I consider Elisa to be among the foremost essayists of our time.

As someone who is both a poet and an essayist, she writes in a way that few others do. Regular readers of her work will have noticed, for example, how her prose contains both the crystalline logic of well-reasoned argument and the subtle music of verse — how it features, simultaneously, the rational and the rhythmic, marrying thoughtful reasoning with sonic richness. It is thus no surprise that she regularly publishes in places like The Paris Review and The New York Times (where she has been a poetry columnist since 2020), or that she recently released her third book of essays.

If you haven’t previously encountered her work or had the opportunity to study what makes it so distinct, this interview offers an excellent starting point. I’m grateful to have  ...