As a young man, Vernon Lott thought he could very well be the next great American poet. But then he got out of the habit of writing, stumbled years later upon on a box of his old poetry in his mom’s basement, and realized: This stuff is horrible. Instead of shoving the poems back into the box, however, and fleeing the basement in shame, he decided to show his work to a bunch of famous writers, among them George Saunders, David Sedaris, Margaret Atwood, and Nick Flynn, and ask their opinions. Their reactions to his poetry, and their thoughts on what differentiates good writing from bad, is the subject of Lott’s documentary, “Bad Writing.”
More on the documentary, and the mystery of bad writing, here.
