 syllabic poems with a season word; that's a gross misappropriation of the Japanese tradition and mostly irrelevant to English language haiku. Real haiku are composed of "two worlds in one breath," as I like to say. It's about holding multiple complexities simultaneously in a way that make the mind leap with insight and awe. Haibun, which combine haiku with other text, can make those leaps even sharper and more transformative, and there's nothing in traditional poetry as compelling as these three books.

Katie Dozier's impactful Residency Review is full of haibun, too, and it's no coincidence—it's such a powerful form.

More places to find Timothy Green.

Timothy Green’s website, Rattle, Rattle’s YouTube Channel @RattlePoetry & The Poetry Space_ & Instagram @timothygreenpoetry @rattlemagazine & Substack @timgreen